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Published by former Mayor George Gardner April 24 2013
The Report is an independent publication serving our community.
Contributions are greatly appreciated. Click or mail to
George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084
Click to order St. Augustine Bedtime Stories
two sets of twelve, $15 each set
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Faneuil Hall here?
Plans aired for vacated bank lobby
If the city's alcoholic beverage ordinance can be adjusted, the lobby of the former Exchange Bank on Cathedral Place could become a venue similar to Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
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Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace
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Attorney George McClure, known for his success taking on difficult cases, suggested to city commissioners Monday that a revision of the city's alcoholic beverage ordinance could make it possible.
While the adjacent Cathedral "doesn't object," he said, "the challenge is the ordinance prohibiting sales within 100 feet of a church or school."
His comments came during public comment period, so commissioners didn't react until the meeting's end, when Commissioner Don Crichlow suggested a waiver clause allowing churches to approve such sales if they are part of a restaurant rather than simply a bar. City Attorney Ron Brown will prepare options for the commission.
McClure said the building owners called him "to consult on the adaptive rehabilitation of the first floor" after Wells Fargo Bank announced plans to move across the plaza to the former Woolworth building.
Faneuil Hall covers 6.5 acres inside and out, with 49 shops, 44 pushcarts, 13 full service restaurants, and 35 food stalls.
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'We'll add the
steel plates'
Without discussion, city commissioners Monday approved a consent agenda item to beef up commission room security, a $15,780 makeover including two police officers, metal detector wand checks at the entrance, and a bulletproof commission table.
"We are going to add the steel plating ourselves, General Services Director Jim Piggott replied when asked for a picture of the proposed $8,000 table.
The makeover will also include fencing in front of the commission table and reversing a door behind commissioners to open out rather than into the chamber.
Police Chief Loran Lueders put the security package together at City Manager John Regan's direction after Commissioner Leanna Freeman remarked at a previous meeting, "I just don't feel safe up here."
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Proposed revisions to the city's Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance will, finally, go to public hearing and final action after three initial readings and revisions.
The latest revision came Monday, reversing a previous commission decision that new construction PUDs in all Historic Preservation districts cannot change the property's existing use, while PUDs for modification of existing structures can change to other allowed uses.
The vote was 3-2, with Commissioners Leanna freeman and Roxanne Horvath opposed. They had fought for the provision during lengthy debate. But Monday Commissioner Don Crichlow argued it would remove flexibility and the responsibility of the commission "to decide what's best for the city.
"If this passes," Crichlow said, "there can be no parking garages in historic preservation districts, no education or art facilities, no churches, banks and, most of all, no tourist attractions if not museums."
The ordinance goes to public hearing, minus the historic preservation district restriction, at the commission's May 13 meeting.
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The Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) planned drainage project from Malaga Street to ML King Avenue, halted when business owners along the street protested its impact on traffic, is being revived and expanded to Avenida Menendez. And the plans could include improvements in mobility, aesthetics, lighting, utilities, signage and signals.
"It can take two years to plan and sort out titles (for easements)," city Public Works Director Martha Graham told commissioners Monday, noting the commission's earlier directive to hold off until after 450th commemoration activities in 2015. "At this point they want the city's wish list."
"I can't imagine the chaos," said Commissioner Don Crichlow, whose architectural office is downtown.
Among the considerations is a crosswalk at the Plaza. Graham said FDOT does not favor one at Charlotte Street, but an Aviles Street crosswalk may be a possibility.
Commissioners urged public meetings before and during improvement planning, and City Manager John Regan noted costs will have to be sorted out between FDOT and city budgets.
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450th is 'the future'
 "The 450th has the potential to elevate above the mundane. We can build our boats, and welcome our tall ships and celebrate the arts and create new festivals and remember historic events, but the real potential for the 450th is to make it a celebration of the future."450th Commemoration marketing strategist Charlie Seraphin made the comment to city commissioners Monday as he outlined a plan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the St. Augustine civil rights movement in 2014 with a "national dialog on non-violence."
He said Martin Luther King lieutenant J. T. Johnson had remarked that King's real message "was not civil rights, but non-violence and social justice," and envisions a series of symposiums "bringing in young people from across the country to St. Augustine for the first of many such sessions."
Seraphin came from sports marketing to handle fundraising for the city's 450th commemoration.
Commission rejects M&M bid
City commissioners Monday rejected a $345,100 offer from Kaushik Patel, owner of Ken's Corner Market on West King Street, to purchase the former M&M Market building in Lincolnville.
Discussion was brief after Mayor Joe Boles said, "I'm not ready to support what mimics what was there before."
Patel promised "a small super market" but commissioners envisioned a traditional convenience store similar to what existed before previous owners were charged with criminal activity in 2010. The city purchased the property to better control its future, and contracted with Irene Arriola of Saltwater Property Group, who has waived commission to market the property.
Measuring vendors' final resting place
Though vendors have not yet been shut out of the Visitor Center promenade, commissioners Monday spent some time measuring spaces on the north side of the parking facility while Commissioner Don Crichlow commented, "We're trying to eliminate vendors. They won't go there."
Under consideration is an ordinance for annual $75 permits with a limit of 25 permits, proof of state tax registration and insurance coverage, 10 am - 6 pm operating hours, and the move from the promenade.
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Historical marker for VIC
Continuing a program initiated by former Mayor George Gardner, the city will unveil an historic marker this morning at 11:30 recognizing the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Visitors Information Center.
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Marker at Lightner/City Hall building
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The marker recognizes the original civic center, a project of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration opened in 1935 and featuring "a main hall with a seating capacity of 500, a 36 foot stage with green velvet curtains, and lounge rooms furnished with bridge tables and leather padded chairs."
Today the VIC is an exhibit hall with information area and gift shop.
Among markers featuring weather-resistent laminate plaques with text and pictures: the Plaza and Constitution Monument, Alcazar Hotel (City Hall/Lightner Museum), Visitor Center fountain, Twine Park, and Andrew Young Crossing.
Along St. George Street are markers recognizing the Menorcans, General Jorges Biassou, and Frederick Douglas. The Los Floridanos Society established a marker at the Visitor Center, and the St. Augustine Archaeological Association has begun a program of markers for significant archaeological sites, so far including the la Punta Mission on Tremerton Street, Nuestra Senora de la Soledad on St. George Street, and Nuestra Senora de los Remedios on Aviles Street.
Drug take-back April 27
Let the St. Augustine Police Department be at your disposal April 27 from 10 am to 2 pm for used or old prescription drugs.
"It is safer for you and the environment to have your old prescriptions destroyed instead of flushing them down a drain" says Police Chief Loran Lueders.
Local police are cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Administration and state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. Last year 488,395 pounds (244 tons) of prescription medications were collected at more than 5,263 locations in the US..
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History's Highlight
Building codes circa 1573
2 years, 4 months, 16 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Elsbeth "Buff" Gordon is author of Florida's Colonial Architectural Heritage and more recently
Heart and Soul of Florida: Sacred Sites and Historic Architecture (University Press of Florida). A book
signing is planned for Friday, May 17 from 4- 5:30 pm at the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library on Aviles Street.
Residents faced planning and building codes as far back as 1573, in the first planned community in today's United States. 
Royal ordinances published by the King of Spain, Philip II, for laying out new towns in the Americas, required among other details "houses all of one form for the sake of the beauty of the town," and "each house shall be so built that they may keep therein their horses and work animals in yards and corrals that should be as large as possible for health and cleanliness."
Here may be an early clue to what became a cultural tradition (influencing) the city's cohesive style of colonial architecture that is unique in pervasiveness. New arrivals, Spanish, English, Menorcans, and Americans alike, followed the general form of house architecture, with diversity in the detail.
Now becoming known as the colonial "St. Augustine style," the architecture, like the street plan, had a sense of consistency, pattern, symmetry, and pleasing proportions - elements of great value to 16th century Spaniards, values that persisted into the 18th century architecture of the colonial cathedral and the 19th century Flagler hotels.
The ordinances specified that the Plaza's four comers should face the four principal winds, so the main streets running out from the plaza would not be exposed to the four principle winds, thought to "cause much inconvenience."
In addition, the ordinances were very specific that in hot climates the streets were to be narrow. This tradition of shading pedestrians came out of Mesopotamia, Rome, Arabia, and their colonies.
Sixteenth century St. Augustine was an environmentally planned community, with links to more ancient communities and their climate-engineered streetscapes.
Elements of the popular "New Urbanism" ideal began here. Modern communities are being planned up front and personal with their streets, roofed balconies, loggias, and courtyards. Go see neo-St. Augustine in Windsor Village, Vera Beach, and at Rosemary in the Panhandle.
Long before the Miami architect, Andres Duany, introduced "NewUrbanism," there was St. Augustine.
St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - Dramatic accounts of famous people and events in St. Augustine's history - in booklets designed for quick reads before bed. Information here.
Click to order St. Augustine Bedtime Stories through Paypal.
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The St. Augustine Report is published weekly, with additional Reports previewing City Commission meetings as well as Special Reports. The Report is written and distributed by George Gardner, St. Augustine Mayor (2002-2006) and Commissioner (2006-2008) and a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com
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