Neptune Beach mayor, councilor questions funds

A plan to spend nearly $500,000 on professional services for comprehensive plan and land development code revisions over the next two years was approved by a 3-2 vote of the Neptune Beach City Council Nov. 4. The dissenters questioned the cost and how the city plans to pay for the work.
Dover, Kohl & Partners of Coral Gables is being contracted to provide a vision document, an updated comp plan and rewrite the entire land code. Councilor Fred Jones, a supporter of the agreement for services, said “this is the cost of doing business,” noting the city has not done anything like this project previously.
Councilor Josh Messenger, also a proponent of the plan, said the cost is a concern, but said having a plan in place will allow the city to partner on road projects with state transportation officials in the future.
“This is a plan that will make the city more business-friendly and will allow the residents to say this is what our town wants to look like,” Messenger said in defending the plan.
Councilor Kerry Chin, the third proponent of having the work done, agreed there is “sticker shock” with the cost, but described it as an investment in the city’s future.
A couple of residents objected to the expenditure, with one noting to the council that spending a half million dollars on planning for a two-square-mile city is “ridiculous.”
Another resident, Mary Frosio, said she trusts Jones, an urban planner, when he says the work needs to be done, adding the city has “kicked the can down the road” in the past when dealing with planning matters.
Mayor Elaine Brown joined Councilor Scott Wiley in proposing that a decision on the agreement be put off until January when the new city manager starts and the city’s new community development director, who started work has some experience to contribute. Their efforts to delay approval of the agreement were rejected by a 3-2 vote.
Brown said there is no emergency for the planning work to be done and said she questions the expenditure itself and the proposed source of the funds.
A variety of funds will be tapped to pay for the visioning/planning project. City estimates call for spending $60,000 from the city’s stormwater utility fund over the next two years on the planning project. Another $100,000 will come from the city’s water and sewer fund.
Wiley said those are enterprise funds with specific limits on expenditures and challenged the legality of the city using the individual fund monies on the planning project.
Brown said the city has numerous needs, such as street paving and water treatment plant updates, and taking money away from this projects will ultimately leave the city short of needed funds.