ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It’s a done deal.
For 15 years, the City of St. Augustine has been trying to solve the problem of an outdated fire station on a deadly turn in the road.
Tuesday night, the city commission voted to buy land in order to build a new fire station on it.
The property at 500 Anastasia Blvd. in St. Augustine – where Blue Water Jewelers stands – will now be home to a new fire station.
That new fire station will replace the current fire station on Anastasia Island at 992 Anastasia Blvd. The current firehouse is small and outdated, built in 1955. It is 0.8 miles away, down the same road.
"We’ll see an average 45 seconds to a minute of an increase response time for those off of the 312 corridor," said St. Augustine Fire Chief Carlos Aviles.
Aviles added that that increase is not enough to affect home insurance options.
The jewelry store owners made the city an offer: to sell the 1.27 acres for $4 million which is $200,000 more than its appraised value of $3.8 million.
Tuesday evening, the city commission considered the offer.
The St. Augustine City Manager David Birchim told commissioners that the deadline to sign the contract with the jewelry store owners -- Robert and Nicole Nettles -- would be Wednesday.
"If we wait a year, it will be $5 million potentially," City Commissioner Jim Springfield said during the meeting. "There’s no other site we’ve been able to find that meets the criteria of over an acre. It’s sort of like this is our opportunity."
For roughly 15 years, the City of St. Augustine has been working to solve the problem of the current fire station that sits on a deadly bend in the road.
Some residents feel the city did not provide the public enough notice or information about this latest option involving the jewelry store property.
Debra Alexander in the Davis Shores neighborhood near the jewelry store told First Coast News, "There’s no conceptual plans. We really have no study of the impact of how it’s going to impact our traffic, our neighborhoods, our property values and all of that."
She is concerned about how a fire station in that location could impact traffic, saying sometimes traffic backs up from the Bridge of Lions to that property. She also noted how busy that stretch of road has become in recent years.
Aviles told commissioners "it would warrant putting a traffic control device that we would be able to access to."
The first time this land option was discussed publicly was at the city commission’s meeting on Oct. 28, two weeks ago. After that, the city posted information about the land option on its website and it held a community meeting the following week.
During Tuesday's meeting, Springfield asked the city manager if the city had carried out its due diligence, saying, "I need some comfort that we’ve taken the appropriate time to talk to all the neighbors."
Birchim responded, "We sent out press releases. There was extensive news coverage. We had public comments, radio interviews, and it was in our News and Notes (a newsletter). And it was identified in our city calendar. So that’s the standard outreach we do for city initiatives."
Alexander said, "I’m not saying I wouldn’t support this. I just would really like to know more about it." She added, "I feel like we have been left out of the process."
Ultimately, the city commission voted to buy the jewelry store property for $4 million to build a new fire station in its place.
The deal also allows the jewelry store owners to continue operating out of the building for two years – without rent. Birchim said the store owners will maintain the property while they build another store elsewhere in St. Augustine. Then, construction of the fire station will begin.