Letter: Is building height a priority to you?

Undine George, Commissioner
St Augustine Beach, FL

Dear Editor:

At last night’s St Augustine Beach City Commission meeting, we dealt with an issue which I am sure is very important to all of you: building heights increasing to fifty five feet.

You may ask yourselves, “How could this happen after we voted to restrict building heights to 35 feet?”

Although our citizens worked diligently on crafting language for the charter amendment which would impose a height limit, an oceanfront hotel developer argues certain inserted language justifies an additional eighteen feet of height for certain oceanfront properties.

City staff agreed and recommended approval of their plans. This interpretation, however, could be applied to over one hundred oceanfront parcels in our city – blocking the views and breeze from the westerly lots.

Although as an attorney, I disagree with their interpretation, the citizen who had appealed this interpretation withdrew his appeal last night, during the meeting. The withdrawal of the appeal therefore prevents the Commission from correcting this major mistake in the interpretation and implementation of our city charter and building code by the Building Department and the Planning Zoning Board.

We will now have a hotel at the north side of our city that is fifty five feet high in overall structural height. Worse, it will be the first building you see as you come around the natural scenic bend in A1A Beach Blvd, as it passes through the Anastasia State Park into our city.

The good side of this is that it will be a high-end hotel, the owners have a stellar reputation for quality and aesthetics. Surely, it will enhance our city in many ways.

Still, this is a wakeup call. Clarifying policies and ordinances can be passed to prevent this happening in the future. This should not be delayed.

I am only one Commissioner among five. Some of my colleagues on the Commission were equally as stunned as I was to learn that our staff had allowed an overall structure size of fifty five feet in the face of the voters. However, we have many issues to deal with on the Commission and sometimes important issues get put on the back burner.

Please let the entire Commission know whether this is a priority to you. Please send your comments to the city at: sabadmin@cityofsab.org