Guidelines
I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :
Here Is What I DON'T Support!
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developers have circulated a rendering illustrating their desire to use about half of the OLF 8 site for a hotel, and apartments and multi-family residential properties. I don't support building apartments, condo's, multi-family homes, and a hotel on this site...we have ENOUGH of these already under construction in Beulah
A developer has put together his "vision" for the OLF 8 site. It has now been circulated on social media. More residential properties and a hotel. More call center and low-paying office and retail office jobs, and no high-tech, clean and high paying jobs with a future. I do not support this vision. Here is what I told him, via an email, below.
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6 comments:
Jeff,
Your post is inaccurate. And no need to redact my name from the email.
Let the record reflect that I met with you in person last Thursday and showed you the layout. I explained that this was not a "plan" or "vision" but rather a depiction from somebody else that was to stimulate discussion. It obviously did....and not all good.
You want people to get involved but you tried to quiet me and asked that I not send that out. You sat on it for five days without comment before I did send it out.
Then you called me today and we talked for over 20 minutes. Not once did you mention that you posted this on your blog.
The fact that so many people are discussing this should be evidence that it needed discussing.
Fred Hemmer
Fred Hemmer--We did talk last week and when you showed me the the "Town Center" I told you I did not support residential properties being developed on the site. I told you I did not feel it would be wise to sell this property so that developers could double their money selling condos or townhomes or apartments on this site. I also told you that even if we were reckless and decided to sell this land so developers like you could build apartments and condos and a hotel (which I would never support)--- that the money realized from this sale would not be able to be used to help with our general fund budget challenges that we will face going forward. And I was right about that, I have posted the legal opinion as well. Where your memory is hazy and incorrect is that you said you would send me an electronic copy of what you gave me in hard copy form--and you never did. You waited, and waited, and never sent it. 5 days later, you sent your town center concept out to all commissioners, and it has subsequently made the rounds on social media. I am reasonable and I have shared with you my thoughts on economic development, this project, and this plan. I am willing to work with the private sector to make this property something great for the community--as I have discussed with you and as I have sent you in writing via multiple emails. But your rendering had nearly 50% of the site being dedicated to multi-family homes, apartments, residential, and a hotel. Those things do not generate jobs, do not qualify for the restore act or triumph grant we will seek to build out the roads, gutters, and infrastructure on this property--and most importantly--are not needed on this site. There is already plenty of housing under construction all over Beulah--and as I told you in person, as I told you on the phone today--I will NOT support any residential development on this site. I want a nicely developed, aesthetically pleasing site that will bring in jobs, add space for NFCU to bring in about 500 more jobs, an elementary school site, a walking/biking trail all the way around the site, and retail, restaurant, and perhaps an urgent care facility on the southern part of the property, and possibly a small recreation facility for use by the employees of NFCU, the tenants of the park, and the general public in the Beulah community. But the lion's share of this property must be used to incubate high-paying jobs for Escambia County. This was the restore act project, it is the direction the board has voted consistently to support, and it is what I support Fred. And by the way, I post very regularly on my blog and I don't owe you or anyone a heads up about anything I post. Everything I post is factual.
I hate to carry this on publicly but I must. Yes, you are right, I forgot to send you a PDF of the plan but I did go over a hard copy of it. And I do appreciate that you met with me on short notice to review it. Point is you had full knowledge of that document before anybody else did. I was respecting your responsibility to the district.
Yes, you don't "owe" me any heads up about your posts...l just thought, in the spirit of our phone call, that you would have. My bad.
The decisions as to what to do with OLF 8 should be open to all options. To try to quiet me, or others, is wrong.
Fred
Fred: nobody is trying to quiet anybody. This is not some clandestine operation, this is the county and everything is done in transparent fashion. Everyone will get to weigh-in, and then the BCC (and nobody else) will vote on how the OLF 8 project will proceed. I support jobs, not more condos and townhomes on this site, and my vote will be to carry forward the idea for jobs to be created on the site. I have one vote; I'm one-fifth of the equation.
I think you are out of touch. When you can read comments from your constituents on social media, or elsewhere and see what they are begging for and still push a commerce park. It shows that you are a one trick pony.
We have multiple empty commerce parks in the county and the bluffs are coming soon. Why do we need to oversaturate our market with sites that people dont want to move into. Look at navy they have lease space in milton when there are hundreds of places that are closer that they could have taken advantage of..why do you think that is?
I really think you need to listen to the people of your district and frankly those in district 5 and 3 that will also take advantage of the amenities. The fact that you are so quick to blast an idea that was meant to be a conversation starter shows that you are not open to what your constituents want..you are only open to what YOU want.
Be more open minded and treat this project as a partnership between you and your constituents, not some totalitarian decision.
Anonymous 10:02: Your opinion is flawed. How am I out of touch when I am following through on the plan that the board has voted to support consistently for the last 5 years? How am I out of touch when I believe NFCU was good, ST Engineering Aerospace is good, bringing good jobs to our area is good, and slowing down on the number of wal marts and murphy usa stations is good? Your understanding of the county's track record on commerce parks is fatally flawed. allow me to present the truth to you on this topic, for your edification:Escambia is doing exceptionally well on its commerce parks. Let’s look it over: Heritage Oaks, sold out, an incredible success. Marcus Pointe, sold out, incredible success. Ellyson Field, beat employment projections by 50% a decade ahead of schedule and supports roughly 3000 jobs steadily since 1990. Solid success. The only Commerce Park that is not performing as well? Mid-County Commerce Park on HWY29. It was purchased in hasty fashion, without any consultation with/among the successful professionals locally in business that knew it was a lemon. The slope and grade made it costly to build on, and the location was too far north to be easily accessible, so this site has not been as successful as the others (but Phase I just recently sold out—it just is not built-out yet) The tech park downtown has been less than stellar in terms of what it has produced; however it came on line right during the heart of the great recession in 2011 and we know what happened during that economic downturn to real estate. But the good news on that very small, 9-acre site parcel is that a Triumph request has been made to bring a Center for Cybersecurity facility on that site in conjunction with UWF and several private sector firms. You can read more about this really cool project here. So that site will have a high tech mega building there that will be a great addition to the community! So just because I am being consistent with my support for importing jobs and out of the area monetary infusions into this area while simultaneously not becoming a malleable like a gumby doll in the face of tin-foil hat wearers does not make me out of touch. Resistance to following the advice of the restore act committee will not sway me. I will need to see intelligent not emotional arguments against this plan before I will falter.
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