The February 2 St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency (PZA) was largely unremarkable.
During initial public comments, only one resident shared comments to essentially remind the PZA members that the Board of County Commissioners had voted down industrial development in an area zoned residential at their most recent meeting. This was interesting as there was no such request on the PZA agenda for the February 2 meeting.
Discussion on the Smith Borrow Pit was minimal, considering the previous presentation of this item in November. One comment of note was that while there would be noise and disruption for a period of time while the borrow pit was in use, the longer term implications of the borrow pit are a pond and no further infill development of residential or industrial. Perhaps something to consider when future requests for a borrow pit come forward.
The modifications to the River Town DRI and PUD turned out to not be as concerning as some residents had thought. The Abandoned Eagle’s nest referenced in the application turned out to be a nest that had been in a tree that had burned during a wildfire, so the protected designation was no longer needed. There was positive impact on schools as 770 residents to be built will be Deed Restricted for active adults thus lessening the impact on the local school crowding situation. There was little debate on approving this item.
The last two items of the day covered the request from the Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) to modify the County’s Workforce Housing Ordinance. This was originally presented to the Board of County Commissioners on October 18. The original request was to modify density requirements and to adjust the maximum initial sales price of Workforce Housing up to $270,000 while also reducing the % of Workforce Housing units to be constructed down to 20%. Commissioner Dean proposed a compromise at that meeting to raise the maximum initial sales price to $260,000 and lower the % of units to be constructed to 30%.
NEFBA presented their request for the ordinance change and two comments in favor of the change were presented. As the Chair of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Committee, I presented a statement on behalf of the Chamber supporting the changes in density and expressing concern with decreasing the percentage of homes dedicated to Essential Worker Housing in St. Johns County.
The Ordinance change was approved to go forward to the Board of County Commissioners.
Video of the meeting can be found at this link: Feb 2 PZA Meeting
Beth Tate 