Summary of the April 6 St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency Meeting

Two impactful items on the agenda

The April 6 Planning and Zoning Agency (PZA) meeting had 2 items of great impact to St. Johns County and a handful of smaller items.

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Agenda Item 1 was The Landings at St. Johns, an Active Adult community.

This item is of great interest to those in the Northwest Sector, District 1.

The applicant for this project is Pulte. At the beginning of the presentation, Chair Matovina wanted to emphasize this is a Comprehensive Plan Amendment and NOT a PUD hearing. He stated that the PUD will be heard at a later date.

The presentation was from Ellen Avery-Smith, representing the applicant. While the application on Thursday was only for one community, Ms. Avery-Smith provided an overview of the entire project for this area.

There are four applications proposed:

The Landings at Greenbriar

• Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment
  • Planned Unit Development

The Landings at St. Johns

• Large Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment
  • Planned Unit Development – Active Adult

Because the Landings at Greenbriar is a Small Scale Plan Amendment, it only requires 2 hearings, not the 4 required for a Large Scale Amendment. Thursday’s presentation was ONLY for the Large Scale Plan Amendment for The Landings at St. Johns.

This property is surrounded by land that is zoned Residential B and Rural/Silviculture. Ms. Avery-Smith walked through the rationale for why legally, this project would not be considered Urban Sprawl so the development boundaries can be extended. This is important for the legal aspects of approval of this project.

The project includes:

• The Landings at St. Johns – 761 Active Adult Homes
• The Landings at Greenbriar – 588 Single Family Homes
• Open Space Preservation – 49% Open Space and Recreation, 302.8 Acres of Wetland Preservation, 146 Acres of Upland Preservation and 28.6 Acres of parks

What was under review for Thursday was the Active Adult Community only. This is housing for 55-years of age and older. There can be no one under the age of 19 years old occupying the home. This importantly provides for no impact on the school system while still providing ad valorem school tax revenue.

Additional benefits noted are reduced roadway traffic and amenity programming on-site that reduces need for external trips. Also noted was no impact on the local recreation programs such as sports teams.

It was pointed out in the presentation that this property was previously the Switzerland Air Field, used by the US Navy. The site plan was developed using the pathways utilized by the airplanes thus creating a compact and orderly plan.

There have been 2 community meetings conducted for this project. As is a common theme, resident concerns are around transportation and schools.

The Active/Funded transportation projects noted that impact this development are:

• CR 210 four lane from Cimarrone to 210 West – Under construction
• Longleaf Pine Parkway four lane – plans are complete. Greenbriar Helow has contributed up front money and construction should be completed in 2 years
• Veterans Parkway connection to CR 210 – Should be completed end of 2023 or first quarter of 2024
• Greenbriar Road widening to Greenbriar Estates – Greenbriar Helow project will pay for this widening
• Shearwater Parkway to 16A – still to be built
• First Coast Expressway – Under construction – completed by 2030; will have an entrance ramp at Longleaf Pine Pkwy

Proposed Improvements to be paid for by this project:

• Greenbriar Road and Longleaf Pine Parkway Intersection
• Switzerland Point Middle and Hickory Creek Elementary Turn Lanes
• Bartram Trail High School Lanes

The lanes at the schools are intended to improve traffic flow. The School Board will need to approve these proposals.

The age-restricted development, while not generating additional load to the schools will generate $10.4 Million in proportionate share payments with .9M going to School Access improvements and $1M in Annual local Ad Valorem Tax.

During Public Comment, Christine Mullis spoke representing the Greenbriar Road Preservation Group. She referenced materials that had been submitted to the PZA about why this should not be approved. Items mentioned included lack of adequate infrastructure, the Greenbriar Road traffic analysis, and the Lot Sizes that would be inconsistent with surrounding developments. Also included were concerns about protection of wetlands.

Al Abbatiello spoke of concerns about the impact on the Bartram Trail Scenic Highway. He emphasized that the Commission continually approves these amendments and the county still does not have a Strategic Plan in place. He shared concerns about the added traffic and that projected plans are not going to solve the current issues in District 1. He would like to see the PZA reject the transmittal of the proposal.

Concerns were raised by some residents about the impact on schools. The applicant during rebuttal commented that this application is for the Active Adult community that has no impact on school populations.

After much more discussion with the applicant and the Agency, the motion passed 4:1.

This will now go to the County Commissioners for approval.

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There were several smaller applications that did not generate as much discussion before the final item on the Agenda, the Adoption of a Workforce Housing Ordinance update that has been proposed by the Northeast Florida Builder’s Association.

Workforce Housing Ordinance

The two most impactful elements of the ordinance are to raise the initial sales price of Workforce Housing from $240,000 to $260,000 and reduce the % of required Workforce Housing from 40% to 30%.

This ordinance is another Amendment to the Comprehensive Plan for the County. The Adoption Hearing with the Commissioners is scheduled for May 2.

A representative from NEFBA shared a short presentation with the rationale for the changes. He compared the proposal to Sarasota and Martin counties, that are comparable to St. Johns in size and wealth. He also confirmed that if the builder pays qualified closing costs on behalf of buyers, it would add to the initial sales prices of the house.

Also shared was a chart showing a comparison to other counties and their Workforce Housing pricing. Putnam County was the lowest at $243,000 and Collier and Sarasota counties were the highest at $420,000.

The Ordinance was approved for adoption by the PZA 5:0.

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