City rejects $6.6 million RYAM property demand

The Fernandina Beach City Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to reject a $6.6 million claim filed by Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) under Florida’s Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act, maintaining the city’s stance that a proposed bioethanol plant violates its Comprehensive Plan.

RYAM was seeking a $6.6 million settlement for lost property value as a result of the city's denial.

City Attorney Teresa Prince said, “Under the Bert Harris Act, the commission is obligated to consider 11 options and make a settlement of some sort… the settlement can include just staying with the decision they’ve made.”

The commission selected Option 11 — no changes to the city’s previous action denying RYAM’s proposal to build the bioethanol plant that would produce seven million barrels of ethanol per year.

The city's outside legal counsel Sam Zeskind of Weiss Serota explained, “The time to respond is now upon the city within the next week. The deadline to respond is November 10th. There’s no real basis or reason for any further extension at this point.”

He added that the city’s selection of Option 11 “will then have the direction in terms of how to prepare the city’s formal response to the notice,” noting that RYAM would likely “move to amend their complaint to add a Bert Harris claim to the state court action.”

During public comment, speakers overwhelmingly urged commissioners to stand firm.

“We urge you to choose Option 11 because there’s no adjustment to the land development code, no adjustment to the comp plan, and no issuance of the variance,” said Julie Ferreira of the Nassau County Sierra Club.

Resident and scientist Medardo Monzon argued that RYAM’s $6.6 million demand was “completely unrealistic,” citing environmental concerns.

“It is based on a land appraisal that lacks environmental assessment of the property where hazardous chemicals have been produced or handled over 80 years,” he said. “It actually would not be surprising that RYAM’s land has, in fact, no commercial value at all.”

Environmental consultant Frank Postma told commissioners, “I found a few table flaws that really disturbed me… There’s no addressing the impact of marine water in their secondary engineering areas… The second failed flaw is they didn’t consider any atomization of ethanol should you do have a secondary explosion.” He urged the city to “have somebody on your side that’s taking these considerations into understanding and analyzing the data,” calling Option 11 “the only one.”

Resident Alexis Reynolds said Option 11 “sets a really important legal precedent. If you let one person or one company… produce ethanol or any other hazmat material, that means you have to let everybody else in town do it as well.”

Frank Hileman of No Ethanol Fernandina

Franklin Hileman, president of the group “No Ethanol Fernandina,” told the commission, “This is not a permitted use under the comp plan, and it should not be permitted.”

Hileman quoted Section 4D1 of the Bert Harris Act, stating any settlement must protect “the public interest served by the regulation at issue.” Hileman concluded, “The comp plan was adopted by the people of Fernandina… and it’s their interest that you’re protecting by opting for Option 11.”

After more than 25 minutes of public testimony, Commissioner Tim Poynter moved to approve Option 11, seconded by Commissioner Genece Minshew. The motion passed 5–0.

Prince asked the commission for a second procedural motion to authorize her office to “properly respond to opposing counsel regarding the action you just took.” That motion also passed unanimously.

The city’s formal written response will be provided to RYAM and its attorneys before the November 10 deadline.