The West City Development Area Steering Committee on Thursday reviewed a revised community redevelopment plan, heard a city presentation on recent land acquisitions in the West City area and voted to ask city staff to request that a $100,000 loan used to pay consultants be converted into a grant for the Community Redevelopment Area.

Jamie D. Perkins, Neighborhood Services and Community Redevelopment Agency manager for the City of St. Augustine, led a page-by-page review of the plan’s action items and recommended edits that the steering committee generally embraced. Perkins told the committee the document is intended to provide “action items” that staff and the steering committee can use to implement projects, while noting that not everything in the plan will be funded or implemented immediately.

The draft plan’s key revisions adopted by consensus or majority direction include expanding the lead goal on community stabilization so it reads “community stabilization through housing policy and other relative stabilization efforts,” adding the word “acquisition” to locally oriented business development (to allow the CRA to consider business acquisition or incubator strategies), and explicitly adding “infrastructure improvements” to the mobility and connectivity goal.

Perkins said the plan also will reference several specific streets for possible streetscape projects — Evergreen Avenue, Chapin Street, Anderson Street and Christopher Street — and will note when streets are county-owned, as in portions of West King Street and Palmer Street. The draft recommends pursuing interlocal coordination with the county for any improvements on county-owned roadways.

JB Miller, who manages the city’s land management program, updated the committee on the new conservation acquisitions tied to the West City boundary. Miller said the city’s conservation program is “barely a year old” and has received multiple applications. He named several parcels under consideration or recently acquired, including a half‑acre two‑lot family property near Kavanaugh and the east end of Avery Street (an acquisition to be discussed by the commission this coming Monday), the previously acquired Florida Avenue parcel to be managed as part of Ravenswood Park, and a recent closing on a 2.7‑acre addition to Ravenswood Park.

Miller said the conservation parcels will support very passive recreation (small parking areas, low‑impact trails and interpretive panels). He also described Spangaroo Island, Fish Island Preserve, Zora Neale Hurston Park and a 31‑acre parcel north of State Road 312 as other public properties the city manages or is planning to manage for conservation and limited public access.

Committee members pressed Perkins and staff on several topics, including whether the plan should explicitly reference an aging‑in‑place “compassionate village” program and whether CRA funds could be used for a proposed public parking garage at US 1 and King Street. Perkins and staff said the plan will include language broad enough to reference aging‑in‑place approaches, and they confirmed a debt‑service statement in the draft clarifies that West City TIF funds would not be used to cover previously incurred debt and that the proposed garage is not a CRA project.

Perkins also proposed raising some of the funding placeholders in the phasing tables: she suggested increasing the notional funding amounts for Orchard/Oyster Creek and Rollins green‑space improvements and for community stabilization from $1,000,000 to $2,500,000 to better reflect current construction costs and program needs. She noted TIF projections in the draft estimate roughly $800,000 in receipts by year 10 under conservative growth assumptions and about $1,000,000 by 2035, but said actual implementation and amounts will depend on funding availability and agency direction.

Several committee members urged early emphasis on residential repair programs, sanitary sewer upgrades and public safety. Steering committee member Wanda Sams pressed for clear priorities for Oyster Creek Park, citing concerns about chronic homelessness, safety and the neighborhood impact of any park work. Perkins said identifying park improvements in the plan does not commit the CRA to large vertical development and that any specific projects would follow public engagement and vetting.

Perkins also said the draft includes new language to support historic preservation (including seeking National Register District status for West City) and to allow a historic preservation grant program for private and institutional properties similar to a program already used in Lincolnville.

Public comment was brief. Aurora Sinks, a St. Augustine resident, said weekend traffic during the city’s Nights of Lights events has grown worse in her neighborhood and described streets she uses as effectively clogged on busy nights: “it’s like Indy 500,” she told the committee.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to approve the November 14 meeting minutes: approved unanimously. (Motion made and seconded; recorded voice vote: all in favor.)

- Motion instructing staff to request that the city convert the $100,000 consultant loan into a gift/grant to the West City CRA: approved (6–1). Jeannie Mueller moved; second not specified in the record. Recorded roll call: BJ Clady — No; Jeannie Mueller — Yes; Diana Markovitz — Yes; Arthur Colbert (Chair) — Yes; Jeffrey Kemp — Yes; Wanda Sams — Yes; Brooke Bohall — Yes. The steering committee asked staff to pursue the city gift request to add those funds to CRA resources.

- Motion to hold one additional steering‑committee meeting to review staff comments and a revised draft: approved unanimously; the committee set March 27 as the follow‑up meeting date.

What’s next

Perkins said staff will collect department comments by Feb. 21, incorporate agreed edits and work with the consultant on the layout changes (map legends, full‑page maps and cross‑reference fixes). The steering committee will reconvene on March 27 to review the revised draft before the plan moves to the city’s Planning & Zoning Board and then to the City Commission for formal adoption. Perkins stressed that the draft plan’s timelines and funding placeholders may be amended by the CRA and through later public engagement and agency decisions.