By Cindy Jackson
Reporter
June 28, 2019 9:40 a.m.
“Nassau [County] stands at the precipice of change. A change that will descend upon the community with or without blessing. According to the latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Nassau grew by 3.6% last year ranking as the twenty-fifth fastest growing county, by percent growth, in the United States.”
Growth Trends,2019 Nassau County Department of Planning and Economic Opportunity
And that’s not all. The Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) predicts that in the coming decade, over 114,000 people with call Nassau County home. (In 2018, population was estimated to be 85,832).
The almost astronomical population explosion [and the need for additional housing] is just a part of the story. Along with more people comes the need for more parks and recreation, more roads and bridges, more hospitals and health care and . . . less we forget – more schools. In fact, it’s Nassau County’s outstanding public-school system that is often identified as a major driver/regional attractor in the community’s growth.
While growth wasn’t at the top of the agenda on the evening of June 24th, the Board of County Commissioners did unanimously approve additional residential development projects including:
- 9.11 acres getting rezoned from Medium Density to High Density Residential which paves the way for an additional 64 homes being built on the south side of Amelia Concourse, west of Old Nassauville Road (CR107) between Frank Ward Road and Terra Cotta Lane;
- closely associated with the above parcel was a request to rezone 85.7 acres from Open Rural to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) located on the north and south sides of Amelia Concourse. This PUD will be known as “Concourse Crossing.” The Concourse Crossing PUD will consist of up to 247 detached single-family residential and/or attached single-family residential units. And, finally;
- the Final Development Plan for Parcels “A” and “C” of the Nassau Station PUD. Nassau Station has been described as having a maximum development program of up to 88 single family residential units, 48 multi-family residential units, 20,000 square feet of office space, and 20,000 square feet of retail space. The location of this PUD is on the north and south sides of William Burgess Blvd. between Harvester Street and Harts Road.
Doug McDowell, planner with the Department of Planning and Economic Opportunity, made the presentations before the BOCC for all three projects noting all were in accordance with the 2030 Nassau County Comprehensive Plan and that in no way did any constitute “sprawl,” according to Florida statute Sec. 163.3177(6)(a)(9) which relates to Florida land use development regulations.
In contrast to meetings of the Fernandina Beach City Commission where discussions of new developments typically play to a “packed house” – complete with an overflow crowd lining the Chamber halls, just one Nassau County resident rose to speak against the proposed land use management changes.
With facts and figures supplied by the Department of Planning and Economic Opportunity, Ms. Kemp surpassed her allotted three minutes at the podium as she very methodically outlined new developments along a small, two-mile section of Old Nassauville Road – counting 1257 units on 640.8 acres.
Ms. Kemp began her presentation with this comment, “CR 107 (Old Nassauville Rd) and the Amelia Concourse have become a density nightmare, with poor concurrency planning, a lack of schools in the area, and daily traffic access issues, especially at Duval Road which has become a cut through from A1A creating daily bottlenecks.”
Commissioner Aaron Bell referenced the William Burgess project when he asked Taco Pope, Assistant County Manager if something similar to it could be done on the Old Nassauville Road “Concourse”, noting his awareness that there isn’t as much open space left there (in comparison to William Burgess) to which Mr. Pope responded, “ . . . I don’t know that we have the time to do something that detailed [as the William Burgess Corridor project – a project that was two years in the making] . . . I don’t know that we have time to be ahead of the curve. . .”
Commissioner Bell also asked, “to her point, [that of Ms. Kemp] do we know . . . where a school is going to go? We desperately need at least an elementary school.”
“There are civic facilities aspects . . . there is a lot we need to look at,” said Pope. Pope also mentioned a “really great software” program the Nassau County School Board now has in place to show where each individual student lives and went on to say . . . “if you were to put a (K-6) school in Amelia Concourse, it would be full today.”
As the process goes, however, according to the Nassau County website, “The Planning & Zoning Board reviews all requests for rezoning of property, zoning amendments, Comprehensive Plan text amendments, Land Use Map amendments, and amendments to ordinances that affect the use and development of land. The Board submits written recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners for a final determination.
The Planning and Zoning Board meets twice a month – on the first and third Tuesday at 6PM in Commission Chambers at the James S Page Governmental Complex. For information on current members, go to http://www.nassaucountyfl.com/127/Planning-Zoning-Board
Editor’s Note: Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, Cindy received her BA in Political Science from Dickinson College. Upon graduation, Cindy began her career on Capitol Hill working as a legislative aide and director. She later became a part of the public relations and lobbying team of the American Iron and Steel Institute and served as director of the office of state legislative affairs for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). Cindy was involved in economic development with the state of Maryland, and served as executive director of Leadership Washington County. As a community volunteer, Cindy participates in numerous volunteer activities serving as a member of Sunrise Rotary, and as board member of Cummer Amelia Board of Directors.
Did they stop to consider: how much our temperature will rise from cutting down all those trees and paving all that surface with black (heat gathering and retaining) asphalt?
How much it will cost us to build schools, roads, infrastructure and etc. for all those new folks?
How much more traffic will be poured onto already congested A1A?
How many more firefighters, police, and government employees we will have to hire and pay?
What the impact on our water and other systems will be?
Or did they just blindly say ok?
Not happy to see that the County is keeping up with the city in the race for pavement supremacy.
Meanwhile, those newly approved developments are in addition to the huge wildlite poorly planned and orchestrated disaster by past county governing bodies. When they begin “planning” for all these impacts, the idiom with barn door and horses comes to mind.
I am not a anti-growth person by any means. However, I am very concerned that the quality of our education system within Nassau County will suffer if we do not start building more schools. Every school in Yulee/FB is at capacity or over. All these projects have been approved but we have not broken ground on any additional educational facilities. We have Nassau Crossing…Nassau Station..Concourse Crossing..River Glen all in some phase of approval. There is well over 1000 homes between those communities alone. How are we going to address these communities as it relates to educational facilities. We cant wait five to ten years down the road. We need the schools within a couple of years.