High Springs Bridlewood At Standstill, Special Election Set For March 26

HIGH SPRINGS – The High Springs Briarwood development may be stalled as it appears that High Springs Mayor Katherine Weitz may have thrown a monkey wrench into the project even though the Commission voted 3-1 to approve the Phase 1 Final Plat at its Jan. 25 City Commission meeting.

At the Jan. 25 meeting, City Manager Ashley Stathatos said the Final Plat application had been subject to review by City staff, engineers and planners and that the City recommended approval of the application as it met all of the requirements set forth in the Developer Agreement previously approved by the City.

JBPro engineer Chris Potts, who is representing the developer, reviewed the permits required by agencies such as the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC).

At the meeting, Mayor Weitz pulled out a full set of drawings submitted by the applicant and asked questions about gopher tortoises in the vicinity of the property. Assured by Potts that work was not being conducted anywhere near the gopher tortoises, Weitz rolled up the oversized drawings, and said, “So the gopher tortoises are o.k. That’s important.”

Vice-Mayor Tristan Grunder moved to approve the final plat, with a sunset date of three years to loop water lines into Phase 2. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Byran Williams. Mayor Weitz attempted to add a caveat that the developer ceases all construction on the property until he obtained and complied with the Fish and Wildlife Commissions (FWC) application to remove the 22 tortoises that had just been found on the property the previous business day.

Potts had previously said that work was not taking place near the gopher tortoise sites and would not be until such time as the gopher tortoises had been relocated. He also said that a permit was being prepared for the FWC, and could not be submitted until there was actual approval of Phase I. Plans were in place to move forward with relocation per state guidelines.

Both Grunder and Williams said that Weitz’ caveat simply “muddied the waters.” The city attorney advised Weitz that she needed a second to her caveat, which she did not receive. Ultimately, Williams called the question three times before the motion on the floor to approve was voted on. Grunder’s motion to approve with the sunset date included was approved in a 3 – 1 vote with Weitz casting the dissenting vote.

The following morning, on Jan. 26, it was reported to the City that FWC received a complaint from the Mayor of High Springs alleging that the gopher tortoises were not being protected. FWC subsequently contacted the project’s environmental consultant about the matter who advised engineering firm JBPro to cease work until further research and communications with the FWC occurred. Alachua County Today reached out to both FWC and JBPro but received no response.

Special Election

In other business, the City Commission has set the special election date and the qualifying period to fill High Springs City Commission Seat #2. The seat was recently vacated by Steve Tapanes who declined to fill out a financial disclosure Form 6 required by the state. The individual elected will fill out the remainder of Tapanes’ three-year term. The election date is set for Tuesday, March 26.

Candidates may qualify to run for election by filing with the Office of the City Clerk in High Springs during regular hours from 7:30 a.m., Monday, Feb. 5 – 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 8.

The qualifying fee is $111.24 and candidates will be required to fill out Form 6 to qualify. For further information on the election, interested parties may call the City Clerk’s office at 386-454-1416, Ext. 6 during normal business hours.

City Manager Candidates

Commissioners turned their attention to filling the city manager position by selecting their top five candidates. From the original list of 16, the commission selected Timothy Day, who lists city manager/interim city manager experience in Bowling Green and Greenville, Florida; Fred Ventresco of Pinetops, North Carolina, with experience as a town administrator, Jeremy Marshall, who listed city administration/manager experience; Jeff Shoobridge of New Port Richey, Florida, who listed experience as a council member and as a town administrator; and David Wisener who lists economic development experience for the City of Alachua.

Commissioners will hold private meetings with each candidate before further narrowing the pool to two or three finalists. At that time, the commission plans to hold an open interview with those finalists.

The next scheduled High Springs City Commission meeting is Feb. 8.

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