Mayor Ashton Hayward’s proposal to lease Bruce Beach for a $1 a year for 50 years and allow a fish hatchery to be built in the city’s urban core has become a controversial issue, particularly since it will only create about 15 jobs on the site.
The facility will be built with NRDA dollars, but will also pay no property taxes—something the CRA, where the site is located, needs to pay its bonds on the Community Maritime Park and reimburse ECUA for the relocation of its Main Street Sewage Plant.
Plus, the current plan is not the one the city council and the public were shown in the spring of 2011.
Maybe the best alternative is a city-wide referendum on the lease. After all, this is the last piece of vacant city-owned property on Pensacola Bay. The Pensacola City Council could be pro-active, draft the referendum and put it on the August primary ballot.
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In the Sunday edition of the PNJ, Colleen Castille objected to the fish hatchery being located at the Port of Pensacola because that is an enterprise operation and couldn’t lease land for a $1 a year. Well, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) district is also a enterprise with debt obligations and the CRA can’t afford a $1 dollar year lease either.
