Freehold Communities' Arden development in South Florida is an agrihood with a 5-acre farm and event barn. | Freehold Communities
Published on November 1, 2024 at 1:37 pm
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While people are going to the polls Tuesday, the St. Johns County Commission will be voting, too — not for president, but on a controversial “agrihood” development that could bring more than 3,000 homes to an area west of St. Augustine.
The potential site is 2,673 acres between County Roads 208 and 214. The 3,332-home development would be the area’s first agrihood, a concept the developer says would integrate agricultural elements like community farms into a residential project.
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The proposal comes from Boston-based developer Freehold Communities. The developer is responsible for the more than 2,500-unit Shearwater community in St. Johns County, and Freehold also has built neighborhoods in Georgia, Texas, California and Tennessee.
The County Commission’s decision on whether to OK rezoning for the project comes along with an additional vote — a development agreement that would require Freehold to pitch in for road improvements near the project.
Those improvements are needed because the deveopment would bring an estimated 23,000 daily trips to roads that are already over capacity.
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In addition to examining the capacity of roads, the developer is required to communicate with the St. Johns County School District to determine whether schools can accommodate an influx of students from the new construction.
Questions about the agrihood
In the case of Freehold’s project, the new homes are estimated to bring around 500 new students to the schools. But at the time the meeting agenda was put together, the school district had not said how it would accommodate those students.
Other factors also were undetermined when the county’s planning and zoning agency got a look at the project earlier this month.
Citing concerns about a lack of detail and unaddressed questions, the board unanimously recommended that the County Commission turn down the proposal.
“This is one of the most incomplete applications I’ve reviewed here. There are so many open comments, things are not finished,” Planning and Zoning Agency member Jack Peter said during a meeting Oct. 17. “There are things missing to this, and as my colleagues have said, to move this forward with so many open questions from the staff report just seems to me to be ill-advised at this time.”
Unanswered questions included where the farm and a future school would be located.
If approved by the County Commission, the neighborhood would be built in two phases. The first would include the construction of 1,038 single-family homes, 457 age-restricted single-family homes and 170 townhomes.
Phase 2 would include the other half of the project: another 1,039 single-family homes, 458 age-restricted single-family homes and 170 townhomes.
The County Commission will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View. The meeting will be broadcast live on the county’s website.
