ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The largest proposed workforce housing neighborhood in St. Johns County to date was voted down Tuesday.
County commissioners said if it was built, it would negatively impact traffic and its size is too big for the area.
"The traffic is going to affect all of us," Nancy Rawson told First Coast News. Her backyard backs up the proposed project's land. She is concerned the extra traffic that would come from the proposed neighborhood would clog and endanger her community along Wildwood Drive in St. Augustine.
"The magnitude and size of this project is just terrible for this area," she said.
The 145 acres of land is a tree farm now. The proposed Osceola Lakes neighborhood would have 640 homes, stretch a mile in length and a new road would be constructed connecting Wildwood Drive South to Watson Road.
Both existing streets are two-lane roads with little, if no room for widening.
Geoffrey Young’s family has owned the land since the 1800s. He lives on the property now.
He told county commissioners Tuesday, "I’m a retired mailman. I can’t afford it. I’ve got to sell the land. I want to see it so it benefits the county."
Osceola Lakes Project Manager Greg Matovina and the rest of the applicants were asking for the land to be rezoned from open rural and PUD to workforce housing which mandates a third of the homes – 192 of them -- be sold at the county’s determined workforce price of $267,000. Some calculations determine that a buyer would have to make $98,700 to reasonably afford that.
Many opponents of the plan told commissioners that the price is not affordable or within reach for most people in the county's "workforce."
In Tuesday's county commission meeting, dozens of people spoke for and against the project.
Many who spoke in favor of the proposal were from Ponte Vedra, 30 miles away.
One man told commissioners, "We can’t wait for roads to be fixed to provide affordable housing." Another supporter of the project said, "I’ve had conversations with people who want to work in St. Johns County – who are good people – but they can’t afford housing."
Those against it cited traffic concerns.
One man said, "It has everything to do with traffic. Wildwood cannot support more vehicles." Another resident who lives near the proposed project said, "Nobody in my company that’s part of the workforce in a (production) plant -- can afford these townhomes."
County commissioner Krista Keating Joseph asked Project Leader Matovina, "So who’s the developer?" He hesitated and said, "I’m really not sure at this point." There was a long pause. Joseph said, "You kept saying, 'The developer this' and 'The developer that,' so there’s somebody." Matovina said, "Peter Legeza and the owners are the developer at this point."
First Coast News researched and found that Legeza, as well as entities tied to this project, gave $16,000 to the three county commissioners' primary election campaigns who were running for re-election: Christian Whitehurst, Henry Dean and Roy Alaimo.
In the end, Alaimo was the only county commissioner who voted in favor of the project Tuesday. The other four commissioners voted against it, all stating concerns about its size and impact on traffic.
Dean, one of the four who voted against the project, said, "Having been here almost eight years, this is one of the most difficult decisions I've been struggling with." He continued, "The deficiencies in the traffic, it's just a bridge too far. It's just not going to work."