February 21, 2018 3:48 p.m.
Editor’s Note: Today, we received three phone calls and several emails from individuals who are requesting information from the Fernandina Observer on the controversy between the Nassau County Board of Commissioners and Raydient, a real estate subsidiary of Rayonier, Inc., regarding alleged promises made to the the BOCC prior to approving a development of 24,000 acres known as the East Nassau Community Planning Area (ENCPA). The County believes Raydient is trying to renege on its promise that “growth would pay for growth inside the development.” Raydient is now lobbying the state to support a bill that would allow them to break their promise and force county taxpayers to pay for development growth with in the ENCPA.
The Fernandina Observer has not reported on this disagreement, prior to posting the information provided below by the “Nassau County Insider.” Before we cover a story, we want to know the story. There is still work to do before we can begin to separate the wheat from the chaff. We will however, report on the outcome of a Senate Committee vote scheduled for tomorrow.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
This week, all five County Commissioners and various County staff are in Tallahassee meeting with Legislators in an effort to ensure that the cost of growth does not fall on the backs of taxpayers. There is proposed legislation which if passed, could cost the County millions of dollars… dollars which developers should have to pay in order to mitigate impacts on local government and provide public facilities needed to support their developments. The County is urging all citizens to contact their senators immediately to OPPOSE SENATE BILL 324 unless amendments are made to protect Nassau County!
Below are some key points you should know:
Raydient (Rayonier) is developing a 24,000 acre master-planned development known as the East Nassau Community Planning Area (ENCPA).
The State, with support of the Board of County Commissioners, approved a Stewardship District for the ENCPA which would be the funding mechanism to build public facilities such as roads, parks, recreation, etc.
Raydient no longer wants to honor its promises to the County and has stopped communicating, including refusal to attend two (2) public Board of County Commissioner meetings held for the purpose of discussing the public private partnership and funding concerns.
Instead, Raydient has been lobbying the State to approve Senate Bill 324 and companion bill, House Bill 697. If approved, funding for tens of millions of dollars to build public facilities could fall on the County tax payers rather than the agreement that growth would pay for growth inside the development and not burden citizens ouside of the ENCPA
The County Commissioners were made aware of the bill last week and all 5 Commissioners are in Tallahassee lobbying the amendments to protect the taxpayers
Senate Bill (SB 324) is being heard tomorrow in Senate Appropriations. Oppose Senate Bill 324 unless amendments are made to protect Nassau County!
Who to Contact:
Rob Bradley, Senate Appropriation Chair, at (850) 487-5005 or via email at [email protected] AND
Dana Young, Senator and Bill Sponsor, at (850) 487-5018 or via email at [email protected]
PLEASE CONTACT THEM IMMEDIATELY AND DEMAND THAT SENATE BILL 324 NOT BE APPROVED UNLESS AMENDMENTS ARE MADE TO PROTECT NASSAU COUNTY!!
Can you help explain how a company can do this? Is a “promise” a verbal and handshake agreement versus a (paper) contractual one? I think more people would respond to the call for involvement, if they understood how this could happen. Dene Stovall
I’m looking forward to the Fernandina Observer’s analysis and review of this issue. I have been reading the recent articles and comments and I don’t really understand the entire problem. I have read SB324 and I do not yet see how it takes Raydient Places off the hook for their earlier commitments. I am admittedly not educated in deciphering legal language and political mumbo-jumbo, so I need some better insight.
I read the lengthy article in the News-Leader this morning and learned nothing other than the county is unhappy with Raydient Places. As usual it rambled and strung a bunch of quotes together, but didn’t really articulate the crux of the issue. The article in The County Insider raised an alarm, but again, no substance to the problem. Mary Maquire’s blog came the closest to an explanation, but still left me with a lot of questions.
I am hoping the excellent staff at FO will sort this out for us.
I would urge the county to immediately take action to pursue one of two options. The first would be to draft a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask for a legal opinion on whether HB 1075 is constitutional. The fact remains when Janet was the State Representative and she was asked to sponsor this same legislation, the House Committee staff raised questions about the “pledge of the state” not to ever change the charter. The fact is that it is unconstitutional to transfer or hand away the sovereignty of the legislature or the state, it is not permissible to transfer this kind of power to any local government let alone a private a company. The second option is to file in circuit court to challenge the HB 1075 and this would allow the county a chance to engage in discovery and to gather evidence to determine whether the county was deliberately misled and manipulated by a private company. While I and many others rose to speak against this legislation in Tallahassee, the BOCC members who supported it locally did so with a good faith understanding that certain statements and representations were true and accurate, they relied on these statements as good faith representations of the facts. Getting to the truth is always worth the time and effort involved and this would help restore faith and confidence in local government to learn the real truth behind the facts or the lack of facts that were given to local leaders. Kudos to the BOCC and its members for the courage to stand up and seek changes to protect Nassau County. I will stand with the Commissioners on this one. Lets get it done!
In light of the number of trees that have been felled and all the tons of dirt that have been moved out at Wildlight, how in the hell did we get to this moment? We have less than 24 hours to try to read about this and then reach out to our elected officials? Something is very very wrong here with this entire matter. Who dropped the ball?