Bristol backs off plans for Parkway Project

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
October 5, 2021

 

From July 22-26, 2021, Amelia Island residents had the opportunity to attend a series of design charettes held at the Courtyard/Springhill Suites in Fernandina Beach conducted by the Bristol Development Group from Franklin, Tennessee. The purpose of the charrettes was to take input and share ideas for developing a large tract of undeveloped land along the Amelia Island Parkway north of the airport.

The land proposed for development is currently zoned commercial, but Bristol hoped to get community buy-in to change the zoning to residential.  According to its website: “Bristol builds value for its residents, investors and partners by providing high-quality, amenity-rich urban and suburban living in growing Sunbelt cities.” Examples of their past projects may be seen on their website.

Citizen reaction was not what Bristol had hoped for, with some Fernandina Beach City Commissioners stating categorically that they would not vote to change the current zoning.

On October 4, City Planning Director Kelley received the following email:

We are officially abandoning our efforts to develop the Amelia Holdings parcels on Amelia Island Parkway. It seems clear we are unlikely to achieve sufficient support to obtain the approvals needed to change the land-use and zoning to enable our proposed development. Though we are very disappointed, it has been a pleasure to work with you through this process. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent on Amelia Island and plan to come back as a visitor. You live in a beautiful and authentic place, and I applaud your efforts to keep it that way.

Thank you for all your help.
Charles

Charles Carlisle
Bristol Development Group
381 Mallory Station Rd, Suite 204
Franklin TN 37064

 

3 Comments
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Mark Tomes
Trusted Member
Mark Tomes(@mtomes)
2 years ago

Hallelujah! Power to the people. Planning documents are made for a reason; we should stick with them unless there’s overwhelming reasons to change them. This project did not have that.

Perry Anthony
Perry Anthony (@guest_62701)
2 years ago

This would have been another Amelia Bluff all over again. I just rode my bicycle (not an EV) thru that development and they are still not done with development yet. I’m also quite sure the builder got hit with additional building costs with building material from the pandemic and took a big hit on his assumed profit margin. This is a GREAT EXAMPLE for any other builders or developers that want to try to get away with, what they tried to do here. I am also very pleased that the developer that wanted to build homes on Amelia Parkway just threw in the towel after a design seminar that didn’t go well with local residents or FBCC last July at the Courtyard Marriot on Sadler Road.

John Goshco
John Goshco (@guest_62714)
2 years ago

The land remains zoned commercial.

Stay alert.

It’s still not too late to build an ugly, traffic-generating facility.