Representatives from two Ponte Vedra-based groups were among those organizations recently seeking support from the St. Johns County Legislative Delegation in early December 2018.
Held at the St. Johns County Auditorium in St. Augustine on Dec. 7, the meeting convened State Rep. Cyndi Stevenson of District 17, State Rep. Paul Renner of District 24 and State Sen. Travis Hutson of District 7. The delegation took nearly three hours to hear from people and entities of St. Johns County requesting financial aid for various initiatives, two of which focused on beach restoration and traffic in Ponte Vedra.
Ponte Vedra Beach resident Lori Moffett spoke on behalf of Save Ponte Vedra Beach Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to restoring the beaches of Ponte Vedra back to their 1980s profile. She started by highlighting the erosion that the coastline has endured due to Hurricanes Irma and Matthew and significant nor’easters, noting that Ponte Vedra has lost 135 feet of width of its coastline. She added that Ponte Vedra has lost about 2.5 million cubic yards of sand over time, which she equated to nearly 200,000 truckloads of sand. And according to coastal engineers the organization has retained, she said Ponte Vedra is losing about three feet per year of coastline.
“So, at this pace, Ponte Vedra’s beach will eventually be gone,” Moffett said.
The Ponte Vedra Beach resident then discussed what’s at stake if these trends continue, including $6 billion in property value, a tourism industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue and Mickler’s Landing Beach, which Moffett said is the county’s largest public beach in terms of parking spaces.
Moffett ultimately requested that the delegation help finance the local renourishment project, which she said will cost about $35 million. According to Moffett, Save Ponte Vedra Beach is already working on securing local and federal funding. She asked that the delegation match what the organization and community can raise via those avenues. (Read next week’s Recorder for an update on the proposed MSTU to support beach renourishment.)
Sen. Hutson said the project may take time, but that they will go after the money year after year to help. Rep. Renner noted that they were able to secure over $13 million for beach renourishment in St. Johns and Flagler counties a few years ago, which he said was “like pulling a rabbit out of a hat legislatively.” He said he expects those funds have been expended appropriately.
Traffic
Sometime after Moffett, Ponte Vedra resident Greg Leonard spoke on behalf of the Citizens Traffic Task Force (CTTF) regarding proposed traffic improvements in Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley.
Leonard said St. Johns County has grown by more than 400 percent since 1980 and that the roadways in Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley have not seen any improvements since then. He specifically pointed to the section of road on the Nocatee Parkway that goes from Davis Park to the Palm Valley Bridge. From 2010 to 2018, Leonard said the vehicular traffic per day on that section has increased by 100 percent.
“That’s literally 13,000 more cars a day,” he said. “That’s just one of the arteries coming into our communities.
Leonard then explained the four-year journey that has brought the CTTF to where it is today. This included discussion on the formation of the group and its strategic plan; a study completed with the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization on traffic conditions that was presented at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in April 2017; the distribution of surveys to the community to gauge approval of certain projects; and more.
Leonard ultimately requested support from the delegation on various intersection improvements that total about $5.2 million. According to John Wegl, another member of the CTTF board, that $5.2 million consists of $2.7 million for intersection improvements on A1A, $1 million for improvements at the intersection of Roscoe boulevard and Palm Valley Road and $1.5 million for the intersection of Palm Valley Road and Mickler Road.
“(We’re asking) for those low cost, modest improvements that are needed to intersections to facilitate more appropriate flow of traffic through our community,” Leonard said at the meeting. “This is a very big, hot-button issue in the Ponte Vedra Beach area.”
Among those other organizations seeking support from the delegation included the St. Johns County School District, the City of St. Augustine, Flagler College, North Florida Land Trust, the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau and others.
