Finding a home for probation offices
- October 22, 2014
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / community-dashboard
Pensacola City Council will set the date on Thursday for public hearings about zoning changes that would restrict where probation and parole offices can be located in the city.
The issue stirred a furor among neighbors in North Hill earlier this year when the owner of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant at 1625 N. Palafox St., leased the space to the Florida Department of Corrections for use as a probation office.
Melanie Nichols, president of the North Hill Neighborhood Association, said the Council of Neighborhood Associations will send a letter of endorsement for the changes to council as well.
“We are glad to see them open up these codes and see where we need to clarify things,” Nichols said. “The definitions of things change over time and land development codes should reflect that.”
Nichols was among the neighbors leading the charge against the probation office. Residents, in their opposition, cited concerns about public safety, adverse effects on property values, as well as the building’s proximity to parks, recreation centers and homes.
[sidebar]
Want to go?
WHAT: The Pensacola City Council agenda conference meeting.
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
WHERE: Council chambers, first floor of City Hall, 222 W. Main St.
DETAILS: Agenda is available here.
[/sidebar]
Gov. Rick Scott made the final decision and told the Department of Corrections to find another location for the probation office.
Even though probation and parole centers will still be allowed in areas zoned M-1, they will be a conditional use, which means City Council will set public hearings and the city would notify adjacent property owners of any future proposed center.
“And even talking to Nathan Lee Head, (owner of the property) at the time, he said he’s done these all over the state, and this was the first time the state didn’t do (a public hearing),” Nichols says.
The state is paying rent to Head on the Palafox property even though the state isn’t occupying the building.
Current office near Magee Field
The Palafox office would have replaced the current probation office at 3101 N. Davis Highway. While that office is in an area zoned M-1, it abuts a residential area zoned R-1AAA, the same designation that stirred concerns in North Hill.
The probation office on North Davis Highway is 0.4 of a mile north of Magee Field, a city park and recreational area where hundreds of neighborhood children play youth football.
City Councilman Charles Bare pursued the changes to the land development code that restrict parole and probation offices to areas zoned M-1, light industrial, and create a conditional use for such facilities.
“My goal is not to have any correctional facilities — residential or non-residential — within the City of Pensacola at all," he told Pensacola Today last week.
Under the new language, the office at the current location is grandfathered in as long as they maintain the lease.
"If it’s vacant for a year, they couldn’t come back,” Bare said.
[sidebar]
Councilman Charles Bare has pursued changes to the land development code that restrict parole and probation offices to areas zoned M-1, light industrial, and create a conditional use for such facilities.
The clarifying language in the code for M-1 zoning now reads:
“Residential and non-residential community correction centers, probation offices and parole offices provided that no such site shall be located any closer than one-quarter mile, 1,320 feet, from a school for children in grade 12 or lower, licensed day care facility, park, playground, nursing home, convalescent center, hospital, association for disabled population or youth, or other place where children or a population especially vulnerable to crime due to age or physical or mental disability regularly congregates.”
[/sidebar]
The Department of Corrections is leasing the building on a month-to-month basis.
Nichols says that if the state’s plan is still to combine existing probation offices into one regional facility, she hopes the location on Davis Highway still won’t be big enough.
“I’m hoping for that neighborhood that they’ll be on the way out and they can find a bigger tract of land in the county,” she says. “When they are making these big regional centers, they are no longer small offices. It needs to be in a place where it can have some room around it.”
Nichols says the owner of the parcel just north of the Davis Highway location contacted her when the issue first caused a stir and told her that he offered to sell his property to the state, but they declined.
In the meantime, 1625 N. Palafox remains empty.
“When you look in those windows, it doesn’t look like there’s $1.5 million in that building,” she says. “It just doesn’t seem how it possibly could have opened on April 1.”
The probation office on North Davis Highway is 0.4 of a mile north of Magee Field, a city park and recreational area where hundreds of neighborhood children play youth football.
City Councilman Charles Bare pursued the changes to the land development code that restrict parole and probation offices to areas zoned M-1, light industrial, and create a conditional use for such facilities.
“My goal is not to have any correctional facilities — residential or non-residential — within the City of Pensacola at all," he told Pensacola Today last week.
Under the new language, the office at the current location is grandfathered in as long as they maintain the lease.
"If it’s vacant for a year, they couldn’t come back,” Bare said.
[sidebar]
Councilman Charles Bare has pursued changes to the land development code that restrict parole and probation offices to areas zoned M-1, light industrial, and create a conditional use for such facilities.
The clarifying language in the code for M-1 zoning now reads:
“Residential and non-residential community correction centers, probation offices and parole offices provided that no such site shall be located any closer than one-quarter mile, 1,320 feet, from a school for children in grade 12 or lower, licensed day care facility, park, playground, nursing home, convalescent center, hospital, association for disabled population or youth, or other place where children or a population especially vulnerable to crime due to age or physical or mental disability regularly congregates.”
[/sidebar]
The Department of Corrections is leasing the building on a month-to-month basis.
Nichols says that if the state’s plan is still to combine existing probation offices into one regional facility, she hopes the location on Davis Highway still won’t be big enough.
“I’m hoping for that neighborhood that they’ll be on the way out and they can find a bigger tract of land in the county,” she says. “When they are making these big regional centers, they are no longer small offices. It needs to be in a place where it can have some room around it.”
Nichols says the owner of the parcel just north of the Davis Highway location contacted her when the issue first caused a stir and told her that he offered to sell his property to the state, but they declined.
In the meantime, 1625 N. Palafox remains empty.
“When you look in those windows, it doesn’t look like there’s $1.5 million in that building,” she says. “It just doesn’t seem how it possibly could have opened on April 1.”
Recent Posts
-
CivicCon launches with a look at good growth in cities
-
Building stronger brains one baby, one parent at a time
-
SCI debuts commercial on Early Learning City
-
Entrecon: World class speakers and an opportunity to sharpen skills
-
PYP Quality of Life survey 2017
-
EntreCon Pensacola 2016: A look back
-
Leadership tip: getting better employee takeaways
-
Leadership tip: be interested instead of interesting
-
Leadership tip: delivering difficult messages
-
Brain Bags boost Arc, Early Childhood Court programs