Fernandina Beach's long sought waterfront park is about to become a reality following a $2 million budget approval Tuesday by city commissioners.
Left unresolved was whether to spend another $115,000 on a children's playground component. The commission passed that debate to the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) for consideration.
Deputy City Manager Jeremiah Glisson said construction would begin within the next three weeks.
Commissioners finally put to rest decades of debate over whether the park along the Amelia River just south of the city boat ramp should even be built. There have been dozens of park designs, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on consultants, numerous public meetings and polling of residents.
KBT Contracting is the contractor on the project.
Still, the debate over the park elements continued as speakers in support and opposed to the playground and other design aspects addressed the commission.
"Most of these (parks) that all of us have visited have some kind of (children's) feature," said Jenny Mountjoy, vice chair of PRAC. "I grew up here and I have little kids that I'm raising here now, and I think it is something that our city has been missing. Personally, I think it would be great to see something of a nautical theme there that would honor our island's history and the park's unique location. I appreciate your support and hope we get a playground."
Mountjoy's stance was supported by two other speakers.
Lawrence Piper voiced opposition to the park maintaining it was not in keeping with the city's stated mission in the Comprehensive Plan of preserving the culture and elements of a 'working waterfront.'
He cited the work of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board (CRAAB) in outlining its goal for the waterfront area.
"CRAAB's vision statement reads to maintain the character of Fernandina Beach as reflected in its working waterfront and historic district," Piper told commissioners. "Now this stuff is all through your Comprehensive Plan and your advisory boards.
He stressed that numerous city advisory boards and past city commissions spent countless hours defining what the city's waterfront should look like/
"They did that because they knew future (city) commissions would be faced with these things," Piper said. "Well, let's put a playground in there or let's put a putt-putt course down there. That has nothing to do with the working waterfront. I would like to see you enhance the area to embrace our commercial fishing and shrimping and crabbing. You just couldn't imagine what a draw (for people) that would be."
Marina Advisory Board member Michael Sharpe, who has been an advocate for more parking especially boat trailer parking spaces on the property, said the design still needs work to accommodate boaters. "You guys know that we need parking down there. You Made a plan that allows for that to happen. I think there is still a problem with the boat trailer parking," he said. "There are numerous people that have rigs that are 60-feet long and you have dedicated 44 feet for and boat and trailer slots in there. It is not long enough. You'll have trailers sticking out in the roadway. It's going to be a problem and before you start building $2 million worth of park, I need you to address that. Don't wait until we can't turn a boat trailer in there. It's a marina, it wasn't a park. It's a working waterfront. It's supposed to be about water activities."
Although PRAC has a scheduled meeting next week, it was unclear whether the committee would tackle the playground component issue during that session.
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