Nocatee: The New Southside

[second_pancake]

Hank, Lake and Jason have it right-on-the-money.  And I'll add, MY gripe with this is the fact that it's touted as being a work-live-play "town" when it is not.  The majority of these types of towns are appealing because if gives the sense of a tight-knit community with plenty of social activities to do and places to work without ever having to leav your little town, but the fact of the matter is, the types of businesses that go into these towns are national chain retail businesses...the types of places that pay just over minimum-wage.  No family, even with it being a dual-income household, could afford the housing working that type of job.  It almost always requires the residents to work outside of the town, and for the people that work in the town, they are living in places that are more affordable, located outside of town. So, what is really accomplished other than just another pretty place to live that created more sprawl and more traffic nightmares?

The planners really should do analysis on employment in the city, find out where the majority of people work (the people to which their community will cater), then create their town within a walkable/rideable vicinity of those business.  Only then will there be a true work/live/play community.

[hank]

You're right pancake, much of this stuff is so artificial... a wolf in sheep's clothing for our city.  I suppose I see this thing as an exercise in understanding real estate buyers and what they're enticed by.

[Jason]

Not to let the planners off the hook here Pancake, but its up to the city/county to do the analysis on what's best, not the planners.  They are out for one thing, Money.  It will be marketed as anything they can get away with to draw in the buyers.  Now, as far as I'm concerned, St Johns County has made the statement that they are happy with feeding off of Duval by drawing in a residential base along the county line that commutes daily to Jacksonville for work.  I'll be impressed when the county decides to stop approving bedroom community developments of this type and start pushing for the enhancement of the existing core area by drawing in more employers and infill development to become more self-sufficient.

The World Commerce Center (along with World Golf Village) is a shoddy attempt at promoting the corporate growth of St. Johns county.  The problem lies with the fact that it was built in the middle of nowhere forcing more farmland and wilderness to suffer the bulldozer in the name of "Progress".  It may eventually resemble another Southpoint, however, will also suffer the same problems with traffic and infrastructure.  Both could have easily been built within the urbanized area of St. Augustine and likely would have enjoyed a much quicker and larger success than starting from scratch.

[second_pancake]

I agree 100%, Jason.

Btw, if anyone is interested in a bungalow in Avondale, I have one for sale...and would like to get out of my house in Baymeadows too   My husband and I want to move back to the Riverside area but my house is not large enough for our lifestyle and the Baymeadows house is not to my liking, so for anyone interested just shoot me an email.

[Jason]

Just passed through Nocatee this morning and the construction seems to be moving forward full force.  New roadways and other infrastructure are bustling with activity and the new Race Track road connection is well underway, slated for a 2010 completion.