FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — It’s a 15-acre property causing a lot of controversy in Fernandina Beach. Developers have put 2.5 million dollars into the land off Egan’s Creek to build 30 homes. Members of the community say its conservation land and it needs to stay that way. The city commission planned to vote Tuesday evening, but the controversy brought so many people, they had to postpone the vote.
The number of people at the meeting was in the dozens. People lined the street to fight for their opinion. It was a fight for 6.4 acres. The meeting went on past 11 p.m.
So many people were in opposition to the development, the city commissioners in Fernandina Beach had to reevaluate and plan a vote next month.
It started with a discrepancy between city documents – a future land use map that calls this piece of land “conservation”… and a zoning map that calls it residential.
“The system failed in this incident, in particular, has been hard to swallow,” said Jules Rupple, who was in attendance.
“Stop cutting down our canopy for the sake of development,” said Toby Tovar, who came to speak during public comment.
Environmentalists in the community came bearing signs. In February, the commission voted in a first reading 3 to 2 to change the future land use map to make the piece of land residential, but there was major pushback from community members. 115 signatures were on a petition to keep 6 acres of a 15-acre plot out of the plan for a new housing community.
“I think all of us are just watching our little town develop at a rapid rate,” Rupple said. “There’s a lot of concern. When will it stop? When are we going to put our foot down and say enough is enough?”
The project called Amelia Bluff is located East of Citrona Drive in Fernandina Beach. Developers are so far down the road and said they spent $2.5 million on curbs and utilities.
“We’ve got 90% of the infrastructure on the ground,” said Wirt Beard, the project manager for Amelia Bluff.
While some are concerned about stormwater runoff, the Saint John’s River Water Management District tells First Coast News they approved permits for the developer in December of 2017. Their spokesperson said they sent someone to look at land and considered a stormwater management system. They found no conservation restrictions or anyone who objected the plan.
“We feel like it truly is a mapping error,” said Wirt Beard.
The city said it is going through a serious zoning check to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The vote is postponed for April 16. They’re hoping to negotiate with developers in the meantime.