Stomping On Our Ground
By Cameron Gurgainus
By: Cameron Gurgainus
The hot topic around town currently is the Veritas Classical School looking to relocate from its current location of 253 State Rd. 16 to 169 M L King Ave. which was formerly The Buckingham Smith Assisted Living Facility.
This location sits in the heart of the neighborhood of Lincolnville, and until Sept. 1, 2020, had been zoned residential. It was then rezoned for institutional purposes by the City of St. Augustine’s Planning and Zoning Board.
Acting Chairperson Jon DePreter was present during this PZB meeting; he and Sarah Ryan opposed the motion, making the vote 3-2. Others that were there were: David Birchim (Director of the Planning & Building Department), Amy Skinner (Deputy Director of Planning and Building) and Patrick Doty (Senior Development Review Planner).
St. Augustine native, musician and Lincolnville Neighborhood Association member Amy Hendrickson lives in the neighborhood with her husband and 19-month-old baby boy. Life as they know it is going to be shifted based on this voting decision.
“They gave out 63 letters of notice to residents like a week before, and none of us even knew that this was going on,” Hendrickson said. “We all just kind of feel bamboozled. It feels like a done deal before they even went to the board.”
A major reason Lincolnville neighborhood members are upset about this new addition is due to the fact that there will be no bus service offered to students of the Veritas Classical School.
“Imagine 200 cars twice a day,” she said, “and they want to use our local park as their P.E. and playground.”
Hendrickson explained that for kindergartners, the tuition is $7,500 plus a deposit. It keeps going up from there for the older students. This incites the question: why can’t the school afford a bus and to build their own park?
It is predicted by 2025, the school will be K-12 instead of K-8. That will mean an increase of students and an increase in traffic in and out of the residential areas.
“There’s an Assisted Living Facility in the back of Lincolnville. There are ambulances that go once or twice a week because it is an elderly home and they need to get there fast. What’s gonna happen when there’s an emergency or if a resident has an emergency?”
The Lincolnville Neighborhood Association has taken matters into their own hands with a petition signed by over 200 concerned citizens to try to get the board to appeal their zoning decision.
“Our only legal recourse is to get the PZB to appeal their decision and rescind it because it’s more complicated than just the school; they changed that zoning,” said Hendrickson.
Hendrickson discussed in more detail why this is so important to the Lincolnville community.
“Say the school is there for a year or two and they just grow exponentially, and they move onto another property,” she said. “Well now it’s zoned differently; it could be a strip mall.”
This could have much larger repercussions on the community.
“What’s scary about this is that my house is zoned residential; if I had enough [support] behind me and the neighbors didn’t know, what’s stopping me then from getting my house rezoned residential to commercial?” she said.
Community members who signed the petition are hoping that the conversation surrounding this issue can continue before a final resolution is made.
The petition has been sent in and the association now awaits the decision of appeal.
A representative from Veritas has been contacted and we are still awaiting a reply.