By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Williston’s Cornelius Williams Park has gotten more attention lately than it has for a long time, but the park became a point of contention at the city council’s Nov. 16 meeting when the Planning and Zoning Commission chairman said he felt the City Council had overstepped its authority at a previous meeting.

            Albert Fuller, retired Levy County Extension Director and now chairman of the city’s planning and zoning commission, speaking for himself as the chair and not for the full board, said it appeared to him council members began changing the master plan for the park that his board spent considerable time writing.

            He wondered if the planning and zoning board had wasted time developing the master plan for the park. The city park lies outside the city limits. Cornelius Williams Park borders the community known as East Williston.

            “At some point tell us what our job really is on planning and zoning,” Fuller said. “As long as it can be written out and shown in some way how we differ from what the council does it would help me as chair of planning and zoning to make sure we are moving in the right direction. It concerned me that at the last meeting, it appeared the entire council’s business was taken up planning for Cornelius Williams Park as opposed to looking at our recommendation and acting on our recommendation.”

            Council President Debra Jones said the planning and zoning commission’s work wasn’t wasted.

            “You did exactly what you were supposed to do and you brought it to the council and they did review it and comment on it, which is what we did. It’s not thrown in the garbage. I don’t know about the rest of the people sitting here but it’s not wasted or thrown in the trash,” Jones said. “We sent staff back. It was not to scale. We asked that they at least put Phase 1 on the map in scale. It may take a survey to do that and that’s what we instructed them to do. We did not throw it in the garbage in any way, shape, or form. We appreciate all the work that was done on it.”

            Fuller responded that if the council insists on getting involved in the planning process, it would make more sense to do it in a workshop involving the council and the planning and zoning commission. He said both boards could sit down and look at the park together and make suggestions on how the park should be designed. He said a workshop, in his view, “would be a wonderful thing.”

            Jones clarified the council’s role.

            “Just remember it was our opportunity to ask questions. We hadn’t had an opportunity. We hadn’t actually seen it before then. It is our job to do that,” Jones said. “It is the city council’s job to look over everything and handle the fiduciary responsibility for the city on that. We have to do the best for our city and do the best with what we have. We have to make a plan but we have not thrown it in the garbage.”

            City Manager Jackie Gorman congratulated the planning and zoning commission for developing a good master plan for the park, but she said city staff’s next job is to bring the future facilities improvements to scale.

            “We have to survey it, make sure it meets city code, make sure how many parking spaces are out there. We have all the details. It’s not over. The hard part is done. Everything you said you want is out there. Now we’re going to start writing grants to make sure it happens, so please don’t think all you did was for nothing,” Gorman said.

            Fuller said he serves two roles with regard to the park. He is the planning and zoning commission chairman and he is a member of Friends of Cornelius Park, a private group raising funds for the park and working to make improvements. From his perspective, he said he sees the council’s role concerning the master plan saying “this looks adequate, this looks good.”

            He said the master plan is a road map that can be adjusted from time and time and he said the planning and zoning commission thought they had done a good job. Fuller said he realizes the council didn’t throw out the plan, “but you said go back and make the adjustments, but some of those adjustments were elements that were going to be put in the park or taken out of the park.” He said that’s what he perceived.

            Jones said she didn’t see anything in the plan regarding the size of the pavilion at the park.

            “That’s why we had a discussion on sizes because there was none,” she said.

            Jones said she suggested two pavilions at the park, both 20 feet by 20 feet, instead of just one.

            “We don’t have to accept everything given to us and you can’t get upset when we don’t. We don’t always accept recommendations that are given to us,” she said.

            Gorman said the city’s new fiscal year has already begun. The city will have to take a look at its finances and what’s being donated to the park to determine how much of the first phase can be done this fiscal year. She said the master plan was presented to the city council after the new fiscal year began.

            “We’re going to have to work it as we go to see what’s available to make it happen. We’re excited to get going because the people who donated are wondering why the city’s not going yet,” she said. “We have the master plan done. Now we have a survey done,” Gorman said. She added that the city needs a designer to get involved with making the plan work.

            “And that’s what we expect next,” Jones added. “We expect the map to come back with the elements in Phase 1 located and then we can overlay Phase II and that’s where they decide where to put things – the staff does not. We take their recommendations as well as planning and zoning. Don’t think it’s not happening.”

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City of Williston Regular Meeting November 16, 2021; Posted November 22, 2022