The St. Johns County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously rejected an application to develop the controversial 3,300 home “Agrihood’ project west of St. Augustine.
In nixing the plan, board members cited concerns about Verde’s impact on traffic, school populations and what some deemed to be too many outstanding questions about its scope.
“I just don’t think this proposal is ready for prime time,” Chair Sarah Arnold said after listening to speakers from the developer, Freehold Communities, and public speakers opposed to the project. “It’s not that there won’t be a day when it’s appropriate, but I do not think that time is now.”
The vote comes after the county’s Planning and Zoning agency voiced similar objections last month and voted 7-0 to recommend a rejection.
Members of the public were again out in force to lobby against an approval Tuesday, arguing that the project would further strain the area’s increasingly overburdened infrastructure.
Board members said they had received hundreds of emails almost uniformly opposed to an approval.
In supporting the application, Freehold representatives have asserted that their completed Agrihood developments have been unqualified successes, with residents taking advantage of rustic amenities like on site farmers markets.
Representatives argued Tuesday that the new homes and their proposed location aligned with the county’s Comprehensive Plan, which accounts for population growth in the coming years and decades.
But those arguments fell short of winning over the panel, with several members noting traffic concerns — and the zoning board’s emphatic rejection.
The development would have introduced an additional 23,000 daily trips to local roadways already prone to clogging.
Freehold’s “Agrihood” model touts developments that incorporate agricultural accents like event barns and working farms that create a “Farm to Table Lifestyle.”
The 2,673 acre tract sits between County Roads 208 and 214 west of Interstate 95 – south of the St. Augustine Outlets.
The “Agrihood” plan also included 250,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
The property is currently owned by the Robinson Improvement Company, founded more than a century ago by early St. Johns landowner John Robinson.
