Studer Community Institute

Probation office questions linger a year later

April 6, 2015
/ Carlton Proctor
/ government

In early March 2014 Gov. Rick Scott called North Hill Preservation Association President Melanie Nichols with news that her group’s efforts to block a state probation and parole facility near her neighborhood succeeded. Scott said the Department of Corrections would not move into the old Coca Cola building at 1625 N. Palafox St., but would remain at its current 3101 N. Davis Highway location. At the time of the controversy, the DOC had the Coca Cola building under lease, paying owner Nathan Lee Head of Panama City $23,000 a month. A little more than a year later, the building remains empty, though the state had been paying Head rent as per the agreement that kept the probation and parole reporting center out of the North Palafox location. Head said he is continuing to work with the state to find a suitable tenant. “Never work with the state,” he said, laughing. “As far as making progress with them, you never know. But it is my intention to bring in a new tenant to the building.” DOC spokesperson Reina Praxedes said the DOC does not have a current lease for the building, and is no longer paying Head rent. The DOC did not indicate when or why it terminated the lease with Head. In a written statement to Pensacola Today, Praxedes said the DOC is seeking a lease for the Pensacola West Probation and Parole office through a competitive solicitation. The DOC statement said the request for proposal is expected to be issued “in the near future. “It is unknown at this time whether the current DOC office location will change. The location will be determined based on the award of the competitive solicitation,” the DOC statement read. “Keeping an eye on it” The state probation and parole center at 3101 N. Davis Highway is in a building owned by Robert and Suzanne Payne. [caption id="attachment_6683" align="aligncenter" width="850"]

The current Department of Corrections probation and parole reporting center is at 3101 N. Davis Highway.[/caption] Suzanne Payne said she and her husband hope the DOC will continue renting their property on Davis Highway. The state signed a month-to-month lease for 18 months with the Paynes after the North Hill site controversy arose. It was set to expire this month. The rent there was $12,166.90 a month. In the meantime, Pensacola City Council has taken up the issue of revising zoning laws to make sure that similar facilities can only be in certain designated areas, and that when they are proposed, they would be what’s called a conditional use. That would require public notice of the proposed project so that neighbors would be aware of the plans, something the North Hill group said was lacking in last year’s proposal. At-large City Councilman Charles Bare pushed the changes to the land development code that restrict parole and probation offices to areas zoned M-1, light industrial, and create a conditional use for such facilities. The changes passed in February. The changes included better defining what a community correctional center is and setting those uses a conditional use, which limits how close those facilities can be to parks, schools, churches and the like. Now, Bare says, it would be very difficult to put such a facility in the city limits — which suits him fine. “That’s really was my goal, not to have one in the city,” Bare says. Bare says there is more room in the county to situate a community correctional center with running into the issues that arose among North Hill neighbors. Nichols said she does not know what will become of the still vacant Coca-Cola building on Palafox. “Right now the building doesn’t look inhabitable,” Nichols said. “We did obtain a copy of the city’s building inspections report and saw that the inspectors had a lot of concerns about the building. “He (Head) needs to do something with that building,” she said. “Whatever happens, we are definitely keeping an eye on it.”

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Probation office questions linger a year later

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