News Journal columnist Theresa Blackwell delivered another dram of her wisdom on Sunday, blasting the Escambia County Commission, praising DPZ CoDesign and waxing poetically for a town center for Beulah’s “downtown” to complete her community.
- Why should taxpayers in the City of Pensacola, Perdido Key, Cantonment, Molino, Navy Point, Ferry Pass, Warrington, Brownsville and Pensacola Beach pay for her town center?
If Blackwell’s neighbors want a town center, they should go to the Florida Legislature and ask for a referendum to actually create the Town of Beulah. If the referendum passed, they would have plenty of tax revenue to buy land and work with a single developer to create the downtown of her dreams, especially if she included the Navy Federal Credit Union campus within the town limits.
- The Escambia County Property Appraiser has valued the Navy Federal Credit Campus at over $95 million – a solid foundation to build a municipal tax base.
BACKGROUND: Commissioner Robert Bender created the hybrid plan that the News Journal columnist loves. When he chaired the county commission in 2021, he got all parties to agree to a mixed-use plan that DPZ CoDesign was instructed to complete.
At the Committee of the Whole on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, Bender introduced a new compromise that DPZ CoDesign had drawn for Outlying Landing Field 8 (OLF-8).
“After last week’s discussion, I decided to try and pull together some stakeholders that were part of the overall master plan,” Commission Chairman Robert Bender said. “So yesterday morning, I asked for Navy Federal, who was represented by Keith Hoskins, DPZ, and then FloridaWest with Scott Luth and the PEDC chair, Lewis Bear.”
He continued, “We had a meeting to discuss the plan that was presented last Thursday and how we could move forward. I think we were able to have a good discussion. I think some of the why things were where they were, and we got to hear from everybody involved.”
Read more.
DIG DEEPER: There wasn’t strong support for the town center back in 2020. DPZ CoDesign and Blackwell based their arguments for a town center at OLF-8 on just 97 surveys, of which 70 were from the Nature Trail subdivision.
The residents were asked: What percentage of OLF-8 did they want planned for commercial development and employment initiative?
Over half (56 surveys, 56%) said they wanted 50% or more of the OLF-8 devoted to commercial development and job creation. Of those 56 pro-job replies, 30% wanted 70% or more devoted to commercial development.
Read What did the community tell DPZ CoDesign that it wanted at OLF-8.
Does the News Journal do any fact-checking of its columnists?
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