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Tanyard neighbors urge city to reconsider Club Street access and address flooding at ECUA development site
Summary
Residents at two public comment periods urged city leaders to revisit plans for vehicle ingress/egress and to address persistent flooding at the former ECUA site adjacent to Club Street, saying the proposed access will harm parking, safety and property values.
Residents of the Tanyard neighborhood told the Pensacola City Council on March 13 they were deeply concerned about traffic, parking, flooding and equity tied to redevelopment of the former ECUA site that borders Club Street.
Ralph Scofield, who identified his address as 379 Club Street, said residents first saw heavy machinery move onto the site on Feb. 28 and that televised reports and residents’ observations raised alarms about traffic and flooding. “This development's entrance is right in front of my house. All night, every night, headlights will flood my living room and bedroom, and I won't be able to safely park on the street anymore,” Scofield said during the Leroy Boyd Forum. He asked the city to move the exit 30–40 feet south to align with Zaragoza Street or to place the entrance on Government Street.
Scofield said a single rain event recently produced pooling so severe that construction workers stopped work. “A 30 foot wide moat formed around that site. Standing water still floods the south end right now, five days later,” he said during the second forum, adding that workers had responded by bringing in dirt but had not resolved the underlying drainage. He said removing street parking to make Club Street safer would devastate residents who rely on curbside parking, and that the impacts would fall disproportionately on long‑term and minority‑owned rental properties.
Scofield and other speakers said they felt dismissed by a city press conference in early March in which the mayor deferred to unnamed experts and characterized resident concerns as speculation. “Referring to our firsthand experience as residents of Tanyard as unfounded speculation is insulting,” Scofield said earlier in the meeting.
What residents asked the council to do: Residents urged the city to require a different entrance location, provide clearer traffic and drainage studies, and increase transparency with the neighborhood on site plans and mitigations.
City response and context: The mayor and staff did not present a formal response to the specifics of the Club Street access during the meeting record provided here. At multiple points council members and the mayor emphasized that staff and administration are responsible for project review, permitting and engineering, and that developers often must satisfy city, state and other permitting requirements before work continues.
Ending: Residents said they will continue to press for changes to the ingress/egress plan and clearer engineering solutions for flooding and stormwater management at the former ECUA site.
