Author: Beth Tate

St. Johns County Resident and Entrepreneur - I am focused on supporting our county as we continue our rapid growth. "Connecting People; Solving Problems"
Posted in Affordable Housing, BOCC, Essential Worker Housing, St. Johns County

St. Johns County April 18 Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

What’s on the Agenda for the April 18 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting?

A key theme for Tuesday’s meeting is addressing Affordable Housing in St. Johns County. That term can have a negative connotation to some of our residents. Considering the median price of a home in St. Johns County last month was $555,000, and the median income in St. Johns County is $110,000; it really means providing housing for people who can’t afford the median priced home but provide many of our daily services that contribute to our quality of life in St. Johns County.

After the usual opening activities, the Commissioners will approve the Consent Agenda.

The Consent Agenda for Tuesday includes an important item for Affordable Housing in St. Johns County. One of the impediments for building affordable housing in the County is the high Impact Fees charged to builders. A request had been made to utilize State Housing Initiative (SHIP) grant funds to assist in lowering the cost of the Impact fees non-profit developers who are building homes for the low and very-low income population. This would affect ONLY homes under $260,000.

Read more about the proposed amendment here: Consent Agenda Item 20

Moving on to the Regular Agenda, Public Comment will be heard at Time Certain of 11:30.

Regular Agenda:

Puerta Del Sol

On the Regular Agenda Tuesday is a Public Hearing for Puerta Del Sol in District 3 on State Road 206 near US 1. This could be a lengthy presentation and discussion based on the presentation at the Planning and Zoning Agency March 2. The PZA decision was a “technical denial” as it was tied, 3-3.

Anticipate this topic will take up the morning session, up to Public Comment and a lunch recess.

There are two requests for Puerta Del Sol. The first is for a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the Land Use change from Residential B to Residential C and the second is the creation of a Planned Unit Development (PUD). The PUD would include a single-family home, 137 townhome units, and 25,000 square feet of commercial use.

At the PZA presentation, there was much public comment from nearby residents who do not want more development in their area. Some were ok with more development if it wasn’t townhomes because they don’t want lower income homes nearby. Other residents were in favor because of the need for diverse housing options such as townhomes. Another recommendation in favor was the concern if housing does not get built in this space, commercial will one day fill the space and housing is preferable to adding commercial to 206.

Read more about the PUD here: Puerta Del Sol PUD

Live Local Act

Continuing the theme of Affordable Housing, Item 5 on the Agenda is a workshop discussion to be led by one of the County Attorneys, Christine Valliere and Assistant Administrator Joy Andrews.

Senate Bill 102, The Live Local Act, was recently passed by the Florida Legislature and quickly signed into law by Governor DeSantis. This legislation is intended to incentivize developers and builders to provide more affordable housing across the State of Florida and in many instances preempts local jurisdictions local ordinances.

Some important elements include:

  • Preempts local authorization of multi-family and mixed-use residential rental developments in any area zoned commercial, industrial, or mixed use with an affordable housing component.
  • 40% of the units must be affordable for at least 30 years; 65% of the total square footage must be residential in mixed-use projects.
  • Density and height restrictions are based on maximum limits of jurisdiction and nearby developments.
  • Local government cannot require a development authorized under this preemption to obtain a land use/zoning change, special use approval or variance for use, density, or height. No public hearing process allowed.

Read more about Tuesday’s presentation here: Live Local Act – Workshop

The full agenda for Tuesday can be found here: BOCC Agenda

I’ll provide a summary of the meeting later in the week.

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Posted in BOCC, Essential Worker Housing, PZA, St. Johns County

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

Posted on by Beth Tate

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.

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.

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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Posted in BOCC, Growth & Development, St. Johns County

Highlights from the April 4 Board of County Commissioners Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

Great discussion and good information shared!

Opening Session:

The morning started with a moving tribute to John Patton, a resident of Orangedale, celebrating his 100th birthday! Mr. Patton served his country during World War II, earning 6 bronze stars.

Public Safety Update

During the Public Safety Update, Sheriff Hardwick shared that the increase in commercial businesses in the county has been accompanied by a 71% increase in thefts, largely in these commercial businesses. Sadly, the county has seen a 21% increase in overdoses with 156 non fatal and 30 fatal events events in the past year. The Sheriff urges people to take advantage of programs to help kick addiction. The SJSO publishes resources for people to find the help they need.

Interim Fire Rescue Chief Bullard shared information about how they are better tracking their non-emergency calls. Last month they ran 3238 total calls, 1505 of which were transports to the hospital.

Regular Agenda Items

An item of interest on the agenda was the First Reading of an Ordinance Relating to Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety within Public Road and Rights-of-Way. For background, in January, Commissioner Whitehurst raised a question about public safety in the County Rights of Ways. He referenced an ordinance that had recently been passed in Clay County and wondered if St. Johns County could do the same. The Board directed staff to prepare an ordinance for consideration in St. Johns County.

During the presentation it was noted that Florida has been rated as the second highest in the nation in terms of pedestrian deaths. Statistics for St. Johns County show 60 vehicle/pedestrian crashes in 2020 with 4 fatalities, 88 crashes in 2021 with 9 fatalities and in 2022, 86 crashes with 7 fatalities.

The focus of this ordinance is to address safety hazards with interaction between pedestrians and vehicles in medians and near travel lanes and in vehicle-to-vehicle interactions while in travel lanes.

This ordinance would apply to unincorporated St. Johns County. “Designated Roadways” are interstate/intrastate, arterials, collectors, and the first 440 feet of a local road intersecting with those road types. Includes the media and 4 feet outside the shoulder or curb.

The focus is conduct, not speech or people holding signs.

Specific prohibitions include:

“engaging in any physical interaction between a pedestrian and an occupant of a motor vehicle, including the transfer of any product, material or monies, while the motor vehicle is located on the traveled portion of the designated roadway and is not legally parked”

“Stopping, sitting, standing, or otherwise occupying or remaining in a median on a designated roadway by a person when that person is not in the process of lawfully crossing the road in accordance with applicable traffic and safety laws, regulations and ordinances.”

They county performed comparison with neighboring Jacksonville City and Clay County ordinances and did not include some of the items in those ordinances that could have potential challenges in enforcement.

Questions were asked and satisfactorily answered about the impact on campaigning on the median or roadways. Again, the focus is on public safety, not prohibiting free speech.

The detailed presentation can be found here: Agenda Item 4

Public Comment:

During public comment there were again a large number of residents from Marsh Landing raising concerns about the Storm Water Management System in their community and the on-going litigation. It is a difficult situation as the County is trying to assist residents but ultimately have little control over the Storm Water Management System as it is under the purview of the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Commissioners Reports

During Commissioners reports, Commissioner Whitehurst as for assistance from Jesse Dunn, Director for the Office of Management and Budget to address some mis-information that has been shared in the county recently. There have been statements made in public forums that the County has $130 Million in impact fees that could be spent on roads, and the county is not spending the money appropriately.

Commissioner Whitehurst asked Mr. Dunn to share information about how Impact Fees are collected and how budget reserves are managed.

Mr. Dunn explained that yes, there is about $135 Million in collective impact fees that have been collected. There are 11 categories for Impact Fees. Currently, there are about $40 Million that remain in reserves. $95 Million has been allocated to projects. Mr. Dunn described the procurement process that could take 25 months to spend the money on the projects as the county goes through the process of awarding the contracts and initiating construction.

Just as in corporate budgets, the county must place that money in reserves for those projects until such time as the contracts are awarded and the money is paid out over the life of the contract and construction.

The concern from the Commissioners is that the accrual of money in reserves is being misrepresented and that residents may be hearing information that is misleading.

For those who enjoy digging into the numbers for themselves, the County budget can be found at this link:

2023 County Budget

This is a lengthy document – the Impact Fees Summary begins on Page 285.

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Posted in Affordable Housing, BOCC, Comprehensive Plan, Essential Worker Housing, PZA, St. Johns County

What’s Ahead in St. Johns County This Week

Posted on by Beth Tate

Summary of Key Agenda Items for the Board of County Commissioners and Planning and Zoning Agency meetings this week

Board of County Commissioners Meeting

The Board of County Commissioners Meeting is Tuesday, April 4, 9:00 in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian Way.

Of particular interest during the BOCC meeting this week is Item 4 on the Agenda.

This will be the First Reading of Ordinance Relating to Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety within Public Road and Rights-of-Way

This is timely as in the past week I’ve seen complaints on social media about people standing in the medians asking for donations for various organizations or for themselves.

At a previous meeting, Commissioner Whitehurst had asked Staff to review neighboring Clay County’s ordinance that had been recently passed to see if there was something we could do in St. Johns County to reduce these potential safety issues.

Background information on this item is as follows:

“A recent study identified the State of Florida as the second-highest-ranked state in the country in pedestrian deaths, in both the total and as an average per person. Traffic crash data shows that St. Johns County has experienced a number of vehicle/pedestrian crashes, including crashes causing death. The risk of such incidents is increased by the unexpected presence of pedestrians near a motor vehicle or within the travel lanes, including within medians or when engaged in person-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-person interactions. The inherent danger of such situations is heightened for certain higher traffic volume and/or speed roadways, such as interstate/intrastate highways and arterials and collector roads, and their approaches. The State of Florida and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have both identified enhanced legislation, regulation, and enforcement as elements of a successful strategy for enhancing pedestrian safety. The attached proposed ordinance would prohibit dangerous use of certain designated public rights-of-way in a way that interferes with the safe and efficient movement of people and property. Prohibited uses include, specifically, physical interactions while a vehicle is in the travel lanes and stopping or remaining in a median longer than needed to safely cross, subject to certain exceptions. The ordinance would be enforced by the Sheriff after conducting a public education campaign for the first 30 days and issuing warnings, after which first violations would result in a civil citation and fine, and second and subsequent violations prosecuted in the same manner as misdemeanors.”

Detailed information on the proposed ordinance and data supporting the need for such an ordinance can be found at this link:

Agenda Item 4

Planning and Zoning Agency

The Planning and Zoning Agency (PZA) Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 6, at 1:30 in the County Auditorium.

The first item on the agenda is one of great interest to residents of District 1. This is the Transmittal hearing with the PZA for The Landings at St. Johns. This development would be located south of Greenbriar Road and west of Longleaf Pine Parkway and is slated to be Res-B zoning (2 dwelling units per acre.)

 Background Information:

“COMPAMD 2022-06 The Landings at St. Johns (Transmittal), request for a Large-Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the Future Land Use Map designation of approximately 581 acres of land, located south of Greenbriar Road and west of Longleaf Pine Parkway, from Rural/Silviculture (R/S) to Residential-B (Res-B) with a site specific text amendment stating that in locations where the subject property is contiguous to The Landings at Greenbriar site, no Development Edges will be required.”

The full 512 page presentation can be found at this link:

PZA Agenda Item 1

Notes on the February 9 Community meeting, with the lists of attendees and proximate locations of the attendees begins on page 467.

Item 6 on the Agenda is the Adoption Hearing for the updates to the Workforce Housing Ordinance proposed by the Northeast Florida Builder’s Association (NEFBA) late last year.

Link to the Presentation on the Workforce Housing ordinance can be found here:

Workforce Housing Ordinance

Transparency – in my role as Chair of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Committee, I have presented the Chamber’s concerns with 2 points in the proposed ordinance change. Overall, the Chamber had agreed with 80% of the proposed changes.

What remains to be seen is how the newly signed “Live Local” bill designed to address the state-wide Affordable Housing issues will impact the St. Johns County Workforce Housing ordinance.

I’ll post updates on these meetings later in the week.

Posted in BOCC, Comprehensive Plan, St. Johns County

Update on the March 21 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

There were only 2 items on the Regular Agenda for March 21, but the meeting still ran about 4 hours. There was much discussion on Agenda Item 2, the Comprehensive Plan and a few lengthy topics during Public Comment.

Public Safety Update – included a report on a recent DUI Enforcement action that did result in a large number of DUI arrests. The hope is this will deter drunk driving in the county.

The Sheriff’s department has opened a Reentry Department with the goal of preventing folks from re-entering the system. They work with inmates to help them find jobs and housing when they leave the jail. One obstacle to gaining employment is having ID or a Driver’s License. They have set up a way, at the jail, to provide them a path to IDs and/or Driver’s Licenses.

The Clerk of Court’s report included assurances that they had been monitoring the 2 recent bank failures and inspecting the County’s banking relationships. They are closely watching to make sure the county’s tax dollars are protected.

The first item up for discussion on the Regular Agenda was the modification for the RiverTown DRI, continued from the March 7 meeting. One of the main items of concern was the continuation of the Veterans Parkway construction.

During the presentation it was confirmed the school mitigation was changed because of the modification to include 770 Age Restricted homes (55+) and that reduces the number of children in the school zones.

It was again confirmed that the Eagle’s Nest tree had been destroyed by fire and abandoned therefore they wish to modify the Eagle Protection Zone. It has been 5 years since there was an eagle in the nest.

The modifications were approved.

The second item on the agenda was discussion of the updates for the Comprehensive Plan.

Every 7 years the County or jurisdiction must decide if they are going to change the Comprehensive Plan. This presentation was to ask for direction from the Commissioners on how they want to proceed with the update.

During public comment concerns were raised about including affordable housing, preserving agricultural lands, and cultural preservation. There was a recommendation from the St. Johns County Civic Round Table (full transparency, I serve on the Board) to hire an independent consultant to facilitate the workshops.

Commissioner Dean made a recommendation to have the independent facilitator to lead the discussions, to have a 60-day comment period, and to have 5 Town Halls, one in each District.

Commissioner Whitehurst made note that with 300,000 residents, the Commissioners have to listen to all the input, and that input at times is in opposition to each other. All input will have to be weighed as they go through this process. He also noted that some of the suggestions could be considered moving against personal property rights. It will be a tough path forward through the updating of the Plan.

The motion was passed to proceed with Commissioner Dean’s recommendation with the initial step to be finding the independent facilitator.

During Public Comment, a representative from the Rock Springs Farms HOA in St. Augustine presented a concern to the Commissioners about an agreement that had been made between the developer and the County regarding maintenance of a Public Park.

When management of the HOA was turned over from the Developer to the HOA Owners in January of 2023, the HOA Board learned of this agreement that had been signed between the County and the Developer. This agreement requires the HOA to maintain the Public Park in perpetuity. This is unusual in that no other HOA is required to pay for a Public Park. The Park is owned by the County but is expected to be maintained by the residents of the HOA.

Further, the community learned that they are required to hold insurance on this park, even though they are not the owners. They cannot purchase insurance for a property they do not own.

Commissioner Alaimo is working with the community to address the concerns.

Once again there was representation from Marsh Landing residents wanting help with their drainage issues. It was again explained to the residents that the County does not have jurisdiction over the Storm Water Management System; that is in the purview of the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD.) The residents were urged to address their concerns with the SJRWMD Board.

During Commissioner Reports a motion was made and approved to match funds of $50,000 for a grant to reinstate a Mental Health Court in St. Johns County.