Highlights from the March 7 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners Meeting

The March 7 Board of County Commissioners meeting was a long one!

After volunteering at The Players all week, I’m a bit late in getting caught up viewing the 6 hour meeting. Here are the highlights.

During the Public Safety Update, SJSO Director Skip Cole spoke about the very important work SJSO is doing with the Northeast Intercept Task Force to combat human trafficking in Northeast Florida.

You can learn more about the Intercept project here: Intercept

The County Court Clerk shared an important update about Operation Green Light, being conducted March 20 – 24. This annual event allows drivers who have had their license revoked to pay their overdue fines, with no collection fees, and have their Driver’s License reinstated.

Learn more about Operation Green Light here: Operation Green Light

Regular Agenda Items

Moving into the Regular Agenda, the first item presented was for the Bella Terra PUD

Located in District 3, the Bella Terra PUD Request is to rezone 26 acres of land from Open Rural to Commercial Intensive for a multifamily residential development with a maximum of 174 units. Even though revisions were made to the original request, this development was denied unanimously. A motion to allow a waiver to the one-year limitation before reapplying died, with no second forthcoming.

County Administrator Contract Renewal

There was lively discussion on the renewal of the County Administrator’s Contract. Several residents spoke out strongly against the contract renewal. Some residents in opposition insisted that the original hiring of the Administrator had been illegal. In particular, there were statements that the hiring was a violation of Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Commissioners inquired of the County Attorney if there was anything illegal in the original hiring. The attorney opined that the arguments from residents about Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were not valid. As there were no other applicants for the position, there could be no “Aggrieved parties” therefore the hire was not illegal.

Commissioners spoke of their current assessment of the Administrator, and all were in full support of the job the Administrator has been performing and the motion to renew the contract was approved unanimously.

Details of the Contract can be found here: County Administrator’s Contract

Rivertown PUD and DRI modifications

This request in the RiverTown development is to revise school mitigation requirements, address the abandonment of the Eagle nest, add a date certain for a library site and fire station site, clarify the residential development rights, include age restricted units, and reduce the proposed roundabout locations on SR 13. The PUD modifications were approved with the DRI request being delayed to the next Commissioner’s Meeting to allow time to address questions raised about traffic.

Land Acquisition and Management Program (LAMP)

Location of the Top 5 properties are:

1. County Road 13 N. Picolata Area – 457.5 acres with a potential use of passive recreation and conservation, wetland mitigation credits, and historic interpretation.
2. County Road 13 McCollough Creek – 17.6 acres adjacent to the SJC McCullough Creek Conservation Area (MCCA) with a potential use to connect to the MCCA and add a small boat launch.
3. Anastasia Lakes (Mid-Island) – 49.34 acres of salt marsh with a potential use of preservation for salt marsh credits.
4. County Road 13 S. Riverdale Area – 30 acres with access on Atlantic Road and a potential use as preservation for wetland mitigation or park uses.
5. 600 State Road 13 N (Fruit Cove) – 7.7 acres of a former landscape nursery with existing trees and a small pond. Potential use is a passive park. This had been previously recommended in 2022.

The Commissioners approved the list of properties and authorized staff to negotiate the best possible purchase agreements. The Board will have final approval over the purchases.

More information about the proposed properties can be found here: LAMP Proposal

Countywide Strategic Plan

Another lively discussion ensued about the development of a Strategic Plan. Some Commissioners felt that a Strategic Plan was not necessary as the focus needed to be on the update of the Comprehensive Plan. After much discussion, the Board approved the proposal to initiate work on a Strategic Plan. There is already money in the budget to fund hiring a consultant to work on development of the plan.