Ayscue vs. Bennett: The Real Story Behind 1.03.05

The former Tringali parcel on 3rd Street and Mark Bennett at a recent PAB session.

Last week, Vice Mayor Darron Ayscue publicly blamed Planning Advisory Board (PAB) member Mark Bennett for blocking changes to section 1.03.05 of the Land Development Code — the rule that limits how a "lot of record" can be subdivided.

“Bennett doesn’t understand it and refuses to move forward with it,” Ayscue said. He went further: “It hasn't moved forward because one member (Bennett) has decided he wants to hold up the entire process. Because there’s one member (Bennett) that doesn’t want to talk about it and doesn’t want to do it, that’s exactly why we have had to take our time in having staff meet with one member (Bennett) instead of bringing it in front of the PAB.”

But Ayscue left out some important facts.

Bennett actually wrote 1.03.05 back in 2006 — specifically to protect the character of long-established neighborhoods. If anyone understands it, it’s Bennett.

Ayscue also omitted his own role in trying to undermine Bennett's work on 1.03.05 to make it easier for developers to build more townhouses and homes on the smaller subdivided lots.

In one of the most controversial moves against the Land Development Code was Ayscue voting to approve 12 townhouses on the Tringali property, where only one house stood on 3rd Street. He joined Mayor Bradley Bean and Commissioner David Sturges in that vote, which bypassed the requirements of 1.03.05 entirely.

That decision didn’t hold up. A Nassau County judge reversed the vote, stating: “The result of the Commission’s vote is that 8 parcels were combined into one lot and approved for building a multi-family structure. That action, per the Land Development Code, must be approved by the Board of Adjustment. Deference is not warranted where there is no plausible explanation for the City’s erroneous interpretation.”

But Ayscue wouldn't stop there.

Along with Bean and Sturges, he later voted to direct the PAB to rewrite 1.03.05 so that garages, pools, and accessory buildings that straddle property lines would no longer disqualify a lot from being split into smaller 25-foot-wide parcels. The potential impact would have been staggering. Taina Christner, a party to the original Tringali lawsuit, walked through the neighborhood and counted 33 existing houses. A revised 1.03.05 could result in 213 new lots — a 650% increase in density.

The PAB said no. Bennett, along with Victoria Robas, Richard Doster, and Pete Stevenson, refused to endorse it. Ayscue stormed out of that meeting after just one hour.

Still Ayscue kept pushing with a new tactic.

In February 2024, Ayscue proposed letting property owners subdivide directly through the County Property Appraiser — bypassing the Board of Adjustment and eliminating public hearings altogether. That plan would have let the current Tringali triplexes project sail through without any public opposition.

Again, Bennett and the PAB objected.

“What’s wrong with a variance?” Bennett asked. “The whole purpose of the variance process is, it allows the owners of the property to submit their case to the changing in the neighborhood the way they want to change it and now we have a public hearing for that.”

Bennett doesn’t deny that 1.03.05 needs to be updated to provide more clarity. But he insists it must start with data and transparency.

“At some point the city ought to know how many lots there are and are going to be developed,” he said recently at a PAB meeting.

As of now, no one knows.