St. Johns County Planning and Zoning recommends denial for ‘agrihood’ community

The St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency voted 7-0 on Oct. 17 to recommend denial for developer Freehold Communities' more than 3,300-home "Agrihood" community.

The development is seeking rezoning from Open Rural to Planned Unit Development of 2,673 acres between County Roads 208 and 214 west of Interstate 95. It is south of the St. Augustine Premium Outlets and about 20 miles south of Shearwater.

Freehold says "Agrihoods are defined as an organized community that integrates agriculture into a residential setting."

Boston-based Freehold, the developer of Shearwater, represents Robinson Improvement Co. of Brunswick, Georgia, which has owned the land since 1906.

Among many concerns, PZA members took issue with having only two days to review Freehold's 224-page proposal, which they found to be incomplete.

As of Oct. 15, the developer planned 3,332 residential units and 250,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. By Oct. 17, the nonresidential component was omitted from the plans.

Lindsay Haga of England-Thims & Miller, the project's civil engineer, said non-residential components were removed following comments made at the Oct. 15 meeting of the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners. At the meeting, a development agreement to construct a 4-mile segment of County Road 2209 that would connect County Road 208 and County Road 214 was presented during a public hearing.

Planning and Zoning Agency member Richard Hilsenbeck called the agrihood project "rushed, rushed, rushed," and "helter-skelter," adding that there was "a lot of missing data and inconsistencies."

"This whole item is being rushed. There are too many open comments, the materials provided are incomplete, and we had inadequate time to review it. That's such an important item both for me as a PZA member and for the citizens who are interested in this proposal," he said. "It's way premature, and its time has not come, in my opinion, so I can't support it."

Agency member Jack Peter said that while the project "sounds nice, it's so far out in the future."

"I don't know about development, but I do know this is one of the most incomplete applications that I've reviewed here," he said. "There are so many open comments. Things are not finished. To move this forward seems ill-advised at this time."

"The application just isn't finished," agency member Henry Green added.

Agency member Elvis Pierre said the project "weighed heavily" on him.

"I'm listening to my colleagues, and I just don't think its time has come," he said.

Residents speaking at the PZA meeting pleaded with them to deny the project, with one saying, "This is the biggest mistake the county could make."

Before the vote, agency chair Meagan Perkins called the project's site plan a "bubble plan."

"With a project of this magnitude, we should have certain specificity about where certain-sized lots are going to go. We don't have that. We have a generalization. It's the bare minimum," she said. "This should not have come before us at this stage. It's too early. It's too incomplete."

Despite the PZA's recommendation to deny, the agrihood project will next go before the full St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners for a vote Nov. 5.