A liquor store that’s set to open on Golfair Boulevard across from the KIPP VOICE Academy K-7 school has nearby residents up in arms.

Gurpeet Singh, who lives in St. Johns County, plans to open the store soon in the Northside Jacksonville neighborhood. Meanwhile members of the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association are opposed to the idea that the liquor store is the best way to revitalize a neighborhood that has been beset by blight. 

Neighborhood association President Lydia Bell says residents were not properly notified about the store in time to try to stop it. They plan to boycott the business. 

“No one from 32206 was there. How ironic is that?” Bell said this week about the July 2020 Jacksonville Planning Commission meeting, conducted over video chat in early pandemic days, when the commission approved Singh’s zoning exemption request to allow him to sell liquor. 

The property, a former gas station that had fallen into disrepair, is zoned as “Commercial Community/General-1,” which allows beer and wine sales but not hard liquor without approval from the commission. 

In early 2020, KIPP Jacksonville was in discussion with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to lease a parcel it owns across the street at 813 Golfair Blvd. for a new charter school. The paperwork was not finalized until after the Planning Commission approved the liquor store’s exemption.

KIPP VOICE Academy opened in time for the 2021-22 academic year. It educates nearly 800 elementary- and middle-schoolers, largely from Northwest Jacksonville and the Westside, as Singh’s company has been working to turn the vacant and disrepaired former gas station into the liquor store.

“I’m a family man who has two kids. I do understand their perspective,” Singh, the store owner, tells Jacksonville Today. “Our construction and our planning started before the school was in the picture.” 

He says the permitting and construction process took a couple of years “because we are a small business.”

Singh says he and partners purchased the property as an investment in 2019 because of its proximity to Interstate 95. Its adjacent parcels were also commercially zoned, and the property across the street, owned by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, was vacant. It would become KIPP VOICE Academy.

In Duval County, liquor stores within 350 feet of a school generally require a waiver from the commission, with some exceptions. Singh didn’t have to seek the waiver because the school didn’t yet exist.

By the time KIPP Jacksonville leased the eight-acre parcel from JTA when the transportation authority had deemed the land surplus to its needs, Singh says he had no idea KIPP had been working with JTA on plans for its school across from his own vacant building. KIPP Jacksonville leadership declined to comment for this story.  

“I have been in this community for over 10 years,” Singh says. “We started our first business on Golfair Boulevard in 2012. We have run our business as a community-based business. …I’m not a multimillionaire or a billionaire, where I see a property and I buy it. That property, we saved and worked hard for and bought it.”

Singh operates or owns a handful of gas stations in Jacksonville, Palatka and Daytona Beach through LLCs, according to state business records. The unfinished Brentwood location is his first liquor store.

An exemption catches the community off guard

In a 35-page analysis in July 2020, city staff recommended the Planning Commission deny Singh’s company’s request for a zoning exemption to sell liquor. 

“The proposed liquor store is an intense use that is not needed in the Brentwood neighborhood along Edgewood Avenue,” the analysis stated, apparently mistaking Golfair Boulevard for Edgewood Avenue.

The staff analysis said the store was not consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan and that the Brentwood area needed redevelopment that is “family or neighborhood friendly,” along with the fact another liquor store was less than a quarter mile away. It also mentioned the plans for the KIPP school.

Today, the proposed store is close enough to the school that children on the playground can see the entrance clearly. Singh says he is willing to build a fence to further separate the store from the school.

The Jacksonville Planning Commission granted the exemption on July 23, 2020. A 21-day appeal period came and went.

In the meeting, Jacksonville chief of current planning, Folks Huxford, told the commission his department did not recommend the exemption, in part, because of the plans to build the school.

“We’re not sure that the two of them would be compatible across the street from one another,” Huxford said, according to a transcript of the meeting. “But mostly, it’s based on our concern about the hindrance of redevelopment of the area. It is a very old corridor.”

Land use attorney Paul Harden, representing the store owners, told the commission it should consider the location as a quadrant of the interstate exit, not as part of a neighborhood.

The interstate exchange had an average annual daily traffic count of 120,500 vehicles in 2022, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. Meanwhile, Golfair Boulevard, where the proposed store and school are located, had average traffic of 15,800 vehicles.

Harden made a count-your-blessings argument that the zoning at the time would have allowed for a used car dealership or strip club on the property. He also noted the JTA-owned property would need to be rezoned — which it subsequently was — in order to accommodate the KIPP VOICE Academy.

Harden was one of five members of the public who spoke at the seven-hour meeting back in 2020. Current City Council member Tyrona Clark-Murray — who was a private citizen at the time — was among the four people who decried the development over Zoom or emailed their opposition to the commission. 

Planning Commission members indicated a liquor store may not be the ideal usage, but they still found the exemption acceptable.

“As nice as a cultural arts center or something like that (is), we’re at the mercy of whatever, you know, private enterprise is going to put there,” Planning Commission member David Hacker said at the time. “So, if it’s between this vacant building and nothing, I tend to side with the applicant and the improvements that come with this building.”

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the exemption.

The meeting took place while social distancing was encouraged, local hospitals were perilously close to capacity and nearly a dozen Jaxsons a day were dying from COVID-19.

Bell says she did not receive notice about the July 23, 2020, meeting and has enlisted lawyer Jack Webb, a former City Council member, to represent the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association in its fight against the store. It’s not clear what legal avenue the association has yet to explore. (Editor’s note: Webb has been a contributing columnist for Jacksonville Today but he was not involved in the reporting of this story.)

In an Office of General Counsel memo shared with Jacksonville Today, the city says it sent notice of the Planning Commission’s 2020 meeting to 19 property owners as well as nonprofits and neighborhood associations. Two of the people who spoke out against the development in the Planning Commission meeting, including Clark-Murray, were on that list. A public notice about the proposed rezoning was published in the Jacksonville Daily Record on July 8, 2020. That notice included the wrong address — it said “7865 Golfair” instead of 865 Golfair Blvd. — but the correct parcel number, #031960 – 0000.

Nevertheless, at a Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting this week, Brentwood resident Ameena Shareef asserted the neighborhood was not involved in the exemption discussion.

“Their research did not have anything to do with what effect that liquor store would have on the community,” Shareef says. “The fact that you would even consider putting it (so close to) an elementary school, or a school period, that’s crazy. …These are not his children. These are not children of his community. It’s not across the street from his children’s school.”

Singh says he’s heard the criticism on local television news and wants residents to know he is not “a monster” who sells alcohol to children but a small business owner who seized an investment opportunity.

“If I had known what I know today,” Singh says, “I wouldn’t have built a liquor store.”

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Stroll through some of Jacksonville’s most eclectic arrays of flora as the Riverside Avondale Preservation presents its third annual Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The pre-Mother’s Day tour includes multiple gardens as well as live music and planting workshops.

Each garden on the tour focuses on a different interaction with the environment, from a putting green with a river view to a xeriscape front yard a block away, the preservation group said.

“What started as a COVID-19 pandemic stopgap has become an event with its own mission, purpose, and message,” Executive Director Shannon Blankinship said. “The Garden Tour focuses on our neighborhood’s biological ecosystem rather than its architecture. Each yard on the Garden Tour has a different story and approach, and we’ve curated each property to elevate art, nature, music and wildlife in different ways.”

Workshops include “Caring for Indoor Plants” at Aura Plant Studios at 975 McDuff Ave S.; “Vermiculture Gardening” at the Riverside Avondale Community Garden at 1513 Azalea Terrace; and “Budding Gardeners: DIY Bird Feeders” at The Garden Club of Jacksonville at 1005 Riverside Ave.

Musical performances include the Ronan School of Music at 3022 Riverside Ave. from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m and cellist Marco Melendez from 10 a.m. to noon at 2301 Oak St.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the event online through 904Tix.com. Information on the 11 garden tour locations is here.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will continue to raise its voice against grave and systematic human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), ARY News reported quoting MoFA.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said, “We will also continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters for the just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions.”

The oppression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continues unabated,”. “Since our last press briefing, the occupation forces killed at least six Kashmiri youth in Rajouri, Kupwara and Baramulla districts, the spokesperson added.

In response to a question, the Spokesperson said, “We believe that Pakistan made the right decision to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting. It shows our commitment to SCO. You may have seen the statement that Foreign Minister made.

He highlighted Pakistan’s viewpoint on all aspects of our concern about security, about economic development and about connectivity in this region. He also underlined, that terrorism should not be weaponized as a tool of foreign policy. You may have also seen the interactions that Foreign Minister had with the Indian media and the Pakistani media.”

Our position was consistent with our long-standing position on the various issues including on weaponization of terrorism and on the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Any statements that have been made in that respect criticizing our Foreign Minister’s statements are just unfortunate and baseless,” she remarked.

Furthermore, the spokesperson said that “Pakistan unequivocally condemns all terrorist acts, including acts against foreign nationals in Pakistan. The Chinese nationals are our guests. Chinese companies in Pakistan are contributing to Pakistan’s development. The Government of Pakistan will continue to provide them with all the best possible facilitation and best possible security so that they are able to function in Pakistan without any fear or hindrance.”

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An unrepentant Donald Trump held firm to past grievances at the first televised town hall of the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, stressing from the moment he took the stage that he has little intention of mounting a more disciplined campaign for his third White House bid.

In a contentious 70-minute broadcast, Trump drew laughter from a New Hampshire audience when he mocked writer E. Jean Carroll’s account of his having sexually abused her, repeated falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said he would pardon many of his supporters convicted of taking part in a Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and called the CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.”

Responding to questions from Collins and members of the audience at Saint Anselm College, Trump made no effort to offer more moderate positions on issues, which political analysts say is key to broadening his appeal to a wider swath of Republicans.

Asked by Collins whether he would acknowledge that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, the Republican Trump reasserted unfounded claims that the election was rigged against him, brushing aside her attempts to correct the record.

“That was a rigged election,” Trump said, adding that anyone who thought otherwise was “stupid.”

Trump, the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, declined to express regret for the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol when his supporters sought to prevent Congress from ratifying the election result, and he repeated his plan to pardon individuals involved if voters return him to the White House in 2024. Trump and Collins frequently spoke over each other with Collins challenging a number of the former president’s false claims.

Stu Rothenberg, a non-partisan political analyst, said Trump’s performance was a likely prelude to his 2024 campaign.

“It was classic Trump – it was Donald Trump from 2015 right up until now: the Big Lie, the outrageous style, demeaning individuals, mocking them,” said Rothenberg, senior editor at the Inside Elections newsletter. “He hasn’t changed, nor will he. It was a glimpse into the next year and a half.”

The audience of Republicans and independent voters who plan to vote in the Republican primary were generally very supportive of Trump, giving him a standing ovation when he took the stage. New Hampshire is an early nominating state that could prove critical in Trump’s bid to win the November 2024 election.

Some applauded when he described his Jan. 6 speech and the events that led up to the Capitol riot in positive terms.

“I’ve never spoken to a crowd as large as that, and that was because they thought the election was rigged. They were there with love in their heart. That was unbelievable, and it was a beautiful day,” he said.

Responding to Trump’s remarks, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison issued a statement calling Trump a “dangerous, extreme candidate who seeks to undermine democracy.” Biden sought to fundraise off the event.

“Do you want four more years of that? If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign,” Biden wrote on Twitter.

Collins tried to fact-check Trump’s assertions in real time, sometimes leading to the two talking over each other as Trump, who usually sticks to conservative media outlets, refused to back down. It was Trump’s first appearance on CNN since 2016.

On Tuesday, a federal jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll in a department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s, then harmed her reputation by describing her claims as “a hoax” and “a lie.” It said he must pay her $5 million in damages. Trump’s lawyer said they would appeal.

“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes, you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room?” Trump said, one of many disparaging comments about Carroll that elicited applause and laughter. He called her a “wack job.”

After Tuesday’s verdict, Carroll issued a statement saying: “Today, the world finally knows the truth … This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”

Trump stood by his remarks in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about grabbing women by the genitals, suggesting stars could have their way with them. The comments were used against Trump at trial.

“And you would like me to take that back. I can’t take it back because it happens to be true. I said, it’s been true for 1 million years, approximately a million years, perhaps a little bit longer than that,” Trump said. “I’m not referring to myself, I’m saying people that are famous, people that are stars.”

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It might be the offseason for professional football, but the Jacksonville Jaguars were dominating headlines on Thursday.

Two developments were generating buzz.

Going to London: The Jaguars announced they will become the first team to ever play two international games in the same season. Jacksonville will play host to the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 1 in Wembley Stadium and then remain in London for a matchup against the Buffalo Bills the following week at Hotspur Stadium.

And going to … where? Jacksonville Lenny Curry said the Jaguars could play two seasons away from TIAA Bank Field while the stadium is renovated, possibly in 2025 and 2026. In an interview on 1010XL, he said “discussions are happening” to play elsewhere in Jacksonville. He didn’t say where.

The post Jaguars may leave TIAA Bank Field for two years appeared first on Jacksonville Today.

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The St. Augustine City Commission has appointed a new city manager to replace the current one when he retires in just over three weeks

Assistant City Manager David Birchim was unanimously appointed Monday to replace John Regan when Regan retires June 2.

Birchim was selected from three candidates to take the helm of the city’s municipal government, overseeing day-to-day operations and its almost 400 employees. He said he is honored to have been appointed.

“In this role, I will continue to serve the community and ensure that the city of St. Augustine thrives and grows in a sustainable and equitable way, all while preserving history,” Birchim said. “I look forward to building on the city’s past successes and working collaboratively with the community to address the challenges ahead.”

Regan said it has been an “honor and a privilege” to serve the city for 24-plus years, 13 of them as city manager.

“I am confident that I leave the city in good hands with David at the helm,” Regan said. “It has been a pleasure to work with David for so many years, and I look forward to seeing St. Augustine flourish under his leadership.”

Birchim has 25 years of experience with St. Augustine in professional urban planning and public administration, 20 of those in a supervisory position.

He holds a master’s degree in planning from the University of Tennessee. He is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Planners and Florida Public Pension Trustee Association. He was promoted to assistant city manager to oversee special projects such as land development, affordable housing, legislative funding initiatives and the resilient shoreline initiative.

Regan joined the city in 1998 as utilities director, coming from Gainesville. He was promoted to chief operations officer in 2003 and then city manager in 2010. Several major projects were completed during Regan’s tenure, including the Downtown Historic Parking Garage and Avenida Menendez Seawall.

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Foreign countries including the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Canada have issued new travel advisories for their citizens citing political unrest after the arrest of former premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

It is pertinent to mention here that Imran Khan was arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. Protests sparked across the country after Imran Khan’s arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case.

Following the massive protests in different parts of the country, foreign countries issued travel advisories for their citizens and diplomatic staff.

US travel advisory

The US Embassy issued travel alert for its citizens for Pakistan. The latest advisory read, “The U.S. Embassy is monitoring earlier reports of clashes between demonstrators and police in Islamabad and also sporadic demonstrations underway or being planned elsewhere throughout Pakistan.

“Because of potential traffic disruptions and restrictions, U.S. Embassy Islamabad has canceled all consular appointments for tomorrow, May 10, 2023,” it added.

The US citizens have been advised to exercise heightened vigilance and avoid locations with large crowds, review personal security plans, carry identification and follow requests from law enforcement, be aware of surroundings and monitor local media for updates.

UK advisory

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advised British citizens to avoid all political demonstrations, large crowds of people and public events and be prepared to change your plans as necessary.

The Office stated, “Public demonstrations are common in Pakistan. You should keep track of the local news. Protests can occur with little warning and while most remain peaceful, they can turn violent and escalate quickly.”

Canada advisory

The Canadian government asked the citizens and diplomatic staff in its latest advisory to exercise a high degree of caution in Pakistan due to the unpredictable security situation citing a threat of terrorism, civil unrest, sectarian violence and kidnapping.

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