ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Approved; that’s the latest update to the HGTV dream home saga in St. Augustine.
Tuesday afternoon, the City of St. Augustine approved – after the fact – a bulkhead for the high-end house on Anastasia Island built for Home & Garden Television.
Essentially, the contractor skipped a step in the city's approval process and it has taken two months for the City of St. Augustine to come to an agreement with the contractor.
Built right on a creek in the Pelican Reef neighborhood, the 2024 HGTV Dream Home on Anastasia Island was not so dreamy for the City of St. Augustine when it learned the contractor – Coastal Getaway Homes -- never got the city’s OK for the bulkhead around the house.
City staff reports questioned the size of the bulkhead, the house and the bulkhead's proximity to the marsh and the house's width.
Meeting after meeting since February, the city told the contractor to come back with more information.
Tuesday, the contractor – and its recently hired team of local experts -- went back to the city’s Planning and Zoning Board.
Many of the board members were concerned about how this home and project could set a precedent.
Planning and Zoning Board Member Carl Blow said to his colleagues, "Does anyone have a problem if the rest of the lots look like this house with the retaining wall and riprap?"
The contractor’s environmental consultant, Ryan Carter, told the board that the bulkhead is so big because the house had to be built higher to meet elevation guidelines.
"The wall that you look at is actually a veneer. It's a keystone wall. Behind that is actually the retaining wall. And in order to get the property up in elevation, you had to do that," said Carter.
During the meeting, it was determined that other houses in the neighborhood are actually wider than this one.
Also, the city determined the house is as close to the water as it is because of the significant amount of trees in the front of the property.
Board member Mike Davis said, "They moved this house in order to save cedar trees."
When it comes to water runoff, the contractor’s local experts have devised a runoff storage system that treats the water as it percolates out of the collecting units.
In the end, this city board OKed the construction of the bulkhead after the fact.
Board member Charles Pappas said, "They (the applicant) didn’t just ask for forgiveness. They came with solutions."
This is not the end of the governmental approval process for the contractor of the HGTV Dream Home. The contractor still has to go before the St. Johns River Water Management District to get its OK for some of these proposed solutions.