NorthEscambia.com reports the county planning board is considering the Woodland Park development that proposes having 2,356 townhomes and apartments, 2,065 single-family lots, nearly 100 acres for commercial development, plus land for a fire station, school and other public uses on 1,486 acres development west of Highway 29 and south of Highway 196 in Molino.
Why this matters: Exit 3 Investments, LLC – of St. Petersburg, Fla. – has multiple applications pending this week before the Escambia County Planning Board as they seek to opt parcels out of the Escambia County Sector Plan and rezone multiple parcels for higher densities.
- The proposed amendment to the high-density residential (HDR) use is not consistent with the land development code on one side of the property that is next to agricultural zoning.
- Staff also found that the proposed high-density residential zone is not compatible with surrounding uses because that provides for residential neighborhood development with a greater dwelling unit density within urban areas — not adjoining an agriculture zone.
Dig Deeper: Read NorthEscambia.com.
ps. last quick thought…now that you guys had all those people there who were there first hand for the proceedings, it will become way more apparent way sloppy, erroneous, and sometimes outright biased reporting at the PNJ does to confuse the issue further. I’m not going to waste time delineating all of Ms. Barrows’ errors in her reporting–you all will recognize them immediately. Which is the cost/benefit ratio that the PNJ signed on for when they started pulling more seasoned journalists who had long-time institutional knowledge of the County’s workings off stories hoping Ms. Barrows’ special taste for hit jobs and shock print would pull up readership. She actually does far better on this than her handling of the homeless situation, with was abominably dishonest and inept.
Time marches on, the difference between the Dollar General speakers and the speakers from yesterday is that those folks got goaded into a fray, and driven into a frenzy, by their commissioner, who conjured up demons and held out a false promise of getting the development killed outright. As a result, the greater percentage were approaching through a stance of unsympathetic NIMBYism and Kool Aid kaleidoscope eyes.*
*(Truly meant as an aside: Especially since most of them were die-hard republicans–I don’t think area republicans understand how foolishly hypocritical they seem when they lose their minds over lack of regulations when it hits their own back yards, then throw more roses at the feet of the people trading millions in covid relief money for developer campaign contributions and golf simulators, while they gift off infrastructure to donors and rip down the laws that would keep existing houses from flooding flooding and cock-block impact fees on a state level. )
Yesterday was so heart wrenching because it was an outpouring of people in one voice fighting for everything they love in the world. Having to look at a Dollar General while coming out of a wealthy subdivision is a far cry from environmental devastation, horrendous light pollution, disastrous flood conditions being set up, and having everything you hold dear in the world ripped away. I’ve watched 2-hour meetings that dragged longer than listening to the speakers yesterday.
It’s so hard because Mr. Hemmer really is more reasonable than most developers (apart from his unfortunate forays into back door dealing with Underhill, which backfired tremendously)–you could have pulled DR Horton or Adoor, the latter of whom is predictably performing a bait and switch on cramming a bunch of what will probably be junk townhomes in the middle of Navy Point to, if the rumor is correct, market direct to rentals. We tried working with that company through Will and Meredith at Clark Partington to approach it in a nice way and see if we couldn’t get better results than some of the other developments they’ve put in. Apparently, they truly don’t care. And of course the original sin on your neighborhood was what happened with the Sector Plan itself, as even Jacqueline slipped up and admitted yesterday… “when the Sector Plan was IMPOSED.” Pretty sure that was the word she used.
Have you guys thought about lobbying the County to purchase some of that land from Mr. Hemmer and set up a perpetually protected area/buffer? Because that really should be happening. Or have you approached Mr. Hemmer about what number it would take to buy it out from him? (I know, but maybe there’s a willing gabazillioner up there…)
Per the crayons, what’s so funny is that I had typed out “a gun range next to a…” and then I couldn’t remember what ridiculous thing the Sector Plan had plopped down next to the gun range. I thought, Town Center? But that didn’t seem right. And then of course it was made abundantly apparent yesterday: A *SCHOOL*. I mean, there are just no words.
I’m glad everybody got a reprieve that will hopefully bring things back to the table. I just wish it hadn’t happened through Jacqueline having an avenue to state all of her legal mumbo jumbo on the opt outs for the 197th time, the same arguments that administrative law judges have ripped apart over and over in her serial harassment suits. Because the residents’ passion and their heart felt common sense was what ruled the day, and didn’t need the extra buttressing of a bunch of crap that anyone who has been following the opt outs is well aware is not true. Sincerest good luck to all of you!
“you could have gotten the same or better results by handing an 8 year old a fistful of crayons and asking him to color in the map however he saw fit.”
Ms. Pino, I actually laughed out loud at this. Facts well done.
Well, that was quite the circus, but I am proud of my community standing up for a modicum of common sense today. I fully understand that with two companies heavily invested in property they’ve been purchasing since 2013 isn’t done by any stretch of the imagination. They are going to keep coming at it until they can make money. Barrineau Park & Molino residents are going to have to keep standing up and making sure our voices are heard.
I’ll savor the “win” today, but understand that this isn’t over.
And the chaotic results of the Planning Board meeting are exactly the issue with spreading disinformation on the opt-outs. Planning Board falls down under the pressure of a hundred and some–justifiably–angry people, desperate to preserve their way of life coming at them, and the Board fake bungles it so badly that they didn’t even take any action on the first opt-out…just a pitiful display on the dais. Then they reject two more opt-outs, then open back up the first one and officially deny that.
Now it goes to the BCC, where there is zero chance that they will uphold that recommendation (which was done as theater, as most of the Planning Board members in attendance are no doubt well aware) without getting sued to smithereens, as there is already an abundance of case law on this with all of the opt outs that Jacqueline already dragged through DOAH and lost in their totality straight through to every exception. The County should have taken care of her and sued her for fees; instead, they grew the monster again.
My heart truly goes out to the people in Barrineau Park. I know some of them are staring at the ceiling at night, thinking about their way of life being exploded–and I know that feeling. The speakers were amazing–some of the best I’ve seen since the (almost completely futile) Dollar General fight. I really, really hope they preserve enough energy in the tank to stick it out through any rezonings that Mr. Hemmer chooses to bring back once he’s done obtaining his legal right to opt out of the Sector Plan, whatever avenue he has to employ including State intervention. :(
But I hope that some of the speaking has him thinking long and hard about what he’s trying to force in there. It. Doesn’t. Fit–and that should matter. Chris Curb told the stone cold’s truth when he stated that the land is getting developed, one way or the other. If I could wave a magic wand, I’d preserve the whole stretch for them in perpetuity, as the County is doing a horrendous job of preserving our wetlands and forests. The County ought to think about purchasing the property outright and putting the land in preservation with the proceeds from OLF8. But short of that, somebody is going to develop that land. Hopefully Mr. Hemmer will go back to the drawing board and give up on the upzonings. It’s doubtful all of them were going to make it through the Planning Board anyway; who knows about the BCC. I don’t know why anyone would want to pursue a course that is going to make so many people desperately unhappy. It takes a special kind of stubborn for making more money, for sure.
Time marches on, the real tragedy of this is that those of us who have been advocating for substantive changes to the County’s Land Development Code for years were unsuccessful due in large part to Jacqueline Rogers jamming the airwaves with her intentional disinformation, confused misinformation, and serial losing litigation on the opt-outs.
What the hearings today should make obvious to anyone who is paying attention is that there is a big difference between an opt-out and an upzone. To hear Jacqueline tell it all these years, they’re one in the same.
The Sector Plan isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. As I stated at a Planning Meeting a few years ago, you could have gotten the same or better results by handing an 8 year old a fistful of crayons and asking him to color in the map however he saw fit. It was also an unnoticed taking of 50% of many people’s land at the time they already owned it. It holds the dump as preservation land; it identifies existing neighborhoods as development areas; it has no basis in reality per what’s actually on the ground. It is untenable, unworkable, and illogical–which is why the State has already made clear that opt-outs are allowable, and yet JAR continues to drag private landowners into legal horrors, viciously abusing and libeling them on her hate site, simply for trying to exercise a right that has already been established.
For the life of me, I don’t know why the BCC doesn’t just put a stop to clear cutting of trees, which would do away with the greater part of people’s justified protests about the way development is handled in this County. (That’s not to give the City a pass, as their pretense of of protecting trees isn’t worth much in a lot of cases, particularly in the Tanyards and along the waterfront.) I do know that Ms. Rogers chewing up all the signal with her bogus legal claims and fake expertise on all things Planning was a convenient distraction from any meaningful change that would have assisted the people in Barrineau in successfully exercising their desires to maintain something closer to the quality of life than what the proposed upzonings would bring–if staff even recommends them all, and if the Planning Board and/or the BCC approve them.
Perhaps some of the people she has been tutoring across various discussion forums in advance of today’s meeting will be able to see through her smoke and mirrors to view the proceedings today through a clear lens. I have fingers crossed for them that they will be successful against the upzonings (the opt outs are, of course, a legal given). I wish that the BCC would come to understand that all of this clear cutting is creating a hellscape of environmental disaster for future generations here. Until they do, nobody who understands what these clear cut developments are really doing to the environment should support upzonings that might result in more of it. And perhaps after today’s meeting, more people will be informed about the realities of the need for change in the County’s land Development Code, rather than relying on misguidance from Ms. Rogers’s assurance that fighting for a Sector Plan that was unimplementable from the get-go is a way to get anything of real value accomplished.
I speak as a longtime resident of the area whose property line is on the boundary of the Sector Plan and opposed it from the get-go. This opt-out, up zoning, whatever, is a blatant money grab that should not be allowed by the county, but it’s too late. Shoving 10,000+ new residents into a community without addressing existing infrastructure deficiencies or assessing impact fees on developers is par for the course in this county, though. Developer money talks, BOCC grovels.
The great thing about the meeting tomorrow is that it exposes Jacqueline Rogers’s fraudulent, libelous, and serially losing DOAH arguments for what they are: opt outs are not upzoning.
She has been spread across various discussion forums pontificating her typical mix of disinformation and confused misinformation.
Nothing against Mr. Hemmer–it’s not on developers to pull themselves in, but on the BCC. But what’s really sad is the people in Barrineau have no idea whatsoever that they are dealing with a first-rate vampire narc who is feeding off their understandable confusion on the Sector Plan. Jacqueline (a) honestly doesn’t understand the law; and (b) lies about the parts she does understand.
Another monster that CivicCon grew. I’d have some hope for their efforts if they would come out and publicly disown her malignant disinformation platform. I won’t hold my breath.
To be clear: I don’t support the upzoning. I’ve never supported an upzoning on the Sector Plan. Because opt-outs aren’t upzoning. As ALJ after ALJ has tried to explain to her and the poor saps she reels in on her legal harassment program.
“Sector Plan? We don’t need no stinkin’ Sector Plan!”
–Commish Barry, probably
Exit 3 Investments has been buying up parcels in the Sector Plan area since 2012–this thing is a done deal. Sprawl, overtaxed roads, Molino Utilities and Cottage Hill water systems attempting to handle 10,000+ new residents, no grocery stores (but we’ve got plenty of Dollar Generals!) is coming to the north end. Country living was nice while it lasted, I guess.