The Ocean Highway and Port Authority of Nassau County will hold a public open house on Thursday, July 28, , from 5-7 PM at the Fernandina Beach City Hall to consider OHPA’s master plan for the Port of Fernandina.
Representatives from OHPA and its planning consultants will be on hand to hear input and answer questions from the community about the emerging plan.
There will not be a presentation.
One set of questions sure to be discussed involve OHPA ‘s interest in including aggressive expansion of port operations under the leadership of The new port operator, a partnership of Savage Services, based in Utah, and Richwood Infrastructures, based in New York.
The new partnership has pledged a new era of transparency and concern for the community. It also has made enthusiastic comments about growing the port’s capacity.
Vigorous online discussions by residents of the Historic District have lit up email and social media. Concerns are that the port will try to breach the boundaries of the Historic District, make disruptive new port entries, increase truck traffic and imperil a marsh near the port.
The online battle cry bouncing around is “Deja Vu All Over Again,” referring to the neighborhood’s sucesssful fight against port expansion when the 2015 master plan was created.
Besides Historic District protection, the other hot topic is truck traffic, which contributes to commuter backups twice a day.
Mr. Miller, once again the liberal anti-port Observer is relying on rumor, gossip,
unsubstantiated fear and opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source and without basing statements on facts and truth. It is no wonder no one trust the media any longer.
I wrote an Interlocal Agreement with city input and approval that says the port cannot expand into the historic district and we have communicated that to the new operators. We are looking at ways to relieve traffic on Dade Street and will make suggestion as to how that can be accomplished
,but it has to be approved by the state, local government and we will allow citizen input. It is only a suggested plan. Yes, we want to increase business and that may increase truck traffic and that is why we are looking at alternatives, however, use of rail will also be included.
We have a stakeholders committee that is meeting with our master plan developers. We wanted citizen input and we have citizens from the entire county working with us to include, community leaders, city and county commissioners, Economic Development Board and others. We will have a public meeting at city hall Thursday from 5 to 7 to present master plan information and I encourage anyone interested to attend.
Again, please stop pushing your anti-port agenda before first checking the facts. Myself and other port commissioners and our Executive Director are always available to give you those facts.
Danny Fullwood, Chairman
OHPA