PENSACOLA, Fla. — Heavy machinery was on the old Emerald Coast Utilities Authority property in Downtown Pensacola near Bruce Beach Friday.
Mayor D.C. Reeves says roughly 600 residential units are expected to be built there.
Some residents have worries about the construction, saying traffic, parking and flooding in the area could be major issues.
“If both of these come to fruition, you’re talking about injecting 600 units of residential in our community,” Reeves said.
Reeves says the city is excited about the increase of rental units on the old ECUA property near Bruce Beach. The lot has been vacant for years. But now progress is being made.
“You’re gonna start to see site activity on the western half of the ECUA property,” Reeves said. “We’re calling it 390 Clubbs Street, the western side closer to Joe Patti’s. There is 282 units going in on the western eight acres there.”
Reeves says the civil and site permit were issued in December and the sale closed last week.
“To be clear, there is no city involvement in this, other than, obviously, handling permits — like we do with any kind of private transaction,” said Reeves.
An additional 320 units is proposed for the eastern side of the property near Main Street and South De Villiers, according to Reeves.
“It’s a little further behind,” said Reeves. “You won’t see much activity.”
At a recent city council meeting, community members expressed their concerns. James Gulley is concerned about traffic near Joe Patti’s.
“The impact of the traffic there is going to be tremendous,” Gulley said at the council meeting.
“There’s a problem there,” he said, “The right-of-way is not big enough to put in a left turn lane.”
Jessica Wade lives off of Clubbs Street, directly across from where the 282 units will be.
“This entrance is right in front of our home,” Wade said. “And when people are pulling out, the car is parked on the street. It’s so narrow. It looks like it’s gonna hit the car every time.”
“It is daunting to have that many people but not enough parking,” she said. “I am a little concerned about flooding and the drainage. How that’s gonna happen because sometimes we already have water issues?”
Dr. Gloria Horning is an environmental scientist who has discussed flooding issues in the area with WEAR News in the past. She lives on South De Villiers Street.
“We’re creating creating a mega disaster waiting to happen,” Horning said.
Horning also has some worries saying the area floods often.
“High tide — which is coming this way — and then it comes up from North Hill and goes down Spring and Bruce, comes through here and just washes us out,” said Horning. ” In June 2023, we had 7.2 inches of rain. We were the only block that flooded.”
Everyone WEAR News spoke with says they’d like to discuss the plans with the city.
“I think we would actually really like to meet with the mayor and ask some questions what the plan is going to be,” Wade said. “I’m not afraid of progress but it has to be a definite planned progress.”
The city told WEAR News Friday afternoon that Reeves is willing to speak with anyone in Pensacola to hear their concerns.
