Proposed Palm Valley Community Marina Project: The Facts and Our Concerns
If you live in the Palm Valley or Ponte Vedra area, you may have heard about the plans for the proposed 75-slip community marina and boat storage facility at 405 S. Roscoe extension, the lot that is directly to the south of the Palm Valley Public Boat Ramp. The Palm Valley Public Boat Ramp happens to be our home base for taking out guided kayak and standup paddle board tours, where we lead our customers on a peaceful paddle into Guana River Wildlife Management Area for beautiful scenery and abundant wildlife.
This new “Community Marina Project” has been quite the ongoing battle, with valid concerns coming from both sides. Those who are in favor of the community marina are eager for economic growth, ample boat storage, and believe that adding the marina would overall reduce and regulate boat traffic in the area, rather than adding to it. Those in opposition of the community marina project are concerned about safety, traffic in the water and on land, and do not believe that the extra boat storage is needed in this area.
One thing that everyone can seem to agree on is that the current Palm Valley boat ramp is not the safest or most effective ramp. In multiple public hearings, community members got up to speak about how you can go to the boat ramp on a busy weekend for entertainment purposes in order to watch the boat ramp / waterway chaos. With only one lane for launching, users of this ramp sometimes have to wait for up to 40 minutes or longer on a busy day to launch and get their boat out of the water.
It seems to be a complicated and hard to grasp idea for some folks in the area as to why we would not be in favor of the community marina, so we are going to lay out some facts and concerns to help others understand where we are coming from.
FACTS AND CONCERNS
Lisa Almeida, Owner of Freedom Boat Club, states in a recent Ponte Vedra Leader article “Choosing to live on the nation’s largest boating highway you are choosing to be a part of a community of boaters. You wouldn’t purchase a home that backs up to I-95 and complain about cars.” However, that is not what homeowners were expecting when they made an investment into their homes.
According to a 2002 St. Johns County Water Dependent Uses and Marine Study, marinas were not supposed to be allowed to be built in this area due to narrowness and congestion. While purchasing their home and land, many homeowners had trust that this prohibition of marinas in the area would mean that there would not be a marina built in this zone of the intracoastal waterway. This gave them peace of mind that their backyard would remain tranquil and that there would not be fork lift beeping while trying to relax with their children for a nice day outside.
Homeowners that have chosen to live in this area have chosen to do so because it is a community that is close to nature and pretty laid-back. This area is not your average cookie cutter home neighborhood. The community has freedom to store things in their yard if they would like, enjoys being close to the water, and a majority of people are avid watermen and women.
SO IF A MARINA IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE BUILT, WHY IS THIS ARGUMENT EVEN HAPPENING?
I know what you are thinking. How is this marina even up for debate, if it is not allowed to be built in the first place? The plan needed a zoning variance because of Land Development Code that did not allow a marina in the area. Hunter Faulkner, the applicant’s attorney, said the property to the north is allowed to function as a boat ramp and denying the ability to build a marina created a hardship for the developer.
Here is a quick overview of what is going on:
The applicant, ICW Bridge LLC, asked for a variance to build the marina. The PZA granted it in May.
Robert Fredeking and James Whitehouse — representing Delores Schwab, Jerome Hoffman, and Kara Terwilliger — all property owners in the area, filed an appeal that was heard by the Commission Aug. 20
Commissioners voted 5-0 to uphold the appeal, due to a number of matters. Commissioners said that the applicant had not proven the hardship.
Several of those in favor of the marina spoke during public comment section at the county meeting and Commissioners voted 5-0 to rehear the item again
Item was postponed until further date
COMMUNITY BOAT RAMP SURVEY
We thought the best way to measure the need in the community would be to go down to the boat ramp, and do a survey ourselves. On October 5th, 2019 Alex Tabone, John Toro and myself presented surveys to frequent users of the PV boat ramp with questions such as how frequently they use the ramp, if they thought the marina would increase traffic, average wait time, would they be willing to pay a monthly fee to store their boat, or if they already have a place to keep it. Only 13% of boaters said that they would be willing to pay a monthly fee, average wait times on that day were around 17 minutes, and a majority of boaters already had a place to keep their boat and said they prefer to keep it where it is. 73% of boaters agreed that the Community Marina would result in an increase in traffic. Figure B1 shows the results from the survey:
INCREASE OR DECREASE IN TRAFFIC
Some of the parties that are in favor of the proposed community marina argue that the marina will actually reduce current traffic, rather than increase it. Their argument is that this will regulate the amount of boaters using the water, and that the people lowering the boats in and out of the water are professionals, rather than anyone being able to launch a boat into the water with a trailer. The fact that they are missing is that this marina IS NOT REPLACING the current boat ramp, but instead bringing in an additional 75 boats to the already overcrowded area. In fact, the original proposed plan for the marina includes a space for Freedom Boat Club, (a membership club that rents out various styles of boats out to their members.) This means less room for the community members who were planning to get a storage space, and a certain number of vessels that would not have been there previously. Joshua Underwood, a Sergeant Marine Unit officer stated “I agree this would increase vessel traffic ... anything we put anywhere along the waterway is an increase in boating traffic…”
SPECIAL RULES AND AGREEMENTS
Agreements have been made to ensure that there will be no boats going out or coming in during the early morning hours or late hours of the night, but what happens when some boats stay out past the cutoff time, and the boat has to be put away? Or if a boater wants to get offshore early while the water is calm? Another condition that has been made is that there will be no cleaning boats on premises. If a customer storing their boat there has to trailer the boat elsewhere to get it cleaned, and then bring it back, after a long day on the water, the convenience of the marina seems to be hard to justify. These agreements seem like a great downfall to the marina, and could be a deal breaker to lots of boat owners. Especially since while checking out the site plan (Exhibit B Site Plan), I did not see any designated area for trailer storage for the boats.
WRAPPING UP
St. Johns County is now the 8th fastest growing county in the US and we know that the growth is going to happen, but we believe that the safety of the existing public boat ramp users and those who live in this area of the waterway should come first. According to Joshua Underwood, a Sergeant Marine Unit officer, our County had 14,951 vessels registered in 2017 in our county alone, and in 2018 we had 15,385 vessels registered. This also does not take into effect non powered watercraft such as paddleboards, canoes, kayaks, etc.
I believe that allowing a boat storage unit in this area is dangerous, and we should not wait until a life threatening accident occurs to do something about it. There are already 3 places within less than a mile in this very narrow region where boaters, paddleboarders, kayakers and canoes frequently launch from. There are several Kayak and Paddleboard rental/tour companies in the area including ourselves that use the current Palm Valley boat ramp as a launching point. The traffic is already so heavy in the area that some companies choose not to use the boat ramp during busy weekend hours. If the marina was added some companies would no longer feel safe launching their clients there. Many of our customers are renting them for the first time. Needless to say, sometimes they are not the most stable in the water. Adding an extra 75 boats to this area would make navigation for self powered water crafts and motorized vessels pretty tricky. Overall, the safety issues, traffic, and ability to take our customers out on a relaxing and stress free paddle are our main concerns and we want to make sure that time is taken to make the right decision.
If you are passionate about this topic and would like to attend the meeting regarding the Palm Valley Community Marina, the item will be on the agenda on Tuesday, December 17th at 9:00, located in the County Auditorium, at 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine. If you cannot attend the meeting, you can always write to our commissioners with your concerns.
Click here for a link to the current St. John’s County Commissioners and their email addresses.