Fernandina Beach CRA board gives unanimous consensus to waterfront plan supplement

The Fernandina Beach Community Redevelopment Agency on May 19 reviewed a supplement to the Waterfront Community Redevelopment Area plan and gave unanimous consensus to accept the document, forwarding it to the City Commission for a formal vote at a future meeting. Commissioner (name read at roll call) moved to accept the supplement and Deputy City Manager Glenn Acromo seconded; the board recorded a 5-0 consensus.

Katie Newton, downtown district coordinator, told the board the supplement is narrowly targeted to fix legal and descriptive gaps in the plan adopted in 2004 and amended in 2005, including replacing the outdated 2005 project cost opinions with 2026 estimates and tying each project to the city’s comprehensive plan. "This supplement was approved by the waterfront advisory board at its March meeting and the planning advisory board at its April meeting," Newton said, summarizing prior advisory reviews.

Why it matters: staff said state legislative changes and a review by the city attorney and finance identified potential deficiencies in how candidate projects were described — deficiencies that could affect spending authority under current law. The supplement replaces the old project matrix with an updated matrix that adds narrative project descriptions, 2026 cost estimates and a broader list of potential funding sources to provide implementation flexibility.

Key changes and clarifications noted by staff include: explicitly listing Anne Brett's Waterway Cafe as part of the Marina redevelopment project because it sits on marina property; replacing language that supported riprap bulkheads on private lands with broader language to "support resiliency improvements along publicly and privately owned Amelia Riverfront properties" to allow a wider set of resiliency options; and permitting CRA funds to be directed toward improvements on city-owned waterfront property, including the seawall at 101 North Front Street (which the city purchased in 2018).

Deputy City Manager Glenn Acromo said a vendor for the harbor master plan has already been selected and has begun staff meetings and property-owner outreach; he said staff expects "about 10 to 12 weeks" before the initial harbor master plan is finished and that projects identified there would be vetted by the waterfront advisory board and then considered for the city's capital improvement program.

Staff and the city attorney recommended that the waterfront advisory board periodically revisit the replacement matrix — staff suggested roughly every five years — and noted that more significant changes in the future would be handled as an amendment rather than a supplement. The panel also confirmed the CRA plan's base year was reset in 2013 and that the plan is currently set to sunset in 2053.

At the meeting a commissioner provided a public-oriented clarification of how the CRA’s tax-increment financing (TIF) fund operates: as assessed values rise within the CRA boundary, the incremental increase in city and county tax revenues is captured into the TIF fund and must be spent in the CRA area. That special-revenue fund structure was offered to give the public context on how CRA projects are funded.

Next steps: staff will bring the formal plan supplement to the next City Commission meeting for a vote. The CRA advisory boards’ recommendations and the harbor master plan's subsequent project list are expected to inform potential CIP entries and future amendments.