A development agreement before the county board Tuesday would take 512 homes off the obligation to widen roughly three miles of State Road 16 and settle the transportation impact of those homes for $20,000,000 instead. It is item 7 on the regular agenda, it is the second of the two public hearings state law requires for a development agreement, and the first was held on Oct. 6.

The companion item puts the swap in a single bullet. Item 6 revises “the developer’s requirement to widen/four lane an approximately three (3) mile segment of State Road 16 from San Giacomo Road to the project entrance in lieu of a commitment to provide $20,000,000 in total proportionate fair share mitigation.”

That road requirement is the one this paper wrote about in September, when the agenda entry carried no dollar figure of any kind. It carries one now.

What the 2018 deal said, and what became of it

Ordinance 2018-40 approved the Grand Oaks PUD, a planned unit development, which lets a builder trade the standard zoning rules for a custom set written into a master development plan that runs with the land. The set approved in 2018 allowed up to 999 single-family homes, 100,000 square feet of commercial space and 50,000 square feet of office on approximately 524 acres, about 93.5 acres of which are wetlands.

Alongside it the county approved a concurrency and impact fee credit agreement with Southeast Development Partners, LLC. Under that agreement Southeast owed the county $7,500 for each of the first 212 platted lots and $15,000 a lot starting with the 213th, and the money was to be used to widen a three-mile segment of State Road 16 to four lanes. The county received $5,040,000 under it, covering 442 platted lots.

On Feb. 21, 2023, the board declared Southeast to be in default. On Sept. 20, 2024, the owners of the property terminated Southeast as the development manager. The proposed agreement recites both dates and states that as to any remaining mitigation obligation the previous agreement “is hereby null and void against all parties but Southeast.”

The applicant now is Pulte Home Company, LLC, a Michigan limited liability company, with Homestead Investments, LLC, Day Late Enterprises, Inc. and Toll Southeast LP Company, Inc. named in the agreement as the other owners. The representative listed on both items is Zach Miller.

Staff and the applicant do not agree on the number

The staff report gives three figures for what the 512 homes owe, and prints all three. They do not agree.

Figure Amount
Proportionate fair share as staff calculates it $12,850,449
Required proportionate share as the proposed agreement states it $2,471,306
Total mitigation the applicant proposes to pay $20,000,000

Staff writes that the agreement’s figure “differs from the staff calculation based on the applicant’s interpretation of the applicable Florida Statute,” and that the proposed payment “is estimated to be $7,149,551 more than the staff calculated proportionate share.”

Proportionate fair share is the mechanism in section 163.3180 of the Florida Statutes and Article XI of the county’s Land Development Code that lets a development proceed through a road already below the county’s own standard by paying a share of the fix instead of building it. The share is a calculation, and the two sides of this one sit about five times apart.

Staff also records that its review is complete “with two (2) outstanding comments,” and names them as the proportionate share calculation and the impact fee credit reduction calculation. The report says the applicant “will need to address staff comments and make any necessary revisions to the Agreement prior to the second public hearing agenda deadline.” That deadline has passed. The agenda is posted.

The credit

The proposed agreement also asks for a road impact fee credit of $19,505,738.80. Staff calculates the applicable credit at $19,396,839, after a $603,161 reduction applied to the required proportionate fair share under Land Development Code section 11.09.06.F.

A road impact fee credit is money the builder does not later pay in road impact fees as it pulls permits. Under the code the maximum 20 percent reduction applies only to the required proportionate share, and anything paid above that share, staff writes, “would be credible on a dollar for dollar basis with no reduction.”

When the money would arrive

Stage Amount Units
Within 90 days of the effective date $5,760,000 144, Phases 2B-1 and 2B-2, Spring Park
Within 90 days of the effective date $5,320,000 145, Phases 2A-1 and 2A-2, Summer Bay
Within 90 days of the effective date $2,720,000 68, Phase 1C-2
No later than 12 months after the above $5,440,000 136, Phases 2D-1, 2D-2 and 2E
No later than 12 months after the above $760,000 19, Phase 2C

The five amounts add to $20,000,000 and the five unit counts add to 512, which is this paper’s addition of figures the report prints. Dividing each line by its own unit count, also this paper’s arithmetic, gives exactly $40,000 a home on four of the five lines and about $36,700 on the Summer Bay line, which is the one that does not come out even.

Across all 512 homes the payment works out to roughly $39,000 each. The previous agreement charged $15,000 a lot once the 213th lot was platted.

The concurrency question

Staff lists ten roadway segments inside the four-mile study area that are adversely impacted and require mitigation, and describes all of them as currently over 100 percent of capacity based on total committed traffic.

Six are on State Road 16, running from State Road 13 east to Four Mile Road, and they include both the segment past the west mall entrance and the segment through the Interstate 95 interchange. One is International Golf Parkway from St. Johns Parkway to I-95. Two are County Road 2209, from Silverleaf Parkway to the First Coast Expressway and from the expressway to County Road 210.

Neither staff report says what the $20,000,000 would build, or when.

The companion item

Item 6 is the modification itself. It cuts the remaining entitled units from 556 to 512, which takes the PUD ceiling from 999 to 954, and the staff report records approximately 437 homes built so far. It reclassifies the westernmost State Road 16 access as a 60-foot emergency access only, and it removes the language contemplating a future connection to County Road 2209.

The Planning and Zoning Agency heard it on Sept. 17 and recommended approval 6-0, on a motion by Chuck Labanowski seconded by Judy Spiegel, with Greg Matovina absent. Staff offers the board six findings of fact supporting approval and seven supporting denial.

At that hearing, according to the staff report, the applicant told the agency that each residence is paying approximately $1,500 in operations and maintenance costs through the community development district, and agency members asked how federal BUILD grants would be pursued if the $20 million contribution is approved. Several Grand Oaks residents spoke in favor of the modification, citing operating costs and home values.

The county also records a noticing problem with the required community meeting. Staff writes that the applicant “did not publish the required newspaper notice within 15 days of the meeting and did not post the required noticing signs on the subject property,” and that on becoming aware of it the applicant “made a good faith effort to provide the required noticing as soon as possible.” The newspaper advertisement ran Aug. 31 and the signs went up Aug. 28, for a meeting held Sept. 2 at the Grand Oaks Clubhouse at 1055 Turnbull Creek Road. More than 150 residents came.

Tuesday

The board meets at 9 a.m. in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View, and public comment is taken near the top of the meeting, before the regular agenda is heard. Item 6 is the modification. Item 7 is the agreement, and item 7 is the one that has already had a hearing.