City Commissioners Get Update on Vision Plan

With the city in the process of updating its 2014 vision plan, St. Augustine City Commission members recently got an update on the effort’s progress.

The city has enlisted the Northeast Florida Regional Council to assist with the update and has held several workshops around the city to get input from residents and business owners, said Amy Skinner, director of the Planning and Building Department.

“At each meeting attendees have been asked to participate in a PowerPoint presentation related to demographic information and the topic under discussion,” Skinner said.

The first public meeting focused on a general introduction to the update process while subsequent meetings highlighted particular topics including sustainability and resiliency, vitality and livability, and character and authenticity.

“We encouraged attendees to participate in breakout sessions to document any specific concerns or preferences, so people can tell us directly what their thoughts are,” Skinner said. “The participants have tended to be older, retired and homeowners.”

Skinner said city staff is aware the public meetings represent a limited sampling of opinions and an online survey was launched on the city’s website to get more citizen input into the process.

The site was launched in late October and will remain open until Dec. 22, she said.

“As of today, almost 400 people have taken the survey,” Skinner said.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for some time in December, as well as a joint meeting with several city advisory boards, including the Planning and Zoning Board, the Historical Architecture Review Board and the Corridor Review Committee.

Commissioner Jim Springfield said he was impressed with the information collected as part of the effort.

“I did review the data real carefully,” he said. “I love it. One of the things was (that) owner-occupied (housing) went from 55% to 65%. We increased the number of homes owned by people that were living in their homes, while we were increasing the number of short-term rentals, which doesn’t fit the logic.”

City Manager David Birchim said the increase in short-term rentals comes from the rise of gated communities in the city.

The City Commission will consider the final version of the updated vision plan at a future meeting.