The city's long-anticipated riverfront development remains stalled as major obstacles continue to impede progress. Despite years of discussions and planning, significant challenges have emerged after a series of city meetings last week in both the design and ultimate construction of three projects - the flood protection wall, a replacement building for Atlantic Seafood and what the city should build in place of Brett's Waterway Cafe.
The price tag for all three could reach as much as $25 million.
Progress has been sluggish running nine months behind schedule and at best highlighting both past and future obstacles.
Additionally, there are right-of-way negotiations with hesitant private property owners and required approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the St. Johns Water District, and the CSX Railroad to address.
Furthermore, limited financial resources in the city's budget necessitate the commissioners to consider proposing a $30 million bond for voter approval.
The project manager for all this work had been City Engineer Charlie George, who died last August following medical complications. George wielded extensive marine engineering experience, and the city has yet to hire a replacement.
The three-month old, newly constituted city commission met with the flood protection wall designers last week and got a reality check on the status of the project.
Following 45 minutes of updates on the design, Michael Sharpe, who serves on the City's Marina Advisory Board, gave commissioners an evaluation of the proposed flood wall plan.
"In sections three and five, we have big giant holes in it. Is that a resiliency wall? It's not. We are wasting money," he said. "Unless you have a complete plan that says we can move forward and have a wall that is continuous, I don't see the point. It looks like a giant cluster and a waste of time and money."
The Flood Protection Wall
Of the three-quarter mile stretch of riverfront, only about 13 percent of the flood wall has been built.
Kimley-Horn is designing the project under a grant through the Florida Inland Navigation District of almost $1 million. Kimley-Horn representatives Cory Salt and Casey Long told commissioners at last Tuesday's workshop that the firm had billed the city $562,000 thus far for design and build plans that were 90 percent complete.
Former City Commissioner Chip Ross, who spent seven years on the commission becoming an expert on the marina and the riverfront, reported to the current commission that "the contract with Kimley-Horn requires that the project be designed and
permitted within 289 days of approximately 10 months of the Notice to Proceed. The contract was signed June 20, 2023, or approximately 19 months ago. The project completion date is more than nine months behind schedule."
Long said the design was incomplete because it included three large gaps in the flood wall protection system - all on the north end held by private property owners. And the firm's design for part of the wall to be built in the water in that section was later rejected by the Corps of Engineers.
"My biggest concern on this whole thing is we are spending all this money and even if you completed everything you are doing, we have no wall because you have not addressed three holes (in the wall system)," said Commissioner Genece Minshew. "So, you're saying you have 90 percent, the dollars that we (the city) have spent we're at almost 90 percent ready to go to quote permit or that type of thing with an unresolved three areas that unless that gets resolved for God knows how much more money, we have no resiliency wall to protect the city."
The engineering firm will now have to configure a new design particularly on section five of the plan which spans from a privately owned parcel through a city owned parcel and back through five more privately owned properties.
Three gaps in section five
One of the gaps is the parcel privately owned by O'Steen Company LLP. The city has been unsuccessful in attempts to acquire the property or obtain a right-of-way in order to include that section in the riverfront protection plan. That means there's a 95-foot-wide opening for floodwaters to flow into downtown.
The property is now part of section five of the Kimley-Horn design that extends 1,000 feet north to the Port of Fernandina. The proposed design will put a wall around the tract in the event of a storm.
The rest of section five had been planned with the 'wall in the water' design which was shot down by the Corps of Engineers.
Salt said to overcome the Corps of Engineers objection, the wall could be placed on either side of Front Street. Either option means the city would have to make Front Street a one-way road.
"If you drive the road now it's pretty tight for two-way traffic," Salt said.
If the wall is constructed on the west side of Front Street, the design calls for the use of hydra plants that are put in place prior to a storm event.
Two problems with that plan are that property owners would not have access to their parcels until the hydra planks were removed and there are utility poles along the roadside.
"You do still have utilities further down and with driving sheet pile walls it's hard with overhead electrical because you have a large piece of metal dinging in the power lines," Salt said. "We would need to relocate the utilities temporarily during construction. There's also a lot of drainage infrastructure on the side. We don't have survey information. We don't have sub service utility engineering in this segment because the road was never a part of the original request for the proposal."
Locating the wall on the east side of Front Street introduces problems associated with the necessary clearance requirements from the CSX railroad tracks. The design calls for nine feet of clearance from the tracks.
"They (the railroad) said that they cannot approve an alignment without the city contracting them to do a full review of these where they would propose alternatives and look at the plans we have and identify what works for them operationally," Salt said. "We don't know whether or not they would approve this alignment, but we only have so much space."
Salt cautioned that the railroad might require 15-feet of clearance which would put the wall in the middle of Front Street, rendering the road unusable for traffic.
"The issue is getting with all the necessary stakeholders, whether it's private property owners or the railroad and figuring out exactly where this (wall) can be. While we don't have a final design in this area, we are working with the necessary stakeholders to figure out what is feasible. Then we can have a design as soon as we have that information," Salt said.
Atlantic Seafood
Construction of the flood protection wall in section 2 from the Atlantic Seafood building to the boat ramp requires the demolition of the current structure. The plan is to construct a new Atlantic Seafood structure on the same parcel but further away from the river.
Developer Ernie Saltmarsh assumed the lease on the failing Atlantic Seafood building in August 2022 and he was required to submit plans for a new structure to the city.
Two and half years later, and Saltmarsh has yet to provide any plans for a replacement building.
City Manager Sarah Campbell told commissioners on Tuesday that she met with Saltmarsh and had "a good conversation."
Campbell said she followed up by sending Saltmarsh drawings of the waterfront park and space for a 1,200 square-foot footprint for a building, which is what the city would provide under the terms of the assumed lease agreement.
"I have not heard anything back (from him) since I provided that drawing. So, part of our project timeline will be to identify some milestones. And if we don't have a mutual agreement, then I think you will have to pursue some other actions whether that's a buyout of the lease or some other mechanism, we'll have to discuss that," Campbell told commissioners.
The lease with the city expires in 2028.
Brett's Waterway Cafe
Brett's lease with the city expires on Dec. 31.
Engineering assessments conducted by the city said significant repairs to the building's supporting substructure over the river would have to be made to keep the building viable.
Also, the restaurant needs extensive repairs and upgrades that would trigger updating the building to compliance with current building codes.
Consensus has been reached that the building will be demolished once the lease expires at a cost of over $1 million to the city.
But what will replace the restaurant structure and whether the city plans to again build over the river have yet to be decided.
Without those details in place, coordinating future work on a new flood protection wall becomes problematic.
So does the question of where the city will find the money to pay for both the flood wall and the replacement structure, if any.
The ongoing debate among city residents is whether a new restaurant facility should be erected for lease or if the city builds an over the river a walkway pavilion/viewing area.
Commissioners have decided to use the advisory boards whose jurisdiction overlaps on the marina and community meetings to review options. Residents will be asked what they want on the riverfront.
But as former Commissioner Ross pointed out, public opinion remains divided. "If you ask 13,000 people, you'll get 13,000 different opinions. We've been down that road before," he said.
Last Wednesday, members of the Historic District Council, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Marina Advisory Board met with the Community Development Agency Advisory Board (CRAAB) to organize a city subcommittee to strategize how to engage the public on the vacated Brett's location once the building is demolished.
At that meeting Deputy City Manager Jeremiah Glisson said there were really "only four options" for the space.
"You could just build an open deck. A pavilion or a restaurant or a hybrid of any of those (three) choices," he said.
Passero and Associates has been tasked by the city to develop plans for each of those options, Glisson said, with the intent of having the advisory boards review each proposal.
"This is a terminal point of Centre Street and it's a very complex project," Glisson said.
CRAAB Chair Mike Spino said the initial discussion Wednesday was on "collaboration between the participating boards "regarding the Brett's parcel."
City Commissioners face daunting tasks
Kimley-Horn could not provide city commissioners with an estimated cost to build the rest of the flood wall.
"The construction cost is difficult for us to assess at this point in time because of the gaps (in the design) that were not included in the original scope (of work)," Long said. "We have been going back and forth on what it is. To throw out a number for those pieces, it needs to have a little bit more refinement for the solution."
Without a design for a contiguous protection wall to present to voters, a $30 million bond referendum would likely fail.
At this stage in the planning, the most likely scenario is that a bond measure by the city could be on the November 2026 ballot.
Then there is the issue of who is in charge of getting things done on the city staff.
Minshew ran for office on the promise of delivering project management oversight with established timelines and measured milestones.
"One of the things I would like to hear back from you is a recommendation, what are the program and project manager requirements that you believe we need to bring whether we hire somebody, or we desperately have got to get better in that area because we cannot let these things drag on," Minshew told the consultants. "Everyone's intentions are good, and it is a big competency that's missing in the city staff, and I don't expect city staff to be able to step up....I need you to tell us how, based on how you understand the city functions, how that would work (project management) because I think it's a big missing component, not just with this project, but for most of our other projects."
At last Tuesday's city commission meeting, Campbell said the city engineer position was being recast.
"We are recommending it have certified project manager credentials. We are just doing some headcount capacity. We will be moving forward I would think in the next couple of weeks," Campbell said.
Whenever that person comes on board, they will have a full plate of tasks at hand including:
An agreement with the railroads [CSX, Genesee and Wyoming, and First Coast] stating the distance they will require for a clear zone between the seawall on Front Street and the middle of the western railroad track.
An understanding on how wide the area needs be separating the edge of Front Street (North and South) from the any seawall,
Determining the impact of converting North Front Street to one-way traffic.
The estimate of how much additional cost to move the waterline on South Front Street to accommodate a seawall.
An agreement with Florida Public Utilities on the distance of any utility poles that will be needed to be relocated from the edge of North Front Street.
An determination from FPU and the city marina on if the utilities located on the northern property line of the Parking Lot A can be moved to accommodate the seawall.
The Good News
Another 600-foot stretch of flood wall on Front Street adjacent to the wetlands and entrance to Cook's Docks just south of Parking lots C & D is ready to be put in place. A $2 million grant the city has in hand would pay for that section.
The flood wall would be along the west side of the pavement on Front Street, the consultants said. The one obstacle is relocating a water main and fire hydrant.
The city most also obtain written agreement with RYAM and David Cook specifying what they are going to allow on their property along with an easement.
"Segment one is where we have the viable option of actually building something," Salt said.
The design still needs the approval of the St. Johns Water Management District.
With multiple unresolved issues — including property negotiations, federal approvals, and funding constraints — major riverfront developments remain uncertain. Until these roadblocks are addressed, residents should not expect to see significant changes other than the new waterfront park to the city’s riverfront anytime soon.
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