Pensacola City Councilman Brian Spencer believes that his fellow councilman and business partner, Larry Johnson, was off-base in his criticism on the council’s decision to hire Urban Design Associates to help the council determine how to best develop the city property on South Ninth Avenue known as Hawkshaw.
In a viewpoint published in the daily newspaper on Sunday, Johnson admonished his fellow board members for hiring the Pittsburgh-based consultant.
He called the hiring of a consultant for $25,000 a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“There was clearly interest from the development community in this property,” said Johnson. “But instead of trusting the developers who each were willing to risk millions of dollars in this market, we have decided to hire an urban design company from Pittsburgh for $25,000 to hold two ‘facilitated community workshops’ and prepare a report with recommendations.”
In September, Johnson had tried to get the council to reconsider its vote to reject all the proposals for the property, but City Attorney Lysia Bowling had determined his recommendation was invalid since he voted against the motion.
Spencer defended Urban Design Associates, saying that “great cities don’t happen by accident”
“Rick Harper’s educate-the-public segment regarding tourism sector jobs, (also featured in Sunday’s PNJ), reminded me that our community too often measures success by quantity vs quality,” Spencer told Inweekly in an email. “Therefore, I felt it was appropriate to share why I fully support the engagement of Urban Design Associates in order to maximize the chances for facilitating a high quality design solution for the Hawkshaw parcel that overlooks the Veterans Memorial Park, Admiral Mason Park, and Pensacola Bay.”
Spencer said the Johnson in his viewpoint failed to inform PNJ readers that selecting a previous development submittal was not achieved due to “public disagreement about building form, site plan, percentage of building footprint to green space, image, height, density, etc.”
He said that Urban Design Associates is a architecture & design firm ranked among the most highly regarded in conducting a participatory planning process in the design & town planning industry.
Spencer said, “We’re not hiring the consultant to tell us we need housing! We already know that!”
He added, “What Larry fails to share is my reminder to him and fellow CRA members (at last Monday’s CRA mtg) that the development of a $10M project on Hawkshaw will spin off $109K back to CRA coffers in FIRST year after completion.”
Spencer said the goal of hiring was Urban Design Associates to “incorporate a world class design firm into the formula for success.”
He said, “The use of design consultant, UDA, is a smart way to quickly RESTART the process, RESTORE public trust, and is an excellent Return On our Investment of CRA funds.