Apply to the county for funds to protect our riverfront

Editor's note: Bryn Byron is a long-time city resident who addressed the city commission Tuesday regarding "bed tax" revenues.

Good evening City Commissioners, 

I am requesting you prior to taking a vote on paid parking to direct staff to submit a formal Tourist Development Tax funding application for the downtown riverfront shoreline protection project under F.S.§125.0104(5)(a)5 and request a written eligibility determination from the Nassau County Attorney to allocate TDC funds as allowed under the newly amended statute for shoreline protection.

The TDC is NOT the final legal authority on statutory interpretation. The County Attorney is.  This statute specifically allows use of TDC funds for this purpose.  

It states:

1) Authorized use for shoreline protection + inland rivers with public access.

“To finance beach park facilities, or beach, channel, estuary, or lagoon improvement, maintenance, renourishment, restoration, and erosion control, including construction of beach groins and shoreline protection, enhancement, cleanup, or restoration of inland lakes and RIVERS to which there is public access …”  The Florida Senate

This is a shoreline protection and erosion control project for a publicly accessible riverfront (such as our Amelia River) that supports tourism events and visitor use, such as Fernandina Beach’s:

• Shrimp Festival
• 4th of July fireworks
• Dickens on Centre
• Sounds on Centre

The real question is how to fund it responsibly, not whether it’s justified. We are NOT building a wall for aesthetics.

We are protecting a publicly accessible, tourism-dependent shoreline asset, as Florida law allows — and doing so before failure forces taxpayers to pay more.

Without outside funding such as TDC funds:

Paid parking becomes permanent

Property taxes rise

A bond referendum adds decades of interest

A $20M project financed poorly can become $30–35M over time with interest.

Using lawful bed tax + grants reduces the burden on locals and aligns cost with visitor use.

Here’s the bottom line:

$20 million reflects modern engineering reality, NOT extravagance

Our riverfront IS a core economic and public asset

The cost of failure exceeds the cost of protection

Florida law anticipates shoreline protection as a legitimate public investment Let’s do this the smart way, not the fastest or easiest way! Haste makes waste!

Bryn Byron

Fernandina Beach