It started
as a relatively harmless proposition: St. Johns County would
swap some property in the Nocatee preserve for right of way in
the Guana River Wildlife Management Area. The motive would be
to widen County Road 210 to accommodate the fastest-growing
county in Northeast Florida.
While far from a done deal, the road project put the idea
of taking Guana land squarely on the table. So when the school
district began looking to solve another growth problem --
finding a site for a new high school in northeastern St. Johns
County -- the focus again turned to the 12,000-acre,
state-owned conservation area and park.
Never mind that building a school in a state wildlife area
has never been done in Florida history.
Never mind that a member of the school site selection
committee says it's at the bottom of the list.
Never mind that state officials have all but ruled it out.
The mere mention of a school has people bombarding the
county with phone calls, letters and e-mails about invading
Guana for any reason.
| St Johns County public schools by the
numbers
Number of St. Johns County public schools:
1995 --22
*
Number of St. Johns County public school
students:
in ,036
in ,269
in ,504
in ,327
projected in fall -- 22,202
* by fall
Source: St. Johns County school
district
School land choices limited by
available space
Sites identified as large enough for a new
northeast St. Johns County high school or facility such
as a football stadium and being considered by a site
selection committee:
Florida A1A at Duval County line behind the Target
shopping center -- 6 developable acres
Pinecrest/Surfside subdivision just east of Marsh
Landing Parkway -- 126 developable acres
JEA wastewater treatment area on Florida A1A behind
the Talbot shopping center -- 30 developable acres
Between Roscoe Boulevard and Wilderness Trail-- from
15 to 20 developable acres
East side of County Road 210 north of Canal
Boulevard -- from 20 to 25 developable acres
West side of County Road 210 north of Canal
Boulevard -- from 20 to 25 developable acres
County Road 210 east of Canal Boulevard -- from 15
to 20 developable acres
Northwest corner of Landrum Lane and County Road 210
-- 12 developable acres
The Tournament Players Club parking lot near Florida
A1A and County Road 210 -- 54 developable acres
East of Roscoe Boulevard near Dixon Place -- 22
developable acres
South end of Neck Road -- 91 developable acres
Guana River Wildlife Management Area near County
Road 210 and Mickler's Road -- 131 developable acres
Oak Bridge golf course at Sawgrass -- 138
developable acres
Florida A1A near New Beginnings Baptist Church -- 21
developable acres
Source: Site selection committee
|
"The
idea of giving up some of what we have left is disgraceful,"
Ponte Vedra Beach resident Clara Cowan told county
commissioners at one of their meetings last month.
The Guana tract is considered an outdoors enthusiast's
playground, attracting about 165,000 visitors a year. A short
drive from Jacksonville and St. Augustine, it's popular with
hikers, cyclists, fishermen, hunters, paddlers, bird-watchers
and beachgoers.
"I would be horrified if they didn't find an alternative to
polluting this beautiful place," said Ellen O'Brien, a Ponte
Vedra Beach resident who often rides her horse through Guana.
"It's a wonderful example of the Florida swamps at its best."
Don House is one of a group of people who havey
spoken in favor of building a school there. The Palm Valley
resident resigned from the site selection committee so he
could more freely promote the location.
Guana probably is the most suitable and desirable site for
a Ponte Vedra Beach high school because there are at least 100
acres of developable land, House said. The proposed northern
portion of Guana on the east side of County Road 210 between
Roscoe Boulevard Extension and Mickler's Road also isn't
pristine or natural because its been used as a tree farm.
"It would just be a beautiful site for a quality school,"
he said.
The northern end of the wildlife management area is a pine
plantation now but the state is in the process of thinning the
area to restore it to its natural condition, said Mike Abbott,
regional wildlife management biologist with the Florida Fish
& Wildlife Conservation Commission, which manages the
area.
"Just because it's a pine plantation now doesn't mean it
doesn't have value," said Abbott, who prefers the land not be
developed. "It certainly has value. It's going to be a
beautiful piece of property in a few years, even if it's not
natural now."
State officials say it's possible the county would be
allowed to use some of Guana's edge to widen County Road 210,
known as Palm Valley Road east of U.S. 1. Yet, even if that
happens, building a school there would face heavy scrutiny.
The county and the school district would have to get
approval from various state agencies, the governor and Cabinet
and possibly the Legislature for their respective projects.
The county and the school district would have to pay for the
land based on appraisals, which have skyrocketed in the area,
or get it in exchange for giving the state another piece of
land that could be used for conservation.
"We don't look terribly favorably on disposing of
conservation lands or using them for non-conservation
reasons," said Ed Wood, bureau chief of public land
administration for the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, which would have to approve using Guana. "It has
happened, but it's a tough process."
Pieces of some of the more than 100 wildlife management
areas across Florida occasionally have been used to widen
roads but never for a school, Wood said.
 |
Ellen O'Brien
of Ponte Vedra rides her horse, Atila, as her dog,
Hector, strolls along a dirt road near the dam at Guana
River State Park. O'Brien said she frequents the trails
with her horse and would be horrified to see any of the
land developed.
-- Bob
Mack/Staff
|
Others at the state level
and some St. Johns County School Board and County Commission
members also are against building a school in Guana. Most of
those people said they're also hesitant to use Guana to widen
County Road 210 but are moreto that. County officials
are looking into swapping land in Guana for some in the
Nocatee preserve to widen the road from two to four lanes
because the area is growing so rapidly and on the state's
urging because it's a hurricane evacuation route.
"First, the widening of 210 could be a public issue where
the good could outweigh the bad," said state Senate President
Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican whose district includes
part of St. Johns County. "But I'm, at this point, totally
opposed to the high school being in Guana."
King and School Board members said people have overwhelmed
them about the issue.
The idea of setting a precedent that it's OK to use parts
of Guana here and there is what's made many people take a
stand against using any of it for road widening or for a
school.
"I think that if everyone thinks it's OK to take 17 feet
here for a right of way and more for a school, then later
they'll take some more for houses and so on," Jacksonville
resident Jill Beneda said recently while walking through the
park with her boyfriend. "They're going to chip away at it
until it's gone."
5-year plan
The County Commission hasn't decided how it will widen
County Road 210 just as the School Board still hasn't decided
where it will build a new high school. The two groups are
expected to discuss the issues in a joint workshop this month.
All students in the northeast and north-central part of the
county now attend Nease High School, near County Road 210 and
U.S. 1. But Nease already exceeds its capacity of 1,500
students, and enrollment will continue to increase because of
the extensive development in the area, Principal Robert
Schiavone said.
Nocatee has donated land for another St. Johns County
public high school but that would be for the estimated 1,300
students who will live in Nocatee once it is completed, said
David Toner, executive director of facilities and operations
for the St. Johns County school district.
Between90 percent and 95 percent of Nease students live in
Ponte Vedra Beach and have to drive about 15 miles each day,
Schiavone said.
Students interviewed at Nease last week said they'd like a
high school closer to home because their drives to school are
15 to 30 minutes long on high-traffic roads.
"It's kind of a haul coming all the way out here," Nease
senior Aubree Cook said. "I think it would have helped out a
long time ago but, for the future, parents are worried about
their kids driving to school on these dangerous roads."
It's a lot of young, inexperienced drivers on the same
roads, said Sharon Middleton, a Ponte Vedra Beach mother of a
Nease freshman.
A new high school in the Ponte Vedra Beach area is part of
the school district's five-year building plan. Construction is
slated to begin in 2005, and the school scheduled toin
2007.
In July, the School Board formed a site selection committee
of a dozen area residents to evaluate 14 potential pieces of
land an engineering firm has identified as large enough for a
high school or facilities such as a football stadium.
Besides Guana, others include the Oak Bridge golf course at
Sawgrass and a parking lot at the Tournament Players Club near
Florida A1A and Country Road 210.
| |
Nancy
Gormley's 10th-grade, advanced pre-calculus class at
Nease High School has 36 students and little space in
which to move.
-- Bob
Mack/Staff
|
Committee Chairman Steven
Buskirk said it's too early to comment on any of the
particular sites. Committee member Bill Smedberg said Guana
would be the last choice and only if the other sites aren't
feasible.
Schiavone said Guana would be an interesting place for a
school if it could have some type of environmental academy and
could be built there while maintaining the environmental
integrity of the area.
Others who have spoken in support of the idea at community
and site selection meetings didn't return phone calls for
comment.
The site selection committee will spend the next few months
evaluating the sites and eventually recommend a few to the
School Board, which ultimately will decide where to build the
school.
School Board members Diane Lovell and Carla Wright said
they oppose building a school in Guana.
"I disagree with that and I'll never vote for it," Lovell
said. "I just think it's the wrong place. I feel like it's
state land. It was bought and preserved for a reason and I
don't feel like we should turn around and change it."
The state bought Guana in 1984 for nearly $50 million from
Gate Petroleum through a state land acquisition program.
School Board members Bill Fehling and Beverly Slough
declined to give their opinion on where the school should be
until the committee makes its recommendations. Board member
Tommy Allen couldn't be reached.
"If the committee doesn't recommend it, then everyone will
have gotten in a tizzy for nothing," Fehling said.
Staff writer Shawna Sundin can be reached at (904)
819-3546 or via e-mail at ssundinjacksonville.com.
