Port Plans Light Up The Internet as Open House Approaches

The Ocean Highway and Port Authority of Nassau County will hold a public open house on Thursday, July 28, , from 5-7 PM at the Fernandina Beach City Hall to consider OHPA’s master plan for the Port of Fernandina.

Representatives from OHPA and its planning consultants will be on hand to hear input and answer questions from the community about the emerging plan.

There will not be a presentation.

Port of Fernandina

One set of questions sure to be discussed involve OHPA ‘s interest in including aggressive expansion of port operations under the leadership of The new port operator, a partnership of Savage Services, based in Utah, and Richwood Infrastructures, based in New York.

The new partnership has pledged a new era of transparency and concern for the community. It also has made enthusiastic comments about growing the port’s capacity.

Vigorous online discussions by residents of the Historic District have lit up email and social media. Concerns are that the port will try to breach the boundaries of the Historic District, make disruptive new port entries, increase truck traffic and imperil a marsh near the port.

The online battle cry bouncing around is “Deja Vu All Over Again,” referring to the neighborhood’s sucesssful fight against port expansion when the 2015 master plan was created.

Besides Historic District protection, the other hot topic is truck traffic, which contributes to commuter backups twice a day.