Northern St. Johns County: Beachwalk

[thelakelander]

The Jaxson takes a drive through a new suburban development featuring a 14-acre artificial lagoon and beach: Beachwalk

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/northern-st-johns-county-beachwalk/

[Ken_FSU]

To each their own, but the hardest of hard passes on this for me.

Maybe it's just because I'm not a suburban kinda guy in general, but almost feels a little unsettling.

[Steve]

This whole thing is so weird. A fake beach 15 minutes from the OCEAN.

I mean if they built this in Kansas or Nebraska, it's still weird but I'd get it. This is bizarre.

The only argument for it I could see: St. John's County has done a terrible job of making sure all get access to the beach. Outside of Mickler's it's admittedly a drive unless you're a member of a beach club or own an oceanfront home.

That seems like it would be a TON of money to keep that up.

[pierre]

A very America thing

[Snaketoz]

Makes as much sense as tanning salons in Florida.

[thelakelander]

The residents there seemed to be heading to the lagoon in droves, the day I drove through the community. I'm interested to see how trash is kept from entering the lagoon after the waterfront retail section opens.

[fsu813]

Haters.

Grab yourself an Applebee's to-go signature drink of the month (currently Teremana Tequilla), a fresh Bloomin' Onion to snack on, and enjoy the bleached white, literally, sand beaches of the largest man made lake north of Blizzard Beach and south of the San Marco Publix parking lot!

[jaxjaguar]

It's crazy to me how car centric all of these new massive neighborhoods are. It's hard to tell from pictures, but it seems like they have no emphasis on walking/biking. There aren't many opportunities in the US to build out an entire new community of this scale from scratch. It's like they just develop them with the same mistakes from all of the 70's, 80's, 90's projects and slap on a fancy clear retention pond to make it seem revolutionary.

Where's the density? How will these communities prosper when they're so far from civilization? What's the point of all of this sprawl if there's not going to be any kind of vision for the future?

[jaxlongtimer]

A few comments:

Obviously, the property was clear cut of any indigenous trees and, with the exception of a few baby trees, mostly palms, if any at all, it looks like the property is pretty bare today and will remain so well into the future.  Boring... and not environmentally healthy.  Surprised St. Johns County doesn't require a decent hardwood tree planted on every lot.

Most of the houses "on the beach" are side-by-side townhomes and this looks to be repeated in some of the other subdivisions.  I think some of these townhomes have been listed on Zillow in the range of $1 +/- million.  For that, I can live on real water or pretty close to it.

Too bad the Seaside at Beachwalk didn't mimic Seaside on the Panhandle.  How hard would it have been to do a copy and paste of something along the lines of that.  They probably could have received a much bigger premium for something like that.

[thelakelander]

It's crazy to me how car centric all of these new massive neighborhoods are. It's hard to tell from pictures, but it seems like they have no emphasis on walking/biking. There aren't many opportunities in the US to build out an entire new community of this scale from scratch. It's like they just develop them with the same mistakes from all of the 70's, 80's, 90's projects and slap on a fancy clear retention pond to make it seem revolutionary.

Where's the density? How will these communities prosper when they're so far from civilization? What's the point of all of this sprawl if there's not going to be any kind of vision for the future?

The development has a suburban street layout. However, the main streets have golf cart paths, which I guess one could also walk or bike on them. These paths also will offer connectivity to the retail development on the south side of the lagoon in the future. Walkability would be enhanced with some trees and increased density. However, it doesn't appear that was a major development concern. In addition, I'm not sure that the people paying +$500k for a single family home will be doing much walking or care too.

[Florida Power And Light]

Knowing what I do, after having lived here for thirty plus years, this is where I would move to, until recently.
Even though I “ opposed “ the development.

[fsquid]

This whole thing is so weird. A fake beach 15 minutes from the OCEAN.

I mean if they built this in Kansas or Nebraska, it's still weird but I'd get it. This is bizarre.

The only argument for it I could see: St. John's County has done a terrible job of making sure all get access to the beach. Outside of Mickler's it's admittedly a drive unless you're a member of a beach club or own an oceanfront home.

That seems like it would be a TON of money to keep that up.

I have a buddy that's a super for Lennar.  He says the HOA fees are absolutely insane.

[Florida Power And Light]

“ Fake” ?
Yes.
Beats a large swath of Duval County.
Place a similar waterfront facility at Duval 103 St Corridor and see if that makes things “ Better”.

[JPalmer]

“ Fake” ?
Yes.
Beats a large swath of Duval County.
Place a similar waterfront facility at Duval 103 St Corridor and see if that makes things “ Better”.

I'm going to say it would not make things better and you would have a failed venture.