ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Here are three things you don’t think would go together….
It doesn't seem like a castle, beach nourishment, and parking lots have much in common, but they do.
One neighborhood that literally has a castle in it is not happy with St. Johns County's plans to create a parking lot next to it.
The castle is Castle Otttis. You can see the very tip of it when driving along A1A in St. Johns County. Now the county is considering putting a beach access parking lot right next to it by 4th Street.
The owner, Rusty Ickes, said he and another man built it to honor God.
"The building was created as a landscape sculpture to glorify Jesus Christ," Ickes said.
From the roof, you can see the beach. You can also see a tree-filled lot where St. Johns County wants to create a public access beach parking lot.
Ickes said the parking lot would be the other side of a wall which surrounds the castle.
Ickes and his neighbors say the county did not notify them about the parking lot plans.
"The only reason we found out is because we saw them surveying diligently down A1A in the last couple of weeks. One of our neighbors started making some phone calls," Ickes said.
St. Johns County Public Works Director Neal Shinkre said the county aimed to notify the community, but neighbors saw the survey team first. Tuesday, neighbors and leaders from the county government offices met to go over the plans.
Many neighbors are concerned a beach parking lot could bring more traffic, trash, and noise to the neighborhood. Ickes said a parking lot could also put the castle – which is an active church -- at risk for vandalism.
"I'm flabbergasted by this," nearby resident John Smits said. "We don't need this."
Bernard Deraad lives in the neighborhood as well. He is concerned about clearing the land and losing the trees which act as a natural buffer for storms.
"What’s going to happen to the neighborhood behind?" Deraad asked. "Are we all going to get wiped out for public parking? It just doesn’t make any sense."
For St. Johns County, this all goes back to sand and money. Beach nourishment is tied to the amount of public beach parking. Shinkre said the more public beach parking the county has, the more the state and federal government will help pay for putting more sand on the beach.
"Our intentions are clear," Shinkre said. "To maximize fed and state funding."
He explained that if the county creates more beach public parking, the feds and state will pay for 63 percent of the beach nourishment costs, instead of the current 36 percent. That comes to about $7 million.
However, Smits questions why the county wants to put parking right next to the castle and the neighborhood when there are other parking lots along A1A.
Shinkre explained that in doling out the dough, the state has certain conditions. One is the placement of the parking spaces.
"You cannot put all the spaces in one space or we would have done that," Shinkre said. "[The state] are looking for every quarter mile north and south" of the 2.5-mile span of the beach nourishment.
And so the county's right of way which is next to Castle Otttis meets that requirement. It still makes no sense to many neighbors here.
Meanwhile, Ickes doesn’t want to see the natural land by his castle disturbed.
"I can’t imagine how many negative impacts this is going to bring to our community," Ickes said.
Ultimately the county commission will make the final decision about the proposed beach parking lot next to the castle.
According to Shinkre with St. Johns County, the parking lot would have to be complete by December in order to get the extra funding from the state and federal government.