More Growth!
With St. Johns County continuing to be one of the most sought-after Florida counties to live in, we can anticipate more requests for homes and commercial development.
It’s a conundrum. St. Johns County has one of the best school systems in the state. People taking jobs in Jacksonville and relocating here from other parts of the country often choose to work in Jacksonville and live in St. Johns County.
This model has created a big traffic problem for the region as we have people commuting daily between Jacksonville and St. Johns County. Remote work has helped with that – and many of the new residents in St. Johns County are working remotely for companies that aren’t even located in Florida! But it is still an issue.
One way to address the traffic issue is to create more jobs within the county. But that means more commercial development to create the space for offices and light industrial. And many of our residents are opposed to any type of commercial development.
Indeed, a conundrum.
Some residents are opposed to any new development. Others are opposed to apartments, or multi-family developments. Depending on where you live in the county, you may have different views or concerns about the path forward.
But it’s clear the concerns won’t be going away soon.
Residents are coming together in groups to speak out against developments that they believe will be detrimental to their quality of life.
In 2022, the Greenbriar Helow project was approved by the Board of County Commissioners after a yearlong process of the property owner and potential builder meeting with community members, taking input and making changes based on the input. And importantly, there was an agreement with the county that vertical construction would not begin until construction had begun on road improvements in the area, and the property owner agreed to pay a significant portion of the fees up front to fund the road construction. Residents who had initially been opposed to the development lauded the process as a model for developers to follow in the future.
Recently, a group calling itself “Save Fruit Cove,” was successful in creating enough concern about a proposed multi-family development in Fruit Cove that the developers decided to back out, “for now.” This group was well organized, thoughtful, and professional in their approach and presentations. They achieved their goal, “for now.”
Another commercial development has been proposed at the northeast corner of Greenbriar Road and State Road 13. Learning from the “Save Fruit Cove” and Greenbriar Helow experiences, the developer hosted a community meeting in December that was attended by more than 100 people expressing their concerns. This developer has not yet filed a formal application with the county.
The community feedback was overwhelmingly in opposition to the location of the development. For now, it appears the developers will continue to move forward with their plans, and we can expect to see the formal filing in the future.
In January, for the first time in 3 months, since the untimely loss of Commissioner Paul Waldron, we will have a full 5-member Board of County Commissioners. With one new Commissioner (Krista Keating-Joseph) elected on an anti-growth platform, and a newly appointed Commissioner (Roy Alaimo) with a background on the Planning and Zoning Agency, it promises to be an interesting year ahead at the County Commissioners’ meetings.
Beth Tate 