Presser: Reeves Sending Tree Ordinance to Council

Pensacola City Hall

Mayor D.C. Reeves said Wednesday he and Councilman Jared Moore will put their updated tree ordinance on the City Council agenda even though the Planning Board has not voted on it. The Planning Board is expected to keep discussing the item in October.

Reeves said the Planning Board’s conversation leaned toward heavier restrictions, and that state law does not allow it. He pointed to Senate Bill 180, which he said bars the city from making an ordinance like this more restrictive.

“We don’t want perfection to get in the way of good.”

What is in the ordinance? Reeves said the rewrite modernizes rules put in place in 2008 and last revised in 2021. The pieces he named:

• A $1,000 application fee for any live oak 40 inches or larger
• Inch-for-inch replacement requirements
• Modifications to mitigation fees, including residential mitigation caps
• Expanded uses of the tree planting trust fund so the city has money to administer the rules

Not a fight with the board. Reeves called the move non-adversarial and said he welcomes amendments. He noted that the Planning Board can recommend changes at any time and that any council member can sponsor further amendments. He said he and Moore spent another two hours with staff this week going through the ordinance nuance by nuance with the city’s legal team.

$12.7 Million Airport Grant Backs the Expansion

The city received a $12.7 million grant through the FAA Voluntary Airport Low Emission program. Reeves said the award supports two projects aimed at cutting emissions and improving air quality.

• About $3.7 million for ground power and preconditioned air equipment at all 15 passenger gates, the 10 existing and the five planned, including power upgrades for the jet bridges
• $9 million for a new hydronic boiler system serving the entire terminal, replacing 27 packaged gas-fired rooftop units with 19 hydronic air handling units

Why it matters: Reeves said one of the biggest drivers of rising terminal expansion costs is the utility infrastructure behind the new gates. He said the grant “directly supports the expansion effort.” He also noted the airport has gone 485 days without landing on the hot list.

Stadium: Soccer Field Looks Like a Fit

Consultant meeting. The city has had an initial meeting with its mixed-use stadium consultant. Reeves described it as visionary, with no budget attached. The next step is gathering internal feedback for the consultant, and he said real numbers will come after that. The only outsider in the room was Jonathan Griffith, representing the baseball interests as primary leaseholder.

Soccer. Asked whether potential soccer investors took part, Reeves said no and that he has not had real conversations about soccer ownership in a long time. His one takeaway so far: from surveys, measurements and the consultant’s drawings, a field would fit without significant demolition.

Baseball upgrades. Reeves said the Wahoos have not yet brought the city a formal priority list. He named two items he considers unavoidable, whatever happens with soccer or a multipurpose stadium:

• The blue seats, now 16 years old and past their useful life.
• Concrete and envelope repairs to protect the stadium from the saltwater environment. He said it is not foundational but needs to happen more often than it has.

First 10-year capital plan. Reeves credited the city’s facilities department with the first 10-year capital plan in the stadium’s history. He said the Wahoos have covered repairs that would have been the city’s responsibility rather than wait on the city, and that the plan should end the scramble when something like an AC unit fails.

Civic Dialogues Tops 65,000 Votes

The Change.org civic dialogues project, run with the U.S. Conference of Mayors at no cost to the city, has logged 65,796 votes and comments across 1,170 ideas. Reeves said organizers are impressed with participation for a city this size.

Off-topic submissions. Because submissions are open with no filtering, some ideas concern the county or areas outside city limits, such as garbage pickup on Nine Mile Road. Reeves said those will be filtered out before the live session, where ideas with consensus will be discussed with 100 residents. No date is set, but he said it will likely be in November.

Other Updates and Answers

• Garden Street pipe: Asked about the FDOT study, Reeves said to ask FDOT for a timetable. He noted the city has done studies in 2015 and 2019, with another being completed now, and said the city engineer saw no puddles after half an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. He criticized media “sensationalism” and invited reporting on any puddle at any time.
• Inspired and CCI: The Reverb project at Maritime Park may start in November rather than right after baseball season. Reeves has a call with Harold Dawson of Inspired early next week and expects to update reporters next week. He said he has seen no sign of a significant delay.
• Spring Street grocery and downtown post office: No delays reported. The city will try to get start dates.
• Tempo Hilton at Old New World Landing: Completion is expected in early 2028 for roughly 180 rooms, with the best case at the very end of 2027, according to what the developers told attendees at the groundbreaking.