The Ponte Vedra Beach Municipal Service District held its first meeting of 2025 and announced the results of their recent community survey regarding a no parking ordinance on San Juan Drive.
According to trustee Charles Callaghan, the survey was sent to 1,042 people in the MSD and included three email blasts being sent as well as the survey being posted on the MSD website.
Of those sent, 224 responses were received with 72.8% voting “yes” in favor of a no parking ordinance while 23.3% voted against it and another 4% responded but did not have a feeling either way.
A deeper dive into the survey results found that 63.3% of those voting in favor of the ordinance stated that they had a San Juan Drive address.
The information gathered from the survey will be presented to St. Johns County commissioners during one of their next meetings either on Jan. 21 or Feb. 4.
Another thing the board is hoping to eventually get in front of the Commission is the proposed sidewalk project on San Juan Drive that the MSD has approved and has set aside money for in the budget with the hope of partnering with county for the cost of the project.
“We’ve gone back and forth with the county and hopefully the new board will pursue the sidewalk this year,” vice chair Kitty Switkes said. “I think there’s been some people that don’t want it and they’ve been a little more vocal than the people that do want it. We haven’t given up on it, but the county has not showed any interest lately with helping us out with the sidewalk.”
The MSD needs the county’s support since they are asking the county to help pay for a large portion of the project’s expense.
“They don’t want to go forward unless they feel like the county really wants it, so we have to prove to them that the community really wants it,” Switkes said. “We had some success with the no parking ordinance survey, so we may go that route.”
Switkes also mentioned that she followed up about getting an additional fire hydrant near 73 San Juan Drive.
After speaking with officials, the fire inspector recommended 79 San Juan Drive instead, so she reached out to the owner of that property, and he requested it be placed at the southwest corner near golf course.
“It would work because it is the side of the street that the water main is on so that will be my recommendation to JEA,” Switkes said. “It’s just a matter of me getting a cost, and that will be something that we’ll work in next year’s budget.”
The meeting was unique in that only three trustees were able to attend, which meant that they did not have enough present to have a quorum and could therefore not vote on any issues discussed.
As a result, the election of officers for the new year was postponed and will remain on the agenda for the next meeting scheduled for Feb. 10 at the Ponte Vedra Beach public library.
