The Marineland Town Commission Thursday evening agreed to suspend all permitting of special events, including vendor markets, 5K runs and weddings anywhere on the grounds of the River to Sea preserve–a public park–until the town and Flagler County government are in full compliance with the management terms of the preserve both had violated.
The suspension, which the town attorney said could stretch past April, is not a small matter for Marineland, whose character as a town with only a handful of residents and just one private business is defined at least in part by the events that take place in town, especially in connection with its natural amenities.
Flagler County and Marineland jointly but conditionally own the 90-acre preserve, which stretches from the shore and the long boardwalk to the east to the Intracoastal to the west. The governments bought the land through a state grant by way of the Florida Communities Trust, a division of the Department of Environmental Protection. The governments must abide by the terms of the grant or lose ownership of the preserve, making that ownership conditional on compliance.
Both governments found themselves in violation of those terms last fall after they approved temporarily granting use of a portion of the preserve to a private, for-profit business–Ragga Surf Cafe–without FTC’s permission, among several other violations.
Marineland had also allowed Ragga Surf to organize what turned into very popular periodic open-air markets drawing up to 28 vendors at a time, and using the River to Sea parking lot, without FTC permission, without financial accounts, and without requiring vendors or Ragga Surf to contribute a portion of proceeds to the governments. In an unrelated violation, Flagler County had planned to build and rent cottages to tourists on the preserve grounds, and built foundations for the cottages, but never went further. The county dropped plans for cottages but didn’t remove the concrete slabs. FTC declared that to be a violation as well.
Ragga Surf was evicted at the end of December. It reopens today art a location in the heart of St. Augustine. The county and Marineland drafted a four-page letter to FTC outlining their plan to become compliant with FTC expectations. The Town Commission read the letter into the record Thursday evening and approved sending it. (An earlier draft of the letter was previously reported here. See: “After Ragga Surf Cafe Exit, Flagler County and Marineland Seek to Win Back State’s Trust in Preserve Management.”)
“It’s too bad we didn’t have it a decade ago. It would have solved a lot of these problems,” Town Manager Suzanne Dixon said.
“Our number one concern is coming into compliance with FTC. Any type of vendor or uses going forward is going to be a separate discussion once we get the most pressing matters behind us,” Marineland Town Attorney Dennis Bayer said. He said once compliance is assured and discussed at the town commission’s next Community Redevelopment Agency meeting in April, other issues can be taken on. “Nothing that we’re doing right now is addressing the issue of vendors. That’s going to be an issue for later once things get stabilized, because we have to address a number of issues along those lines too, for other uses as well.”
That will affect several events that have been taking place in marineland for several years, including a half dozen weddings, a surf contest, a biking event and several 5K events. The town typically invoices a fee to the event organizers, depending on the size of the events. But appeared from the Town Commission discussion Thursday that the accounting was haphazard: some events were invoiced, some (like the vendor event) were not. Some organizations are non-profits that don’t charge fees of their own, and some are for-profit. Regardless: if any entity generates any form of revenue while using the Preserve, that revenue must be reported. The town did not have a dedicated account for such fees, which Bayer said must now be set up. All such income must be reported to FTC.
The suspension affects only special events that take place on public land. Organizations and individuals remain free to organize any event they wish if it’s on private land.
Conveying the state’s requirements, Flagler County Land Manager Erick Revuelta told Marineland officials that whoever is coordinating events in Marineland must have an executed agreement with vendors that “requires them to remove all their items and restore the property back to its original condition within X amount of days,” he said. “So stuff can’t stay on the property longer than that.”
Curiously, Padl, the private, for-profit Key Biscayne-based company that rents paddle boards and kayaks, is still operating a stand on the grounds of the River to Sea Preserve, unhampered by Marineland or the county despite FTC’s non-compliance notices. The company rents out equipment at $25 an hour, profiting from the location but apparently without having to account for revenue or pay rent either to the town or the county. The stand was still in place Thursday evening in the parking lot of the preserve, in front of the boardwalk. Padl’s presence at the preserve was not mentioned during Thursday’s meeting even as Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan cautioned to officials in the room that “we don’t want to get back in the same situation as we did with Ragga.”
The letter is to be submitted today. The next step is to update the River to Sea Preserve’s management plan, said County Administrator Heidi Petito, who was among the county officials attending the commission meeting. The state also wants to see a joint agreement between the county and Marineland, though Petito said the letter can be a stopgap, filling in as a memorandum of understanding before the joint agreement is approved. There are joint agreements in place now, but not agreements that address FTC’s concerns.
Endless dark money says
Preserved for profits that way our corrupt politicians can dictate the winners.will eventually be a subdivision or underwater maybe both.