SEBASTIAN — It’s back to the drawing board for the city and its consultants to redesign the proposed improvements to the Riverview Park parking lot known as the CavCorp property.
Vice Mayor Don Wright said during last week’s Sebastian City Council meeting that he would be reticent to spend tax dollars on any plan that did not meet the city’s goals for the CavCorp property.
The plan that was on the table, presented by Frank Hickson of Infrastructure Engineers, was not acceptable to organizers of the four major festivals that bring tens of thousands of people into Sebastian to eat in restaurants, shop in stores and sleep in hotels.
City Manager Al Minner and engineer Hickson met with these stakeholders on recently and came away with some workable solutions to what could have been a standoff.
Sebastian River Fine Art and Music Festival founder Lisanne Monier Robinson, a former city council member and local gallery owner, helped devise some alternatives to save the 50 car parking spaces the city was set to lose with the proposed design.
Pelican island Wildlife Festival organizer Kristen Beck was in on the meeting, as was long-time Sebastian Lions Club member Jerry Kennerk who organizes the Fourth of July Freedom Festival and parade. Sebastian Clambake director Anjani Cirillo rounded out the group.
Cirillo said the city needs to not only provide for the huge crowds it attracts now to the major events, but that it also needs to have a vision for an influx of visitors and new residents once the economy rebounds.
“To me, I feel that Sebastian is growing. I feel it is no longer a little fishing village,” she said. “Heritage is important to preserve, but we must prepare for growth.”
She said people come to Sebastian “to enjoy what we have,” but that she doesn’t want tourists – especially a first time visitor who has a large family or a senior with physical limitations – to be turned off on the city because they had to walk several blocks to get to a festival. “Sebastian is an absolutely fabulous place and we want people to come here,” she said. “But if we don’t have places for them to park and we don’t have enough disabled parking, they’re not going to come back.”
Cirillo and others in the community have said that the city needs to look into some vacant land that is for sale along US 1 not far from the park, while real estate is a bargain, and invest in land to expand parking for large events at the park. In the meantime, making the most out of the property behind the Hess station is the priority. After the meeting, Hickson commented that, “It was extremely well participated and interactive. I will be looking at a completely new concept which was brought up to determine feasibility, functionality, and comparative benefits/cost. I hope to complete that in a couple of weeks.”
Minner concurred that the meeting was productive .
“I think the meeting went well. It seems the group wants the City to consider a few other items; those items being more green space, drive isles only and moving the clock tower to create more area for parking, (stormwater) retention and green space,” Minner said. Minner, who has tried to strike a balance between the needs of boaters who use the parking lot every day and events who take it over just a handful of days a year, said Hickson has been tasked with incorporating the suggestions and ideas from the meeting into the design.
“He is going to put together some additional concepts based on what we discussed. I think that will take a few weeks,” Minner said. “Once those ideas are drawn up, I will go back to Council for their input.”