City Approves ‘Florida-Friendly’ Guidelines for Projects

Many Florida cities talk about sustainability and environmental protection, but St. Augustine isn’t just talking the talk. Earlier this month the City Commission unanimously approved a resolution requiring city capital improvement and maintenance projects to “review and consider site-specific appropriate Florida-Friendly plants and native trees” as well as “maximizing permeable infrastructure” to inspire residents and business owners to integrate environmentally development.
“This is consistent with the city’s resiliency efforts and adds to programs by the city to encourage environmentally friendly development,” said Amy Skinner, director of planning and building for the city.
Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder, who has been an advocate for environmentally friendly development, said she was pleased the city was considering the resolution.
“This is actually the most important part to me,” she said. “This is where public projects can become a showcase of techniques and design that can inspire private residents and business owners to better integrate environmentally friendly development.”
Blonder said the city will make “our best effort” with the resolution and set an example for residents and business owners.
“We’re going to have these showcase examples scattered all around our community and people are going to say, ‘You know what, native landscaping is actually very pretty,’” she said. “That’s really what I want to come out of this.”
Commissioner Jim Springfield said the city could promote the use of native landscaping further by recognizing those who adopt it.
“This is something we talked about,” he said. “I’ve talked about going a step further than that in trying to reward yards, some kind of reward for homes that take this to heart and redo their paving and redo their landscaping. I think it’s real important.”
Commission Jon DePreter said the resolution is a good first step for the city.
“I think we can do more when it comes to residential development,” he said. “For me, this is the beginning of the conversation, and we have to push forward.”
