“Conserve Amelia Now!” to hold community meeting May 20

Conserve Amelia Now! Inc.
Press Release
R. M. Weintraub
May 17, 2019 10:30 a.m.

The new organization Conserve Amelia Now! has incorporated as a Florida not-for-profit corporation and is holding a community meeting to discuss overdevelopment on Amelia Island in conjunction with two other local organizations with which it has partnered in a legal action against the city of Fernandina Beach over the Amelia Bluff project.

The community meeting Monday, 6 p.m., at the Story & Song Book Store Bistro on Park Ave. at 14th St. will discuss the legal action taken against the city as well as future steps to protect the island’s beauty and style of life. The Sierra Club’s Nassau County Group and the Amelia Tree Conservancy, partners in the legal action, are also sponsoring the meeting.

CAN! is an organization of concerned citizens focused on the conservation and preservation of the natural beauty and environmental integrity of Amelia Island, and the defense of the island’s fragile eco-system from extreme overdevelopment, according to Chuck Oliva, CAN! secretary/treasurer.

“CAN! will monitor the city and county for development plans and take appropriate action, when necessary, in order to preserve our open space, maintain the tree canopy, and prevent deterioration of our quality of life,” Oliva said.

The new organization, which has more than 1,000 followers on Facebook with more joining every day and has raised more than $14,000 through the Go Fund Me Web site (www.gofundme.com/preserve-amelia-now), according to Oliva.

“We are responding to the large outpouring of opposition to the city commission’s vote to allow conservation land to be developed,” Oliva pointed out. “But CAN! will have legs beyond Amelia Bluff, as we are concerned with the entire scope of the impact of overdevelopment on our daily lives. We are committed to giving a voice to the public’s concerns about conservation and overdevelopment”.

CAN! president is Julie Ferreira, leader of Nassau Sierra; vice president is Margaret Kirkland, ATC president.

CAN!, Nassau Sierra and ATC are screening “Surviving Success”, a documentary about the lessons and struggles of St. Simons Island with development on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Story & Song Bookstore Bistro.

“We have the documentary’s director, Lance Lipman and David Pope, executive director of the St. Simons Land Trust, joining us to discuss the St. Simons experience and the lessons we can learn,” Ferreira explained.

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Gerald Decker
Gerald Decker(@myfernandina)
4 years ago

Can CAN can it and leave things alone????