Construction Begins on Final Phase of SR 9B

[thelakelander]

^If you want a better chance at being physically sustainable at a public level, more density is needed to support the infrastructure being subsidized to support it.

[lastdaysoffla]

Don't count on that. They've given no signals that that's the way they're going.

One can hope. It's absurd that the Commission and the PZA are basically compelled by law that they approve developments that meet the requirements. They have very little room to deny applications and if they do, the developers are allowed to sue until they approve. Why have a Commission and PZA? Why not just let the developers run free, which is basically how it is now. Especially with Commissioners serving that used to work for developers. There is a specific example of that in the recent past. The woman's name escapes me at the moment. I know of only two recent developments that got denied, one down on CR 206 that was just incredibly large and out of place and one that was stopped for the time being by a community members banding together. A friend of mine was a part of that and he is cautiously optimistic that they will succeed. The community needs more of that.

While I wouldn't call Palm Coast an urban development, they do have good integration of the developments and they come together. For a suburban town layout, they probably have a better density rating than Duval.

Northern St Johns has large greenspace boundaries between the developments which forces lower densities and makes the sprawl farther relative to the number of people they support.

Which raises a good question, raise densities and force everyone into more common greenspaces, or keep densities lower and distribute the greenspace proportionally?

Well I wasn't bringing up Palm Coast as an urban sprawl example, more of just a demonstration of what unchecked suburban growth looks like. Very unappealing to me. It seems every square foot is now endless cookie cutter houses. Reminds me of the The Villages in Central Florida.

As far as density, I don't see how the developments could get any more dense without being townhouses or something of that sort. The setbacks are only ten feet in most cases. I honestly don't see how there is so much demand for houses on a fraction of an acre with only ten feet separating them.

With respect to greespaces, recently I had seen that the County had revised the mitigation requirements for new developments. Lowering the amount of trees that need to remain or be replaced. The so called mitigation lands are pitifully tiny compared to whats being destroyed.

I would like to see more passive parks in NW SJC, to date I think there is only one in the area. Not counting the Julington-Durbin Preserve which is almost entirely in Duval. The access to the canoe trail on Durbin creek was recently closed due to the construction of the 9B and the "bigger than Town Center" development borders the Preserve which is a shame. I know the developers said that greenspace will be incorporated into the plan. I'm skeptical of that promise. We'll unfortunately have to wait and see if it will be real greenspace or a retention pond behind a Wal-Mart type greespace.

[thelakelander]

^Palm Coast and The Villages are two planned suburban communities. Unchecked sprawl looks more like this:

[Sonic101]

I really hope the development stays on the north side of the county, I would hate to lose the farming communities like Hastings and Molasses Junction to sprawl. Anytime I take friends visiting from out of state down that way I get a lot of: "I thought Florida only did oranges.", so I think its a part of Florida that people don't associate with it.