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 BOCC, St. Johns County

February 7 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

What’s up next?

The February 7 Board of County Commissioners (BCC) Meeting looks to have a light agenda and that means possibly a much shorter meeting!

With only 4 items on the Regular Agenda, the morning should go quickly. It will be interesting to see how the new process for General Public Comment at a time certain goes. For Tuesday’s meeting it is at 11:30 Time Certain or at the meeting end, whichever occurs first.

Thus far, the “time certain” approach appears to be disruptive and has resulted in more than a few disgruntled residents as they didn’t make it to the podium before the 30 minutes ended and that meant they still had to wait until the end of the meeting. Will we start seeing a race to the line at 11:30?

 Consent Agenda

There are 37 items on the consent agenda Tuesday. The Consent Agenda is approved as one item and public comment is allowed on the Consent Agenda. Most items on the Consent Agenda are routine in nature. They include approval of final plats, easements, or bill of sales.

Tuesday’s Consent Agenda does include authorization for a notice about a March 7 Hearing for the Vacation of a Right of Way on Bishop Estates Road and a purchase of 3 new ambulances for the St Johns County Fire Rescue Department.

Another item of interest on the Consent Agenda is the Establishment of Civil Penalties for the violation of the Land Development Code governing Short Term Vacation Rentals.

And certainly, of interest to all St. Johns County residents are the Consent Agenda items intended to address Coastal Storm Risk Management.

Regular Agenda Items

First on the agenda is a request from the Sheriff’s Office to add a Fleet Maintenance Building on the site of the current SJSO Training Facility near SR 16 and I-95.

Second on the Agenda is the 2nd reading of an amendment to the Land Development Code, updating the Office and Professional Services Use code to include Veterinary Offices and Animal Hospitals.

Following this item, the Board of County Commissioners will adjourn the meeting and reconvene as the St Johns County Community Redevelopment Agency. This is a technical requirement so they can shift focus to the next item on the agenda. This item is a request from the Flagler Estates CRA Steering Committee to use funds from the Flagler Estates Trust Fund to purchase 2 parcels of land to increase the size of the Flagler Estates Park.

After hearing and voting on this item, the Board will adjourn the meeting of the St Johns County Community Redevelopment Agency and reconvene as the Board of County Commissioners.

The last item on the agenda is the consideration of the appointment of a BCC member to the Value Adjustment Board. Just what is the Value Adjustment Board?

From the Florida Department of Revenue:

“The purpose of the value adjustment board (VAB) is to hear appeals regarding property value assessments, denied exemptions or classifications, ad valorem tax deferrals, portability decisions, and change of ownership or control. Taxpayers or their representatives file petitions with the VAB clerk in the county where the property is located. See the taxpayer guide on Petitions to the Value Adjustment Board for more information.”

The Board of County Commissioners Meeting takes place in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View, St. Augustine, FL. It can also be watched live, on-line at this link GTV Live

Or on Comcast Cable in Southern St. Johns – Channel 3, Northern St. Johns – Channel 29 or 26, in Jacksonville on Channel 26

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

St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency February 2 Meeting Summary

Posted on by Beth Tate

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

Posted in Florida Legislature, Politics

What’s Happening in the Florida State Legislature?

Posted on by Beth Tate

I’m watching the bills being proposed and making their way through the Florida State Legislature and will from time to time be highlighting bills of specific interest.

There are three bills I am watching that could have significant impact on our local elections. Registered voters should be aware of the potential impact if these bills make it through committee.

These three bills are House Joint Resolution (HJR) 31, Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 94, and House Joint Resolution 405. These three bills have significant impact on future elections in Florida.

House Joint Resolution 405 is intended to eliminate any Open Primaries that could currently occur in the State of Florida.

Today, if all the candidates in a primary belong to one party, then all registered voters may vote in the primary for that office. This has resulted in cases of individuals filing to run as a “Write-In” candidate and thus closing the primary to only registered voters of the party.

Illustrative example, if the Primary candidates for County Commissioner are all Republican, then every registered voter may vote for one of those candidates. However, if a “Write-In” candidate appears on the ballot, only voters registered as a Republican can vote for the Republican candidates in the primary. If there are no Democratic candidates, then voters registered as Democrats are unable to vote for a candidate for Commissioner. Likewise, voters registered with No Party Affiliation, Libertarian, Green Party, or other “third parties” are unable to vote for a candidate.

Another component being addressed in HJR 405 is to eliminate non-partisan elections.

The proposed new language would be added to the ballot as a proposed Constitutional Amendment in the next General Election.

House Joint Resolution 31 and Senate Joint Resolution 94 are similar but specific to School Boards. These resolutions would require School Board Elections to be partisan. This would also require a Constitutional Amendment and would appear on the next General Election ballot.

Impact

Each of these bills has far reaching impact on voters who choose to have No Party Affiliation. These bills effectively disenfranchise voters who choose to be independent of a party affiliation.

In counties that are majority one party, whether it is Democrat or Republican, the elimination of Open Primaries disenfranchises all voters registered in minority parties. Where today they may be able to participate in a Primary with all candidates of one party; this law would prohibit their participation. If a county has 80% of voters registered in one party, 20% of voters would be unable to have a say in the Primary process.

All voters should be paying attention to these changes. Today, your preferred party may be the majority; ten years from now, that could change.

Details of the bills can be found at the bottom of this article.

House Joint Resolution 405 begins as follows:

House Joint Resolution

 A joint resolution proposing amendments to Section 5 and 6 of Article VI and Section 4 of Article IX and 4 the creation of Section 8 of Article VI of the State Constitution to provide that only qualified electors with the same party affiliation as a candidate for office may vote in the primary election for such office, to provide that candidates for office may not be prohibited from disclosing party affiliation or campaigning or qualifying for office based on party affiliation, and to prohibit exclusively nonpartisan elections.

House Joint Resolution 31 and Senate Joint Resolution 94 are similar but specific to School Boards. They read as follows:

“A joint resolution proposing an amendment to Section 4 3 of Article IX and the creation of a new section in Article XII of the State Constitution to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election.

Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 9 10 That the following amendment to Section 4 of Article IX and 11 the creation of a new section in Article XII of the State 12 Constitution are agreed to and shall be submitted to the electors of this state for approval or rejection at the next general election or at an earlier special election specifically authorized by law for that purpose:”

ARTICLE IX

EDUCATION

SECTION 4.

School districts; school boards. —

(a) Each county shall constitute a school district; 20 provided, two or more contiguous counties, upon vote of the electors of each county pursuant to law, may be combined into one school district. In each school district there shall be a school board composed of five or more members chosen by vote of the electors in a partisan nonpartisan election for appropriately staggered terms of four years, as provided by law.

(b) The school board shall operate, control, and supervise all free public schools within the school district and determine the rate of school district taxes within the limits prescribed herein. Two or more school districts may operate and finance joint educational programs.

ARTICLE XII

SCHEDULE

Partisan election of members of district school boards. —This section and the amendment to Section 4 of Article IX requiring members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election shall take effect upon approval by the electors, except that members of district school boards may not be elected on a partisan basis until the general election held in November 2026. However, partisan primary elections may occur before the general election held on November 3, 2026, for purposes of nominating political party candidates to that office for placement on the 2026 general election ballot.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the following statement be placed on the ballot:

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

ARTICLE IX, SECTION 4

ARTICLE XII

PARTISAN ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARDS. — Proposing amendments to the State Constitution to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election and to specify that the amendment only applies to elections held on or after the November 2026 general election. However, partisan primary elections may occur before the 2026 general election for purposes of nominating political party candidates to that office for placement on the 2026 general election ballot.

Posted in Affordable Housing, PZA, St. Johns County

St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency

Posted on by Beth Tate

Agenda for February 2, What You Should Know!

The February 2 St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency (PZA) is scheduled for 1:30 PM in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine. If you aren’t able to attend in person, you can watch it live here:

Watch PZA Live

The meeting has an interesting mix of projects for review. Some are more routine, such as the approval for a Manufactured/Mobile home to be used as a residence in an area zoned for RS-3 Residential or a change in set-backs for a yard.

Others are more impactful, and the public may want to be aware of the impacts. This update will focus on the more impactful items.

The first item on the Agenda Thursday is a continuation of an item from November 15. This is the Smith Borrow Pit application, requesting a Special Use Permit to allow a Borrow Pit area within Open Rural Zoning and to allow for a residential dwelling unit on the same property. At the previous hearing there were several concerns raised about the project. The continuance was granted to allow time for neighbors to provide input and for the applicant to present additional evidence in response to the many questions raised by PZA members.

An item of concern to residents is Agenda Items 9 and 10. These items are modifications to the River Town DRI and PUD. The requests include revising the school mitigation requirements, addressing the abandonment of the Eagle nest, the proposed Greenway Map and the Wildlife/Plant Resources Map, adding a date certain for the provision of a library site and a fire station site, clarifying the residential development rights include age restricted units, and reducing the proposed roundabout locations on SR 13.

For those not familiar with RiverTown, it is located along SR 13 North, south of Greenbriar Road, with Longleaf Pine Parkway being located to the east.

The last two items of the day are related to a request from the Northeast Florida Builders Association 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 (from $240,000) while also reducing the percentage of Workforce Housing units to be constructed from 40% down to 20%. Commissioner Dean proposed a compromise at that meeting to raise the maximum initial sales price to $260,000 and lower the percentage of units to be constructed to 30%.

Concerns have been raised in the community by Affordable Housing advocates and the business community that this change in the ordinance does not address the need for more affordable housing in the county. Of particular concern to business owners is the need for Essential Workforce Housing in the county.

If you can’t attend or watch the PZA meeting, check back here for an update next week.

Posted in Affordable Housing, BOCC, St. Johns County

Update on the January 17 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

The first St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners meeting for 2023 was a LONG one!

As predicted, the first Regular Agenda item of the day took about 4 hours pushing many agenda items into late afternoon. The meeting ran for almost 8 hours, including a 30 minute lunch break.

Highlights of the meeting opening items were the Ceremonial Swearing in of Commissioner Roy Alaimo by one of our newly elected County Judges, The Honorable Casey Woolsey.

Public Safety Update

The Public Safety Update for the morning featured newly appointed Interim Fire Chief Scott Bullard. Chief Bullard reported the year end totals of calls for the Fire Rescue being 61,373 total calls with 25,558 of those being EMS calls. 17,225 calls required transport of patients.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office update came from Russ Martin, Director of Operations. Director Martin reported that vehicle and commercial burglaries continue to be the highest number of crimes in the county and encouraged residents to hold each other accountable to communicate with neighbors and others and remind folks to take your valuables out of your cars and lock your car doors.

Regular Agenda Items

As anticipated, most of the morning was taken up by the presentation of the Colonel Hinman Intermodal Exchange Facility (CHIEF) proposed in District 3. This topic took 4 hours in the Planning and Zoning Agency meeting and similarly, took about 4 hours of the County Commissioners Meeting.

CHIEF was presented on behalf of Colonel Hinman by James Whitehouse and Heather Neville.

Reminder “What is CHIEF?”

This is a “Request for a Large-Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the Future Land Use Map designation of approximately 214.13 acres of land, located at 2775 County Road 214, from Residential-B (Res-B) to Industrial (I) with a text amendment prohibiting Heavy Industrial uses on the subject property.”

What is included in this proposal?

“This is a request to amend the Future Land Use Map from Residential-B (Res-B) to Industrial (I) for approximately 214.13 acres of land to allow for an Intermodal Distribution Facility with rail access to the adjoining Florida East Coast railway. The facility is proposed to contain up to 900,000 square feet of warehouse, intermodal terminal uses, and a commuter rail service. A text amendment has been provided by the applicant that prohibits Heavy Industrial uses on the subject property, which would be a permitted use within the Industrial Future Land Use Map designation.”

Full document with details can be found here:

CHIEF Request for approval

There were many people in the audience wearing green buttons that said “Say Yes to High paying jobs in St. Augustine.” These were people prepared to speak in favor of the proposal for the CHIEF project.

Concerns about the proposal

There are several concerns about this proposal, not least of them being that the property is bounded by residential areas and would have impact on longtime and future residents of this part of the county.

The applicant provided an Economic Impact Study indicating the proposed project would “support over 3,000 jobs, generating $137 million in annual earnings and contribute $374 million to GDP.” This would be generated by building 850,000 sq. ft of warehousing space and a 50,000 sq. ft. intermodal truck terminal.

At the time of review with the PZA, there were still several outstanding staff comments from the county zoning division. It did not appear those questions had been answered before the County Commissioners Meeting.

Included in the comments are several concerns from the Environmental Division because this property is surrounded by residential land and is also adjacent to Moultrie Creek and to Conservation Easements. Even with the prohibition on heavy industrial uses, the Industrial category permits high intensity use that is “potentially inconsistent with surrounding environmentally sensitive areas.” Notably part of the wetlands included in this property are part of the floodway headwaters to Moultrie Creek.

Much of the presentation focused on the jobs and benefit to the county by building this Intermodal Facility.

Post Presentation Comments:

At the conclusion of the presentation, Commissioner Joseph asked a question about how a piece of property could get access to the rail line, as included in the proposal. The answer about the process included an acknowledgement that the property owner does not have that access at this point.

Commissioner Joseph also asked about access to I-95 and how could this be successful without clear access to I-95. This led to a discussion about the 2 lane roads that would have be to traversed by heavy truck traffic to get to I-95, should this be approved.

As Public Comment began, one speaker was recognized speaking on behalf of the Vermont Heights Community, Colonel Thomas Mark Turner. Because he was representing a list of 23 residents, he was allowed to speak for 10 minutes. He presented himself as a Master Planner and laid out the reasons why this property was the wrong location for the proposed project.

Public Comment went on for over an hour before it was interrupted by the “Time Certain for Public Comment” scheduled for 11:30 – 12:00. While the intent of the “Time Certain” for public comment is positive, it seems to be disruptive to the process to interject public comment in the middle of the on-going presentation.

Interruption for Time Certain Public Comment

General Public Comment in the “Time Certain” portion included comments from residents of Marsh Landing who are STILL seeking solutions to the flooding issues in Marsh Landing. This topic has been coming up for many months and has yet to be resolved.

Some public comments included what has become a trend recently, a reminder to the Commissioners of the Oath of Office they swore to, “To protect citizens against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We saw this at the Legislative update earlier in January, as well.

Back to CHIEF Presentation

After this “Time Certain” and a lunch break of 30 minutes, the Commissioners returned to the topic of the CHIEF proposal. Mr. Whitehouse spent 30 minutes on his rebuttal to the public comments and questions.

All Commissioners acknowledged the economic benefits of the project, but the over-riding concerns were about compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods and the traffic considerations on the existing roads. The project was unanimously denied after over 4 hours of discussion.

2023 Roadway and Transportation List of Priority Projects

The list of projects presented is found at this link:

2023 Transportation Priority Projects

Some highlights include continued work on CR 2209, the CR 210 and US1 Interchange, a Planning study for an Intermodal Transportation Center (Not the CHIEF project being proposed in Tuesday’s meeting), and a study for a Southeast Commuter Rail Service from Downton Jacksonville to St. Augustine (also not the CHIEF proposal of Tuesday’s meeting.)

Commissioner Dean recommended an amendment moving Item #4, the widening of SR 16 from International Golf Parkway to Outlet Mall Entrance to #1, thus shifting everything else down one row. This amendment was approved 4:1 so the list, as amended, was approved.

Public Housing Authority

Item #9 on the agenda was an Informational presentation on a Public Housing Authority (PHA) for St. Johns County. This presentation was intended to share the objectives of a PHA and the process for creating a PHA should the BOCC decide to act on the request from numerous St. Johns County residents to implement a PHA.

The presentation can be found here:

Public Housing Authority Presentation

Several residents spoke about the need for a Public Housing Authority as another way to create affordable housing options in the county. Commissioners Joseph, Alaimo, and Whitehurst spoke against the need for the additional bureaucracy of a public housing authority. Commissioners Arnold and Dean spoke in favor. The vote for a Public Housing Authority failed 3:2.

Rather than summarize the discussion among the commissioners before their vote, readers may be interested in hearing the discussion directly from the Commissioners. It can be found here:

Commissioners Comments on PHA

State of the County

The last big item on the agenda Tuesday (Item 14) was the State of the County presented by our County Administrator, Hunter Conrad.

A video was presented and can be viewed here:

Video on State of the County

Closing Comments

As anticipated, in closing Public Comments there was a concern raised about the appointment of Commissioner Alaimo as he does not currently live in District 3.

Closing comments from the Commissioners included:

– a suggestion from Commissioner Joseph to start a small marketing campaign to encourage citizens to work on beautifying the county.

– an ask from Commissioner Whitehurst to Legal to look into an ordinance about panhandling as Clay County recently successfully passed a panhandling ordinance.

It was, indeed, a long, long day with the Commissioners. There will be a follow-up article on the Public Housing Authority request. Watch for it!