STUART \u2013 After months of back-and-forth discussion during public hearings, the City Commission here gave its final blessing Aug. 17 on the referendum wording for the future fate of two controversial topics, that of protecting the Stuart ballfields and the potential rescission of a 2011 voter referendum on two commercial acres adjacent to the 157-acre Haney Creek Preserve.<\/p>\n
City Attorney Lee Baggett introduced the Haney Creek referendum topic first, which 15 years ago was decided by a majority of city voters. Now a majority of the City Commission want to see if the voters have since changed their minds on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a resolution of the City Commission providing for ballot language for a referendum seeking voter approval to rescind the Nov. 8, 2011 election ballot referendum requirement to lease an undeveloped 1.97-acre commercial parcel fronting U.S. 1 opposite North River Shores Boulevard,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was to fund the maintenance of the Haney Creek Preserve. The rescission is so that the parcel may be converted to conservation and added to the Haney Creek Preserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baggett then proceeded to clarify why the Haney Creek Referendum was being done by resolution and the Stuart ballfields by a more formal ordinance.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the sake of both of them, this one was a resolution and so it\u2019s the first and only reading,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe next one is an ordinance, so it\u2019s two readings and we\u2019re at the second reading. I just don\u2019t want you guys thinking we have to bring this back at another reading. In this case, the charter language is already there. Back in 2011, they put this issue out to the voters, and they voted to lease out this approximate two-acre parcel for commercial purposes to help fund the Haney Creek preserve. In order to undo that, we\u2019ve got to go back to the voters to seek a rescission of that prior referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former City Commissioner Christopher Collins was the initial driving force for changing the status on the property in hopes of preventing its future development. Although he resigned in late April to make his successful bid for the Martin County Commission, the other two members of his former slow-growth majority \u2013 Commissioner Laura Giobbi and Mayor Sean Reed \u2013 have steadily lobbied for approving the referendum. Commissioner Campbell Rich, who\u2019s opposed the idea due to potential need for alternative city funding if Amendment 3 passes this year, posed one of the first questions afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t it currently in the Haney Creek Preserve?\u201d he asked about the two-acre overgrown property.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s currently zoned a Commercial Planned Unit Development,\u201d Baggett replied. \u201cAll of it was commercial PUDs, and they [former commissioners] ended up acquiring it all with the county. They kept this separate [and] converted everything else but this.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a brief discussion prompted by Commissioner Rich on the potential liability of commissioners publicly promoting their positions on such referendums, the city attorney gave them his legal opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that the city cannot use funds to take a position one way or another,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe individually \u2013 not on the behalf of the Board \u2013 you can speak your mind. You have to support it if you\u2019re going to vote for it today. The Board can\u2019t go out and advertise, please vote yes for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Eula Clarke followed that up with a clarification question about the two acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have the language added to the Haney Creek Preserve, that covers all of the potential land-use designations?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, we\u2019ll have to come back and go through the process of converting the land use,\u201d Baggett answered. \u201cIt\u2019s currently Commercial Land Use and CPUD Zoning, so we\u2019d have to go through the process of changing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Clarke acknowledged that conversations with Public Works Director Milton Leggett revealed the city has successfully maintained the preserve over the years without funding from the land in question.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he said the money spent was minimal but they were managing to do the maintenance,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI don\u2019t think there was a big push to get those funds from leasing it. We did try to lease it in the early days, but so far nothing has happened since 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Commissioner Giobbi reiterated her view of the 2011 referendum.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much has changed since then,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that time, it seemed like that might be a good idea. What has happened is the amount of development. I don\u2019t think anyone wants to see another gas station, another storage center or car wash sitting on the corner of one of our main streets. We\u2019re giving you the voters the opportunity, to either say nay or yeah. We can add this back into Haney Creek, and everyone can enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Reed then passed the gavel to Commissioner Clarke so he himself could make the motion for approval. After Giobbi seconded the motion, a handful of public speakers came to the podium, beginning with Emily Lanthier, who worried about the native plants and animals currently on the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very important for the citizens to be able to vote on this,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it needs to be very clear what the language says. It needs to show that it is going to be preserved. Those habitats do have a number of endangered plants and animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Kehlmann\u200b,, however, wasn\u2019t quite ready to relinquish any potential funding from the land and didn\u2019t necessarily see its development impacting the area\u2019s wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that parcel could generate money for Haney Creek, I don\u2019t see two acres of land on U.S. 1 doing anything,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to still have coyotes running across U.S. 1, you\u2019re going to still have bobcats and every other thing. If it doesn\u2019t affect trails or dog parks, it\u2019d be pretty crazy for residents to not want the city do something with it. I\u2019m not saying gas stations [or] car washes; maybe a bulletin board that could generate income.\u201d<\/p>\n
After further Board comments and two more residents clamoring for the referendum, the City Commission voted 3-1, with Commissioner Rich dissenting to approve the resolution. Baggett then introduced the ballfield ordinance with a few brief comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first reading, you guys in your motion in moving it to second reading requested that we add a couple of words in the title,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have done that. You didn\u2019t have any proposed changes to the actual language for the referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three public speakers urged commissioners to approve the second reading of the ordinance, the Stuart Commission voted unanimously to approve it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART \u2013 After months of back-and-forth discussion during public hearings, the City Commission here gave its final blessing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[326,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-381547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-martin","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}