Manna Food Pantries only did what city officials told them

Rick Outzen

8 years ago

When Manna Food Pantries bought the old Pickens School property on Hayne Street, the Escambia County School District’s realtor, Danny Zimmern, told the non-profit that the land was zoned commercial.

Inweekly has talked with several Manna board members on and off the record. Two were emphatic
that they would not voted to buy the land if they had known that its zoning only allowed for Medium Density Residential.

Only after Manna closed the purchase in October 2014 were they notified by the city planning services department that they would need an exception approved by the Planning Board and Pensacola City Council. The exception was needed to allow Manna to build a 20,000 sq. ft. building.

Manna applied for the exception as instructed. The Planning Board approved it unanimously, over the objections from some of the residents in the neighborhood.

Councilman Brian Spencer asked for city staff to set up a meeting between Manna and the neighbors. The city staff sat in the February meeting, took notes, but did not mention any issues with the zoning for the land.

After the meeting, Jay Bradshaw, a Manna board member, told Inweekly the residents weren’t happy with how city staff wouldn’t answer their questions or with Manna’s answers.

â€œThey couldnâ€™t get answers to any of the questions they were asking that were non-Manna related,” said Bradshaw. “The questions they were asking about Manna, they didnâ€™t want to listen to the answers.â€

Manna still believed that it had no real problems. They thought the zoning was in their favor and the exception made their warehouse possible.

The non-profit waited for the Planning Services Department to put the exception on the council’s agenda. The item was not placed on the February or March council agendas.

Finally a board member in late March ran into a planning services staff member and was told that Manna was going to need a variance to build its warehouse. Under the Comprehensive Plan’s Future Use Map, the land was zoned Medium Density Residential. The city did not sent Manna this notification in writing.

That is when Manna’s board voted to sell the property.