"We are a neighborhood of people of social worth, solid taxpayers, …. we deserve far better treatment from our city than we are getting"
“This family, which we call Port Orange, is made up of some 150 [149] distinct “neighborhoods”. They are the core of this community, making it a great place in which to live, learn, work, and play. Because of the City’s highly regarded development approach, an investment in Port Orange is a secure investment. And so today, as we celebrate over 135 years as a community, we are proud to call Port Orange “our home”.
Dianne Templeton Gardner Submitted on 2014/01/04 at 10:11 am
In reply to Fed up.
Well yes… it actually is about the trees and how this development will change the nature of this quiet residential community…..and about the city not following its own Land Development Code and not doing things in a stepped procedure according to its own laws.
Its very easy to be cavalier about someone else’s situation when your neighborhood or you personally are not being damaged. You apparently have not been wronged by this city…. yet …or perhaps you have another agenda to follow.
And no, we should not have to move because the city is acting in a lawless manner. Everyone in this city should be concerned when there is blantant favoritism given to a city insider and he is not required to follow the same codes/ordinances/laws as the rest of us. We are all diminished and threatened by government when these kinds of events occur.
Years ago my husband, Mike Gardner, and I asked the previous owner of the property for the right of first refusal should he ever sell and we would have gladly bought the property for the $75K Jack Wiles paid for it. We would have purchased it for the good of the neighborhood had we known it was being sold. And for our own good. We loved that forest. Jack got a heck of a deal. We would have kept the land for purposes of our privacy and that of the neighborhood. And make no mistake, this was a dense forest behind Powers Avenue and Ruth Street. We have pictures to document that. The forest was cleared. Now it is an open field.
I purchased this home in 1979 because this neighborhood was essentially a forest and we especially liked the forest behind our home at 618 Ruth Street and were confident it would be maintained because of its zoning which was and is Neighborhood Preservation. That would be the same zoning as Jack Wiles’ home on the river …Neighborhood Preservation. I am betting no boat sales/repair and storage is going in behind or next to his home. We have no problem with progress..we just want all laws to be followed as the city moves toward progress.
Before you comment about this issue and make some incorrect judgments, you really might want to walk around this neighborhood and talk to us. Find out who we are. We are a neighborhood of people of social worth, solid taxpayers, and law abiding homeowners and many of us are elderly or verging on that. … and we deserve far better treatment from our city than we are getting. These are our homes. We cannot get in our cars and drive somewhere else at night. We live here.
Further, there will be commercial traffic on our little residential streets of Powers and Ruth because that property will have no safe access to Dunlawton Avenue. This will affect us in terms of safety, noise and again will change our neighborhood into something quite different than what it is now.
So “Fed Up”, I suggest you get both sides of the story before you make a judgment and realize that at some point you might need help with some action the city is taking that you know is not lawful. I am certain you will not want to be told that your only answer is “move if you do not like it”. .
Dianne Templeton Gardner
618 Ruth Street
Port Orange, Flori
Kisela, Greg via port-orange.us
To all:
As you know the City has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, January 8th , to discuss the assortment of issues for the proposed Atlantic Marine project on Dunlawton/Lemon Street. Yesterday we released a chronology of events that have taken place on the project. On the 8th , Atlantic Marine representatives will present their project and answer any questions the affected residents/neighbors may have on the proposed site plan. City staff will be in attendance to answer any questions relating to the regulatory process and requirements that the project will have to address as it proceeds.
I know some of you are frustrated that the elected officials cannot answer all of your questions. Please rest assured that they take this matter seriously and have tasked me with providing you the answers.
From the various e-mails received, I believe we have several issues that relate to the reuse of the property at 619 Lemon Street that will need to be discussed. These include whether any trees were removed or permits were required when the site was acquired by the B.D.W. Land Holdings LLC in late July. In addition, City staff will be prepared to discuss the future land use designation, zoning and legal non-conforming use status of the property. Lastly we know that we have a property line dispute which affects several property owners. City staff will share with you the thought process that we are using on each of these issues.
I am hopeful through these discussions we can clear the air on these matters. At the end of the evening, the parties may not be in full agreement on how we have, or plan to address the issues, but we will provide you with a complete understanding for the basis of our determination.
Please forward this e-mail to anyone I may have missed.
Greg Kisela
City Manager
Greg,
I see that you have sent this email to only five of the seventeen locations listed on the Adjacent Property Owners Map and to none of the nonadjacent property owners and businesses within our neighborhood. To the best of my knowledge no one has received any other kind of notification besides the email. Everyone in the neighborhood should be encouraged to attend this meeting since we will all be affected by such things as traffic, drainage, etc.
When Masci Corp did the recent drainage/retention pond work in our area they left door hangers on properties affected by their construction operations advising us of their scheduling. Seemed to work well for them–maybe the City could try something like that?
Ever helpful,
Mike Gardner
618 Ruth St
Port Orange, FL 32127
Mrs. Gardner,
It is my opinion that you are completely delusional. From all that I’ve read regarding this issue and my knowledge of the blighted area, that is the corner of Lemon St. and Dunlawton, it seems as though you are making an issue of nothing. Your actual diagnoses might read; EXTREME SOUR GRAPES!
It annoys me that because the property was sold to someone other than yourself, you deem it appropriate to ignore an individuals rights to purchase and use their property. With all the energy you have to improve you’re neighborhood, you should really focus your efforts on getting your neighbor to paint that hideous Pepto Bismal Pink house, or the tree service to clean up their yard, or the auto repair shop will all the junk cars, or the seafood place with junk everywhere instead. Look around. The only ones trying to improve this neighborhood is Jack and Brad Wiles. You should be thrilled that two long time residents of this community want to invest their hard earned money here locally, in Port Orange. This is not some heartless corporate entity cutting down the rain forest as you present. These are local entrepreneurs trying to improve Port Orange for its residents. Cleaning up this area benefits everyone.
Furthermore, I’d be careful who you call a crony. Jack Wiles has done more for this community than 99.99% of its citizens. He has been a coach to the youth when his children were little and served on numerous boards in city government. Why? To make things better for everyone. To drag someones name through the dirt because they’ve exercised and participated in their local government is wrong. It seems to me from this forum that if the city was granting special privileges to anyone, it’d be you. Mr. Wiles according to the city’s timeline should have been able to put his fence up a long time ago.
My point is this, for an individuals rights to purchase and use their property to be obstructed because a few neighbors want to sling dirt and resist development is insane. To make a bunch of noise and erroneous accusations is childish at best. Dunlawton is the economic artery to this city and as such should develop with the times.
Well sir or ma’am it would have been courteous and proper to identify yourself. But you have chosen to remain anonymous. Again, I would encourage serious citizens of Port Orange fo find out who we are in this Powers Avenue and Ruth Street neighborhood, learn of our contributions to the neighborhood and area, educational backgrounds and professions.
And, please, educate yourself on the requirements of the land development code. It can be read on the city’s website. A 50 foot buffer is required by Port Orange’s LDC between commercial storage installations and residential neighborhoods. All we are asking is that the LDC be followed. Had it been followed properly and permits issued after there was an approved site plan, our forest would be intact. Had the LDC been followed, we would not be having this discussion.
We have no issue with development. Its the manner in which it has been done. We all deserve and are owed equal treatment under the law by our elected officials and their designates.
I am not singling you out and not just addressing you as an individual, but since we want to be “courteous” now, lets go over these FACTS again….. Since all of the residents were so courteous as to slander a business and person(s) name in this blog, we can now divvy out the facts before us. I addressed my concerns/interests above and yet no one has been able to rebuttal. As I looked up Port Orange’s LDC commercial storage installations and residential neighborhoods codes, I found that there to be no 50 ft buffer. Also, in regards to your concerns, the development plan that Atlantic Marine and the city have provided the residents… there will be a fence put up that exceeds code standards. So again, please tell me where do you get your informations from? The residents of this community who have come up with all these “conspiracy theories” i.e. survey disputes, land clearing, and zoning, etc……do not have their facts in order.
Sincerely,
Get the facts… to remain anonymous (cause it’s MY right)
To the anonymous writer ‘Get the facts’ you wrote; — “….. there will be a fence put up that exceeds code standards ……”
Where did you get that undisclosed inside information or are you just a shill ?
Interested two
It does not matter that the complainants in this issue are nice people. It matters that all residents and applicants for permits get equal and judicious results. In this issue I conclude that the city of Port Orange by its inept handling of this issue has injured Jack Wiles, the complainants, and all tax payers of Port Orange.
It is disconcerting to see that after all this time, after filing legally for permits, and having received complaints about the plans for that area, the city is only now, on January 8, having a meeting about the issues. Better late than never, but too bad that Atlantic Marine is only now paying real attention to the concerns of the affected residents.
I Hank have some comments for “Peed Off”
Sir or Madam, you have a right to remain anonymous but do so in this issue with a handicap. Indeed your lame arguments lead me to suspect that you are really a shill for the residents, notwithstanding that you portray yourself as an ally of Mr. Wiles.
“Extreme Sour Grapes” is a sorry attempt to be little the concerns of the neighborhood, but thanks for pointing out in your own way, that Jack Wiles deserves more consideration in these issues than do the residents. This probably is the most important discernment among all these problems.
The individual rights of Jack Wiles seem to me to have been trampled upon by the inefficiency of City Government. If this was not the case, we would not be so seriously entertaining the complaints of what you conveniently call “Sour Grapes”.
Somehow it is telling that you expect the residents and Jack Wiles to help clean up the neighborhood, and you point to inadequate conditions in the neighborhood, but you do not put the onus for these prevailing conditions on firstly the city government of Port Orange, and secondly the owners of those properties.
It has been my impression that local entrepreneurs are mainly out to make a profit in their businesses and properties and I can understand that. Local entrepreneurs are somewhat like quasi governments would you say, or do the job for Port Orange City Government, in making the neighborhood better? A weak city government which can’t get things done, need to turn to local entrepreneurs? Isn’t that lovely and convenient? But all over Florida we have seen developers approach us with that slogan and banner. I do not buy it.
Being a coach when your little kids are participating in sports is very convenient. Being on city boards when you are in local business is also convenient. Let’s stop the bull crap and talk about exactly what kind of decisions, aid and help these community do gooders did while in those capacities.
After the coach’s
kids grew up what kind of support did these wonderful people provide for the new kids coming into sports? That is what we should know about. After business people left the boards of Port Orange, did we hear from them, or were they only helping out with back room phone calls to the old boy network?
If according to the city’s guide line Mr. Wiles’ fence should have been installed a long time ago, you own sour grapes complaint should be leveled at city hall. If you are correct, then for sure this city government is inept.
It seems proper to me for all of us to take the focus spotlight off of Jack Wiles and the neighborhood complaints and ask City Hall to explain why these issues, at such a late date, have come up and are being entertained.
Ineptness seems too rampant in City Hall. Does this all come down to someone in city government did not have a tickler file in place? LOL
Is it only the city Manager who cannot do his job or are the field operatives also inept?
I have to start out by saying that most of you should be ashamed of yourself. You are slandering a business and trying to drag them through the mud all because you are bitter. The News-Journal has now ran a story that is far from the truth. Where do you get that Jack Wiles owns Atlantic Marine anyways? I have been there many times and Im pretty sure that Mr Jack Wiles is NOT the owner…Maybe you should look into that a little bit more and leave the poor guy alone.It seems to me, that a few residents are pissed off that they will no longer have the luxury of having a wooded piece of land behind their houses. Oh well! Move out to the country then. Buy a few acres and then you will not have to worry about it. I have lived in Port Orange my entire life and I remember seeing For Sale signs for quite a long time on this piece of property. Couldn’t you have bought it if this means so much to you? Its not like Atlantic Marine is trying to build a boat dealership in the middle of a subdivision. It is on Dunlawton… which is lined up and down with commercial properties. We live in Port Orange! You cant change your front door without a pemit. Do you honestly believe that the construction companies that Atlantic Marine has hired would do work without the proper permits? Highly doubt it, regardless of who’s writing the check. You should stop being so ignorant and listen to the other side of the story. Have you tried talking to Mr. Wiles face to face? Or did you just jump the gun and go straight to social media? The property was bought, fare and square. Honestly, they don’t owe you anything but if you all stop being butthead neighbors, you might get a little farther with your concerns (even though I don’t really understand what they are).