PANAMA CITY — St. Andrews is doing well.
The Panama City neighborhood is the only Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to register an increase in property values for the 2013-14 fiscal year, helping Panama City post a 1.3 percent value increase.
Panama City Commissioner Mike Nichols attributes this, at least in part, to the work of the St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership. Since the early 1990s, the partnership has set guidelines for developments in the area.
“With development and growth, I have to say they’ve done a good job,” Nichols said
A place where that influence is obvious is the largest building in the area. Waterfront Partnership chairwoman Christine Godwin said the original plan for Harbour Village, at 3001 W 10th St., back in 2003 was a concrete block, similar to properties in Panama City Beach, and that the partnership negotiated with developers Le Triomphe and Bob Robbins to maintain a more historic feel.
Blue Coral real estate broker Shirley Pittman disputes that slightly, saying there was a plan to convert rooms of the former Ramada Inn into condos. Regardless, Harbour Village keeps with the neighborhood’s aesthetic; the multi-story condominium complex extends with triangular roofs and mustard-yellow vinyl siding adorning white fence balconies.
The structure purposefully resembles an enormous colonial house, which is one of the residential styles approved in the neighborhood guidelines. The complex includes a formal garden that seems to slope directly into Oaks by the Bay Park. The property also fits with the neighboring marina, the heart of the former fishing village.
Ellen Mapelsden, owner of St. Andrews Coffee House, just a block east, remarked that Harbour Village supplied natural dunes facing the water.
“It’s worked out great,” former Waterfront Partnership member Al Kidd said. “It’s sitting there full of people paying their taxes. The proof is in the pudding.”
When St. Andrews business owners analyzed the neighborhood’s appeal, they mentioned the walkability. Mapelsden urged potential developers to put in more residences above businesses.
Mapelsden and neighboring Two Sisters Custom Shop owner Angela Baggett both live in St. Andrews, which has a tendency of breeding familiarity between residents and merchants.
“That’s the difference with downtown,” said Phil Mercer, owner of Chez Amavida, located near Harbour Village. “I know all the cats in this neighborhood.”
St. Andrews’ other draw is the historic atmosphere, something about which the Waterfront Partnership is somewhat obsessive. Kidd and Godwin brought up signs for businesses and the prohibition of the classic, back-lit sign. The partnership did allow an exception for Patriot Tax Group because the tax service had bought a sign before filing a development order.
“If people work with us, we try to find a compromise,” Godwin said.
According to Panama City’s land development regulations, the partnership does not have to compromise. Although the Waterfront Partnership is a volunteer organization, not elected or appointed by the City Commission, the partnership has the first say on development orders in the CRA area.
“They have the ability to stop development orders before the city staff gets to review it,” City Manager Jeff Brown said.
Brown said one example where the partnership flexed its muscle was on a storage facility the city proposed in 2011. The commission discussed eliminating the veto power for the partnership and in the process keeping the same standard for all of the CRAs.
There may not be much of a fight from the waterfront partnership; Kidd, Godwin and museum staff member John Carbullido had no idea the group had this ability.
“We make recommendations, advice on how we would like the commission to go,” Godwin said.