High Springs citizens raise concerns about planned Bridlewood development at City Commission meeting

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At their January 9 Regular Meeting, the High Springs City Commission amended the term dates for the Mayor’s Youth Council. During citizen comments, two members of the public raised concerns about the planned Bridlewood development.
Term dates for the Mayor’s Youth Council
The meeting began with the second reading of an ordinance amending the term dates for the Mayor’s Youth Council, making the dates coincide with students’ annual academic calendar. City Manager Jeremy Marshall explained, “It makes more sense to adjust it for their school year instead of the City’s year, and… it’s been requested by the Youth Council.” Commissioner Andrew Miller made a motion to approve the ordinance, and Commissioner Wayne Bloodsworth seconded the motion. It passed 3-0 during a roll call vote, with Commissioners Katherine Weitz and Chad Howell absent throughout the meeting.
Bridlewood development
During citizen requests and comments, High Springs resident Becky Burns spoke about the planned Bridlewood development, a source of recent controversy. Burns said, “I have a background in surveying, engineering, technician, graphic design, marketing, advertising, real estate broker… I believe the developer missed a crucial first step in your codes and ordinances of the City of High Springs, and that would be ‘Section 1115-05 Notice.’ I believe he is out of compliance and that they have skipped, when they did their mailings, that they have left names off of the mailing addresses pertinent to that notice, which was supposed to occur before any of this got to this point. So it needs to be remedied… I’ve gone through my neighborhood and asked my neighbors ‘Did you get a notice?’… and they have not gotten their notices.
“So this developer is coming up here from Naples, doesn’t live here. I don’t know if you vetted him to find out what his background really is, what’s going to happen to Bridlewood. He’s 85 years old. If he dies, what’s going to happen? It’s a 20-year build-out. I’m tired of the noise already, tired of the smoke, and just them kind of going in under the wire. Katherine [Weitz] was the only one that said ‘No’ on this with the last Commission. She’s a smart woman, and I’m really worried about y’all voting in this CDD (Community Development District).
“As a real estate broker, I know what a CDD is, and we did it over in St Augustine, and it’s not a good deal. But I don’t want to get into the definition. I’m sure I could gather up and round up plenty of realtors that could give you a free seminar without having the developer and his CDD business partner up here trying to pitch you a sale. The marketing on it – I believe that the real estate agent, I know her personally, I know her mother – she is out of compliance with FREC (Florida Real Estate Commission) rules. She is advertising things like she is an inspector for the infrastructure of the development. It’s on her website. So I think she’s breaking some FREC laws, and I’m not happy with it. She has mentioned that they’re putting all native plants in the subdivision. Crepe myrtle was first on her list – not native. So, you know, they’re just kind of throwing a lot of stuff at you, subjective thoughts, nothing is really objective about what they’re doing in my opinion, and the skipped step is very important…
“I talked to Alachua County this morning, and he was very happy to hear from me because the developer has not gotten ahold of them about many items that this development is going to bring to our area. It’s going to impact us negatively… I’m making it aware they’re just doing a sales pitch on you. The CDD – please don’t vote on it unless you fully understand what you’re voting on.”
Burns said the land needs to be checked for arrowheads and other artifacts, and she believes it is home to many species of wildlife, including gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, bobcats, bears, and owls. She also mentioned that the developer wants to put a school underneath a powerline. When her time ran out, Burns said she has even more information to share at the next Bridlewood meeting.
Bryan Buescher also addressed the Bridlewood CDD: “I’ve had some experience being on something that’s analogous to a CDD as a board member for 20 years… I found out [the City of High Springs is] not obligated to maintain the roads and stormwater treatment basins within that development, which means there’s really no benefit to the City to approve the CDD, because the roads would remain private [in a gated community] and would be maintained by HOA or similar entities… Given the lack of benefit to the City and additional financial burden on future homeowners, I believe approving a CDD would be detrimental. It primarily benefits the developers while increasing housing costs and reducing desirability.”
After citizen comments, Mayor Tristan Grunder said, “We will look into the ordinance stuff… I don’t know there’s much we can do against Bridlewood, but the one thing we sure can do is make sure that they follow the rules and regulations that are put before them moving forward.”
Other citizen comments
David Linch raised concerns about not preserving the decorative historic concrete streets found in High Springs. He said they predate him, and he is 82 years old.
Scott Jamison urged the Commission to reconsider their decision to turn down a $1.8 million grant to install sewer services for a small number of homes. Jamison cited the overriding importance of clean water and possible future consequences resulting from their refusal to accept such a large grant.
Growth happens. Because of constitutional property rights AND due to governments craving new tax revenues. Stop asking for “free stuff” and it’ll stop, literally.
The lady from St Augustine sounds like many of the new High Springs residents, ‘got mine and don’t feel like sharing and I’ll do what I can to stop you from getting yours.’
Not that I want an overpopulated High Springs but at least be truthful about it.
She fits right in.
All kinds of things not mentioned, are going to happen, after this development is done. Can you imagine going through High Springs on Friday nights and Saturday mornings? All kinds of accidents on 27/41 where the development dumps in. Hard to find parking spots, as it is uptown. Publix in Alachua will have to build a parking garage. The list goes on……..
I remember from the prior discussions that Sonny had the land pre platted years ago when he started Tillman Acres. The developer the land was sold to could build WAY more homes on it than what they are if they used the original platting. I don’t like it either, but there’s not a lot that can be done to stop this one. It’s been a long time coming.