From Donna Edwards 10/22/08

Today I received an update from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This department has oversight on all Land and Water Conservation Fund Grants. These federal grants to acquire park land or develop parks come with conditions of in perpetuity. The land in question has been confirmed to be included in the boundary that was set as Hanna Park so this means the city is required to get the permission of the Department of the Interior to do anything other than park or recreation open space with this parcel PRIOR TO ANY CHANGE. In almost 3 years of developing this project, the city has not addressed this requirement. Yesterday, the DEP sent their investigative inquiry to Mayor Peyton's office and other city officials. The City has 7 days to respond. Today, I received a copy of an email and letter from Vestcor to Ms. Wight Greger, Director of Housing and Neighborhood Dev. stating they wished to have the application for rezoning of the Hanna Park land withdrawn, siting financial market changes making the project not as viable now. Ms. Greger has three other bids on this project so it is hard to say if they will take a fall back position on bidder #2 which is Finlay Developers or if in light of the recent DEP inquiry will let it die some natural death.
These recent developments in no way mean we can consider the issue over. We need to go to the meeting tomorrow night with as much enthusiasm and confidence as we can to let CM Holt know that we wish to see the parkland TRANSFERRED BACK to Parks and Recreation, and a commitment from him to partner with Hanna, our community and others to develop this land into an active park for our neighborhood. I have a promise from DEP that as they complete the investigation and instruct the City on their responsibility to the Department of the Interior they will keep me informed and will send us documentation of this vitally important covenant on the 9 acres. I have asked for written confirmation so that each of our associations will have a record for their files. I want to thank those of you who have worked so hard to get these details together. It has been a lot of work in a short period of time. We have every reason to be very proud of such tremendous efforts. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night.