Why Orange Park Acres (OPA) Is No Longer Represented on The Coalition Group
Representatives of Orange Park Acres (OPA) served on The Coalition Group from its inception in early 2004 until June 2008. All of The Coalition Group members agreed to work together with the owner/developer of the Sully-Miller property and not go outside of the group to negotiate private deals with the owner/developer. This agreement was made to avoid dissention between neighborhoods as had occurred earlier when Fieldstone gained the support of OPA to the exclusion of other neighborhoods and organizations. The Coalition Group wished to achieve a development plan that all affected parties could live with. In mid-2008, The Coalition Group members learned that the OPA representatives of The Coalition Group had been meeting privately with JMI to secure certain favors from them; some of these favors benefited only OPA to the exclusion of other neighborhoods and interest groups represented in The Coalition Group. But most egregious was the fact that these meetings were being held without the knowledge of The Coalition Group. Due to this violation of trust, it was unanimously agreed to ask the OPA representatives to resign. This occurred in June 2008. Shortly thereafter, the City of Orange notified the Orange Park Acres Homeowners Board of Directors that they were no longer to act in their capacity as the OPA Advisory Committee to the City of Orange with respect to JMI’s Ridgeline and Rio Santiago projects. The City also advised the OPA Board that JMI was no longer required to submit their project plans or designs for OPA Board review. Up until June 2008, when the OPA representatives resigned, they had supported the Rio Santiago project and in particular, the Senior Housing Component. All members of The Coalition Group, including the OPA representatives had supported the Senior Housing Component as it was believed it could financially support the give-away of the 7.6-acre existing arena site and the Santiago Creek Greenbelt (a total of almost 50 acres). It wasn’t until after they left The Coalition Group that the OPA representatives switched their position and are now opposing the Senior Housing. |