D.R. Horton planning 800 townhomes in St. Johns County

[marcuscnelson]

I have a feeling this is not going to go over well.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/d-r-horton-planning-800-townhomes-in-st-johns-county

National homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. seeks to rezone 144.8 acres in St. Johns County to build 800 townhomes for workforce housing.
The project, called Bridgewater, is planned south of County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1.

[Kerry]

Suburban townhomes has to be the dumbest idea ever.  All tge inconveniences of urban housing plus all the hassel of suburban commuting.

[thelakelander]

I have a feeling this is not going to go over well.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/d-r-horton-planning-800-townhomes-in-st-johns-county

National homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. seeks to rezone 144.8 acres in St. Johns County to build 800 townhomes for workforce housing.
The project, called Bridgewater, is planned south of County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1.

So this would be somewhere across the street from the fake beach development? Yes, I can definitely see the pinch forks coming out.

[Snufflee]

At this point, just pave over all of Northern St. Johns county and have a developer Free for All.

[pierre]

Suburban townhomes has to be the dumbest idea ever.  All tge inconveniences of urban housing plus all the hassel of suburban commuting.

The suburban townhomes are more for people that want a house in the suburbs. But want to save some money and also not have to worry about a yard to care for.

I had one on the Southside for several years. As a young, working family it was very convenient.

[Kerry]

At this point, just pave over all of Northern St. Johns county and have a developer Free for All.

Pertinence, they're working on it.  Meanwhile plenty of land with existing streets, utilities, police/fire, local shopping centers, and other infrastructure being underutilized.

[marcuscnelson]

At this point, just pave over all of Northern St. Johns county and have a developer Free for All.

Pertinence, they're working on it.  Meanwhile plenty of land with existing streets, utilities, police/fire, local shopping centers, and other infrastructure being underutilized.

To be fair, not really. Up here everything seems to fill up almost as soon as it opens. Durbin Pavilion will be built-out by the summer, construction can't keep up with demand and half the reason the county approves new projects is to fund road projects to keep up with development in other places. The exceptions are maybe the new Ash complexes that were pretty much built as an add-on for the Atlantic Storage facilities that are getting immediately filled up.

Unless you're actually talking about the southern part of the county, but the issue there seems to just be that people don't want to live there. The schools in the north tend to have even better reputations than the south and Jacksonville is close enough that it's only half an hour to drive, but not so close that the scary crime and poor people are in our backyards. Is this mindset stupid? Probably, but it is what it is. It doesn't help that there's this weird mindset of "well I deserve to be here, but nobody after me can."

[Kerry]

I always think to myself, if Jacksonville was built at the same density of Paris the entire population of Metro-Jax would be within 3 miles of the Main Street bridge.  Think of the tax savings.

[marcuscnelson]

But why would Jacksonville have ever been built at the same density of Paris? It's an interesting thought experiment, but utterly unrealistic.

[Adam White]

But why would Jacksonville have ever been built at the same density of Paris? It's an interesting thought experiment, but utterly unrealistic.

It's because of lack of regulation, really. In areas with greenbelts or urban growth boundaries, you tend to get infill.

[thelakelander]

Even with regulations, the density would have never been that of Paris. Paris has been a major international city for centuries. Jax is a podunk cow town in comparison.  Most of the US cities are podunk cow towns in comparison.  Totally unrealistic to even compare.

[bl8jaxnative]

Be careful what you wish for.  In the old days, a key means to achieving those high densities was to fill in all the low spots or dig massive drainage canals.   In an area like ours teaming with wetlands we shouldn't be killing the wetlands in the name of "density".

[Kerry]

Be careful what you wish for.  In the old days, a key means to achieving those high densities was to fill in all the low spots or dig massive drainage canals.   In an area like ours teaming with wetlands we shouldn't be killing the wetlands in the name of "density".

If protection of the environment was the objective, high density urbanism is the best solution.  99% of Jax would be undeveloped nature and the Davis family would have to make money selling timber, not land for urban sprawl.