St. Johns County growth is impacting school, residential development

The St. Johns County School District says it's struggling to build enough schools to keep up with exploding growth.

Now, it's facing a big decision on where to build a new high school to accommodate thousands more families who could move in between county Road 210 and State Road 16 next year.

Action News Jax reporter Courtney Cole spoke to the school district and the developer about the options that could impact you.

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The St. Johns County school district is growing so fast it needs to build at least one school a year just to keep up.

“We've been struggling with this for quite some time. That's the reason why we passed the half-penny sales tax, to help generate more money to have to build schools,” said Beverly Slough.

Slough is the St. Johns County School Board Vice Chair.

“Currently, there are upward of 70,000 units approved [in St. Johns County] already. Silverleaf development being one of them. And it puts a really hard constraint on us to keep up with all of that growth,” Slough said.

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She told Cole their latest concern is the Silverleaf development.

The developer, The Hutson Companies, plans to build 10,700 residential units. They will be located between CR-210 and SR-16 — at St. Johns Parkway, west of I-95.

John Metcalf, the Vice President of Hutson Management Inc., told Cole the project was approved in 2006.

On Tuesday, April 9, the school board will have to decide on the best spot to build a high school to accommodate the families that will move there.

The first option: to build the school on property that will be connected to the Silverleaf property by a road.

The second option: the school district finds its own site for the high school, which would be more expensive.

“The greater concern is...there just aren't that many pieces of property that are available and that are usable for a high school site,” said Slough.

Metcalf agrees.

“The site we've offered is 96 acres. Good, upland land — it's a rectangle, it's easy access and so forth.  It's difficult today to find those kind of pieces of land in SJC,” Metcalf told  Cole.

Metcalf told Action News Jax he  thinks option one is better, in terms of access, for neighbors.

“We have been waiting on this modification before we actually start residential subdivisions,” Metcalf said.

Slough told Action News Jax Courtney Cole the superintendent’s recommendation is likely going to be for option one — to accept the school site with the connector road.

Metcalf hopes the board will make a decision by May, so construction can start late this year.

Cox Media Group