Growth of the local community was a recurring topic during the Beaches Coalition’s final meeting of the year Dec. 6.
The guest speakers included Karen Everett, director of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce Ponte Vedra Division and Teresa Bishop, St. Johns County planning division manager.
Everett spoke about ways that the Chamber is looking into how to go about tourism engagement in Ponte Vedra.
According to Everett, 81% of visitors are at Ponte Vedra’s “front door,” but only 13% of those explore the Ponte Vedra area.
Most of those visitors come to see the sights in St. Augustine.
“How do we drive visitors to extend their stay by visiting Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm Valley and Nocatee?” Everett said. “If we can just get a percentage of them to come up the road and see Ponte Vedra while they’re here.”
Some of the advantages Everett presented by creating more tourism, would include bed tax increases and helping provide new customers to local businesses.
One of the things the visitors center located in Ponte Vedra Beach has strived to do is promote the natural resources the area has to offer by presenting options for biking, fishing, birding, hiking and kayaking.
Bishop also talked to those in attendance about local growth but did so with a focus on how it translates in the use and development of the land.
According to Bishop, land development regulations, including zoning, must be consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan for the future.
Nine elements make up the details that go into determining what a county’s comprehensive plan looks like.
These elements are land use, transportation, infrastructure, coastal conservation, property rights, housing, recreation/open space, capital improvement and intergovernmental coordination.
Ponte Vedra’s zoning regulations were created in 1965 by Florida House Bill No. 85.
“Ponte Vedra had zoning about six years before the county did,” Bishop said.
Recent land development approvals in the past year have created conversation among Ponte Vedra residents have been the Gate construction plans (February), which has included clear-cutting the land, the construction of a 108,000 square-foot self-storage facility (July) and the approval of The Approach at Ponte Vedra (October), which will entail a 43,000 square-foot space designated for commercial, office and a 120-room hotel.
Bishop stated that 85% of the building permit requests they receive are for single family residential. However, requests for retail and commercial are increasing with some office and industrial interest as well.
According to Bishop, she has noticed a difference since the death of longtime Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District planning division advisor Jack Pope in 2015, and it has had an impact on some decisions that have been made.
Residents can go to www.sjcfl.us and click of the development tracker tab under the featured list to find a map where they can stay up to date with the progress and details of certain projects.
