Developer Shenanigans in St. Johns County

[JFman00]

Developer pulls end run around St. Johns land use board
The county didn't OK the project, but then the governor's office stepped in.

A wealthy developer could not get approval for his proposed 607-acre housing project in northwest St. Johns County, so he lobbied Gov. Rick Scott’s office to develop a legislative amendment that would apply only to his project, allowing him to build.

And it worked.

The project, dubbed Switzerland by developer Joe Anderson of Anderson Columbia Inc., will be discussed Tuesday by the St. Johns County Commission, which will have a chance to confront the applicant who made an end-run around the board’s authority.

“No local government wants the Legislature to step in and tell you what to do with a piece of property. This amendment was filed only minutes before the Senate heard it,” Assistant County Administrator Darrell Locklear said Monday.

Switzerland the development sits west of Florida 13, south of Greenbriar Road and north of Rivertown. The property has been agricultural for many years and contains 284 acres of wetlands in the southeast corner.
When the Scott administration disbanded the state Department of Community Affairs, it announced that one benefit would be that locals would make land-use decisions.

St. Johns County officials see the Switzerland development as a textbook example of urban sprawl — hundreds of houses plunked down in the middle of empty farmland — and the amendment as an example of government resuming its control over local land-use issues.

A video of the debate in Tallahassee taken during the last day of the 2012 session shows state Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, saying, “When someone files an amendment three minutes before [the deadline] to help one land owner in St. Johns County, I think those of us sitting over here [in the House] have a responsibility not to vote for something like that.”

State Rep. Jose Diaz, R-Miami, was asked where the amendment came from. He replied, “I cannot explain how it got into the Senate. All I know is that Sen. [Michael S.] Bennett asked for it and sent it back.”

Bennett, a Bradenton Republican, did not return phone calls requesting comment about why a southwest Florida senator pushed for an amendment that covers only one St. Johns County property.

There were no local lawmakers involved in pushing through the amendment.

Planning officials and county documents indicate that Anderson applied to the Planning & Zoning Agency in 2009 to change the property’s designation from rural silviculture to Residential B and Conservation.

At the time, Anderson believed his property qualified as an “agricultural enclave,” a designation given to rural property that’s surrounded by development. That designation allows the owner of that property to develop it with housing similar to that surrounding it.

In 2010, state growth management officials said Switzerland was not an enclave because no buildings surround it.
The zoning board recommended approval for Anderson’s request, but county planners did not recommend housing there.

“Staff finds that the [project] has not demonstrated a need [for housing] and the timing for [it] is poor,” a 2010 report said.

Teresa Bishop, the county’s director of long-range planning, said that the staff “remained concerned that there were an awful lot of [housing] units [approved] in that area.”

Locklear added that it would be difficult and expensive to build adequate infrastructure to that remote location.

Peter Guinta/St. Augustine Record


http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-10-16/story/developer-pulls-end-run-around-st-johns-land-use-board

[spuwho]

Sprawl or not, this is wrong. State should not be getting involved in a local land use issue until the local authorities have had their say. The developer s/b going to court if he doesn't like it, not lobbying the legislature.

This is what gives the legislative process a bad rap.

[Jason]

^ Agreed!

St. Johns County officials see the Switzerland development as a textbook example of urban sprawl

I find this quote amusing...  have they ever been anywhere in northern St. Johns?  ITS ALL SPRAWL!!!!

[CityLife]

Important to note this is for a comp plan amendment. The developer will still have to get a PUD for development on the land, which will require it be passed by the County Commission.

[fsquid]

Important to note this is for a comp plan amendment. The developer will still have to get a PUD for development on the land, which will require it be passed by the County Commission.

that would be a fun meeting.

[Tacachale]

Wow, if St. Johns County thinks something is sprawl, brother, you know it's sprawl. What a mess.

[copperfiend]

Slick Rick Scott strikes again.

[CityLife]

Important to note this is for a comp plan amendment. The developer will still have to get a PUD for development on the land, which will require it be passed by the County Commission.

that would be a fun meeting.

Indeed...oh and the developer will have to hold a public meeting somewhere near the proposed development for public comment and input. That is where you'd really see fireworks.

[buckethead]

True, BSC!

Obama fixed it!