Submitted by
Susan Hardee Steger
In a tersely worded e-mail, Tom Gambino, board member of Sandpiper condominiums, informed Marshall McCrary, director of community development for the City of Fernandina Beach that the annexation application filed by Sandpiper and Ocean Villas Condominiums is being withdrawn.
“Even though the city leaders profess that they are interested in annexing the whole island their actions do not support their pontification,” says Gambino. “Based on the less than welcoming attitude we have received from the City Commission our homeowners has lost confidence in our ability to receive an honest evaluation of our application for annexation.”
This is the second time an annexation request by the homeowners of Sandpiper and adjacent properties have withdrawn their request. In 2008, a previous attempt was withdrawn after former commissioner Eric Childers, a long time supporter of beach driving, brought forth a resolution to change language to allow beach parking from Peter’s Point to the “current” city limits in order to protect the existing beach parking/driving boundaries. That resolution passed by a 4 -1 vote at the commission level. After the vote the Sandpiper Association and other properties withdrew their request.
In previous correspondence to the city, Gambino indicated there are “three out of five votes necessary to annex into the city and eliminate the beach driving north of Peter’s Point Park.”
Estimates indicated that should the annexation request be approved an additional $150,000 to $160,000 of additional property tax revenue per year would be received by the city.
September 11, 2012 5:25 p.m.
Or maybe Mr. Gambino got called out on his previous claim that he had the votes on the Commission to make it happen. A claim hard to support given that there will be at least one new commissioner when the actual annexation vote would be taken. Personally, I’m not sure the votes were there for passage among the affected homeowners. Looking at the County Property Appraiser database, of the 51 properties in the potential annexation area, only 7 were claiming homestead exemption (and presumably registered to vote in Nassau County.) Of those 7, only 1 was a Sandpiper property owner; the others were owners of a single family property north of the Sandpiper complex up to the current City limits. Now 12 of the Sandpiper owners not claiming homestead exemption have their tax bill sent to a FL address, so if that address is their primary FL residence (and not that of their attorney or accountant) they would have an easier task of changing their homestead exemption, declaring that as their primary residence and registering to vote. Of course the primary residence declaration has IRS requirements/implications as well. The other property owners had out-of-state mailing addresses for their tax bill, mostly GA, so it would seem a bit more difficult for them to make that declaration and change.
So, if there were no changes in homestead exemption declaration and all current owners with homestead exemption registered to vote, it would be 6 property owners outside of Sandpiper and 1 inside. So 3 of the single family property owners would have to side with the Sandpiper position to win a majority of the votes. Just not sure those votes were there.