News
from Flagler Model Land Neighborhood Association
Flagler College
Plans to Turn its Tennis Courts on King Street into a Student Center
On
Thursday, 12/16/04, the first agenda item for the Historical Architecture Review
Board meeting is Flagler College, who is requesting an Opinion of
Appropriateness to build a student center at 102 King Street, the current
location of the tennis courts on the north side of King Street between Markland
and Sevilla Streets. I have not seen the plan but I have been told the structure
will resemble Flagler College's library that is located on the corner
of Valencia and Sevilla (which, by the way, does not comply with city
ordinances).
The
legal notice that appeared in last Thursday's Record indicated that the
request by Flagler College was for a structure of 54 feet in height. The
architects have been notified by Kim Del Rance, the city's historical planner
(who was a guest at our May 2nd neighborhood association meeting) that the
city ordinance allows only for a height of 35 feet of habitable building space
and a total building height of 50 feet (for "fake" roofs that house the
building's infrastructure such as HVAC, piping, wiring, insulation,
etc). I understand from Kim that the architects will need to re-draw the plans
for the building to comply with the city ordinances. The architects have
indicated that what cannot be achieved in height, will need to be achieved
by increasing the building's total footprint on the lot.
Items
for consideration such as what the building will be used for, will it be
continually or periodically occupied, the appearance of the building and
surroundings, lot coverage, the entrances and egresses, the traffic
pattern for the facility and the resulting impact of the traffic pattern on the
neighborhood streets and King Street, parking for the students and faculty
using the center, etc. have not yet been identified by Flagler.
This project
can have impact on our neighborhood and I urge you to become involved. It is
especially important that involvement occurs at the early stages to
ensure the project complies with all of the city's ordinances and reflects
the input of the neighborhood.
City’s Request for
Citizen’s Input on the Mini-Grant Program
As part of the 2005 budget,
$10,000 has been earmarked by the City Commission to fund a mini-grant program
to assist neighborhood associations and other organizations with projects that
benefit a worthwhile cause in St. Augustine. There was an editorial in the
Record on December 24th that discussed this program. Article can be
found at this website: http://www.staugustine.com/stories/122404/opi_2784668.shtml
and there is information
about this program at the city’s website.
http://www.staugustinegovernment.com/pressreleases/12_04/commissn_grantprog.html
The mayor and city
commissioners encourages input from the citizens of the city on how these funds
should be distributed; basically the structure of the grants application.
I encourage all of you to begin thinking about what projects you have in mind to
use the funding. That's very important as the city moves into the phase of
determining the who and how of the funding.
Livable Cities
Conference in Charleston Scheduled for March 2005