ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners approved the plan to purchase 36 acres inside of World Golf Village Tuesday afternoon. The $5.5 million purchase includes the PGA Tour Production Building, the lake, some common spaces around the lake and parking lots.
The commission discussed what the county would, or could do with the property.
Ideas included a library, staff office space, or holding the property for a short time until the commission forms a better understanding of what surrounding communities want at the location. The commission seemed open to eventually relinquishing control of the property for those purposes.
Commissioner Henry Dean says he supports buying the property to have “regulatory and propriety” control over what happens there. He said he did not intend for the county to be in the entertainment business with this purchase. His idea is not to have the property for "a long time." He sees it more as an ownership during its “transition.”
Commissioner Christian Whitehurst noted that if the property is currently sold "to someone in the private sector, now we are really in the back seat instead of the driver seat about what we can do and how we can use our influence to direct the use of this property in the future."
Commissioner Krista Keating Joseph was the sole dissenting vote. She stated concerns that there was not a lot of information provided about what the county would do with the purchase.