Affordable housing plan denied near World Golf Village – Jacksonville Today

A nearly 300-unit affordable housing project near World Golf Village in St. Johns County received a unanimous denial from the St. Johns County Commission on Tuesday.

The commission resoundingly agreed that they support affordable housing, with several commissioners even saying they supported this specific project. But not in the proposed location, they said. 

The project, called The Preserve at Ward’s Creek, was proposed by affordable housing developer Dominium on 19 acres along County Road 16 near the Silverleaf community.

County Commissioner Henry Dean, gesturing to aerial photos from last year and 1993, said the road simply can’t take the added traffic that 288 apartment units would bring. 

“I’d love to approve more affordable housing, but I’m not going to sit here today and approve more traffic congestion on 16 when it’s still two lanes and it takes an hour and a half to get from 16-95 up to (International Golf Parkway.) I mean, it’s crazy,” Dean said.

Dean’s comments echoed many of those made by St. Johns County residents during the 1½ hours of public commentary about the project. Chief among the concerns were increased traffic to roads and overcrowding of schools. 

But for as many residents opposed the project, many supported it, calling the need for government-subsidized housing in St. Johns County dire.

Affordable housing advocate Bill Lazar told the commission this was as good a location as any. 

“It’s here. It’s a great project, and if you don’t do it here, I don’t know where we’re going to do it, because there’s nothing else on the radar,” he said.

Lazar is executive director of the St. Johns Housing Partnership, a nonprofit organization that builds, repairs and advocates for affordable housing. Lazar said a bigger concern than traffic is locals who are forced to commute to St. Johns County for work because they can’t afford housing in the area.

“Our biggest traffic problem is simply because we haven’t had affordable housing as a focus in 20 years,” Lazar said.

Dominium Senior Development Associate Katessa Archer predicted much of the opposition to the project before it started, saying the County Commission would hear from people who said they supported affordable housing, just not in their backyard. 

St. Augustine resident Cliff Roberts said he didn’t agree with Archer’s assessment. 

“It’s not ‘not in my backyard.’ It’s ‘my backyard is full,’” he said. “If you’ve got room in your backyard, go ahead and do it.”

The developer pleaded its case, including showing plans for an improved intersection at State Road 16, County Road 16 and Silverleaf Parkway. Those improvements, with funds from the developer, would have been completed before 2028 when The Preserve at Ward’s Creek would have first opened its doors. The County Commission wasn’t sold. 

“I’m a big proponent of affordable housing,” County Commission Chair Sarah Arnold said. “I just take issue and have great concerns about the location of this project.”

She continued: “I think it’s a good, well-designed project. I think you can’t deny that we need more of this in our county. However, as I’ve said, the location is a problem, and the traffic mitigation doesn’t seem to be sufficient enough to overcome my concerns about compatibility and infrastructure.”

In response to the denial, Archer said in a statement to Jacksonville Today that she and her team are “tremendously disappointed.”

“We appreciate the many community leaders who showed up today and courageously voiced their support for much-needed affordable housing in St. Johns County,” she said. “While the vote did not go the way we had hoped, we urge the Board of County Commissioners to hear the plea of many of their constituents and find solutions for the extreme housing unaffordability across St. Johns County and specifically in Northwest St. Johns County.”