It is important to have a plan for the future, whether you are a government entity or a business, and it can go a long way in helping instill success when the path forward is as clear and obvious as possible.
St. Johns County’s current comprehensive plan in place expires in 2025 and they are current in the process of gathering and formulating the information that will go a long way into figuring out the best direction for a new plan.
Even though the comprehensive plan is not yet in its last year, there has been a lot of work to make sure everything is lined up and approved when the next plan is needed to take its place in 2026.
The plan is required to be evaluated every seven years to determine whether an update is necessary depending on the county’s situation at the time and moving, and the latest date for transmittal of the updated plan to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners is July 2025.
The county’s staff recommends several updates be made, including a response to changes in the state regulations; population changes in the county; the incorporation of updated master plans for each of the service areas, such as parks and recreation, fire services and libraries and the incorporation of public input.
The latter of these is why the county has been holding community meetings during the last couple of months to get feedback from each of the districts that make up the county.
Two of the five meetings scheduled have already taken place with the remaining three set to take place on March 26 at the Hastings W.E. Harris Community Center in Hastings, on March 27 at The Waterworks Building in St. Augustine, and on March 28 at Creekside High School in St. Johns.
Some of the ideas shared by the public during the meetings, include a slowing down of growth, especially until the roads and infrastructure surrounding the intended growth are developed first in order to handle it.
This includes the daily traffic along State Road A1A, and perhaps more efficient access onto Butler Boulevard heading west along the route.
There are some residents who do not want to see anymore growth at all for a while, but many also just want to see a better control of the growth and to reign in the authorized exceptions, especially when they stray from the comprehensive plan initially agreed upon.
Protecting the natural spaces the county has is also something some residents would like to see become more of a focus when approving new development.
The difference between a comprehensive plan and a strategic plan is that a comprehensive plan is a long-term look on where a county hopes to be in terms of its growth and development, while a strategic plan are goals in place that can be achieved in a short term.
Residents who are unable to attend the community meetings can still have their ideas heard by filling out a survey at inspireengagement.com/stjohnscountyplanupdate.
