The trail would have been built along the curvy two-lane Shore Drive, near the Matanzas River south of St. Augustine. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on February 6, 2025 at 4:51 pm
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Plans for a 3-mile multiuse trail south of St. Augustine were axed this week, a year after the County Commission approved the very same plans.
County staff got the green light to design a walking and biking trail along Shore Drive last March and had already spent more than $146,000 on plans and surveys.
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The plan for a multiuse trail has existed in some form since 2006, according to the county. But people who live on Shore Drive say the plan has divided neighbors.
Homes on Shore Drive sit along a winding, two-lane road with no sidewalk. Proponents argued that even though the trail would cost $1.8 million, $400,000 would come from grant funding, and the final cost would be significantly cheaper than building a sidewalk in the neighborhood.
Opponents of the trail pointed to concerns that, at 8 feet wide, the asphalt trail could potentially damage the neighborhood’s natural features.
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The trail was nearly already a done deal — the County Commission’s vote last year approved building the trail with help from grant funds. Parks and Recreation Director Ryan Kane says the county had already been awarded the grant that would help fund construction, but the county was in the process of pulling permits and hadn’t quite reached the construction stage.
End of the trail
The decision to terminate the trail plan this week came during a discussion about extending the grant application for another calendar year. When a measure to extend the application failed by a 2-3 vote, the Parks and Recreation department lost its chance for the grant, effectively ending the project.
“We are not moving forward with the grant, so we will not be building the trail,” Kane told Jacksonville Today. “They did not give us instruction to build the trail no matter what.”
County Commissioners Christian Whitehurst and Sarah Arnold voted in favor of the trail project. Krista Joseph, Ann Taylor and Clay Murphy voted against it.
The surprise move came after a public comment period that included people for and against the project. Public discussions about the project have overall brought out more opponents.
Opponents point to that turnout as evidence that the project should be killed, but Kane says county surveys indicated that more than half of the people who live near the proposed trail were supportive.
When it came up last year, Joseph was the only member of the County Commission who opposed the trail.
She said she didn’t want to see the natural beauty of the area ruined, and she was not convinced that the trail would be all that better for public safety.
“You have hanging swings from the trees, and you have kids playing in the grass part,” Joseph said. “The last thing the kids need is a sidewalk through the middle of the grass. It needs to be closer to the road. You know, just simple, logical things like that.”
Joseph and her colleagues who voted against the trail say they would be more supportive of a sidewalk or other traffic-slowing measures like signs or speed bumps in the neighborhood.
Any sidewalk built along Shore Drive would likely be shorter than the 3-mile trail. County staff explained that, since a sidewalk would not be eligible for the same types of grant funding, the county would have to pay for it outright. A sidewalk of that length, staff estimated, could cost more than $5 million.
As for the county’s about-face on the matter, Joseph afterward told Jacksonville Today this is why “elections count.” She was referencing changes in the County Commission’s makeup since the vote last year.
