ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — "I’m a native," Karen Roumillat said, speaking of being born in Florida.
She lives on a slice of forested paradise with her bees, the occasional turtle and wildflowers.
"My husband and I moved back here in 1986," Roumillat said.
However, to get to her secluded spot in the forest, she deals with traffic along State Road 13.
"The traffic is insane," as she walked along her driveway to State Road 13. Pointing north, she said, "Roberts Road is right there at the light."
She is very close to the proposed Greenbriar Helow development.
"It’s massive," she nodded. "It’s massive."
The land proposed for the project is made up of several parcels in northwest St. Johns County. It’s located north and south of Greenbriar Road, by Longleaf Pine Parkway over to Veterans Parkway.
Right now, the area is mostly woods.
The owner wants to transform the 2,200 acres into 3,500 homes and 2.5 million square feet of commercial space. That’s near twice the size of the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville.
"We have so many vacant strip malls and buildings," Roumillat said. "We don’t need more until we can fill what we have."
On Tuesday, the St. Johns County Commission gave its okay to proceed to the next step in the approval process. Because the project is so large and because it requires a change to the county's future land use map, it needs the state to review it.
According to St. Johns County staff, several of the roads near the proposed development are "deficient." They simply can’t handle the traffic that is already here.
More is coming, according to one resident who made a presentation to county commissioners Tuesday. She totaled up the number of homes slated to be built in other nearby neighborhoods.
"That right now is approximately 16,000 houses that are not yet built that you have approved," she said.
The developer’s representatives say their client will help pay for road improvements, that the project will bring jobs, and will work with neighbors.
Roumillat doubts the project can be stopped but she thinks it could be done smarter.
"Unchecked growth in this area. It’s been going on for decades. We need to put it in check now," she said.