During the past
decade, an influx of almost 40,000 people has turned St. Johns
County into the seventh-fastest growing county in Florida.
Now the county is turning to those people to direct its future.
Through July, people from all segments -- from educators to
lawyers and business owners -- will lead an effort to develop a
vision-driven strategic plan for the county's development during the
next 20 years.
Using people as the catalyst for change or growth is nothing new.
St. Johns County has been bringing people together in smaller
versions since the mid-1990s, mostly for more focused issues that
affect smaller segments of the population.
Nassau County officials say they don't generally utilize such a
group, but in neighboring Duval County, one of the longest-standing
examples can be found in Jacksonville Community Council Inc. The
group was formed in 1975 and focuses each year on two issues -- one
that deals with human services and one that involves community
improvements. It then releases its findings and recommendations
before soliciting community support and involvement in reaching its
goals.
Across the St. Johns River in Clay County, recent strategic
planning has focused on particular regions. A corridor along the
newlyd Brannan Field-Chaffee Road was the first area to
undergo a planning process. The county since has gone through a
similar process for the Lake Asbury region.
Both plans involved the community in an attempt to decide what
the future should look like and an effort to define rules for
realization.
What is unique is the extent of the St. Johns County plan.
Instead of dealing with a specific topic or a particular segment of
the community, this group will start with 27 people, swell to more
than 200, and reach thousands of others during the coming seven
months.
Community try
Its catch name is "visioning," which essentially means having
people decide what goals a community should reach and then enlisting
the community in reaching those ideals.
"What this is about is the citizens of the community deciding how
they want the future to be and developing ways to get it that way,"
said Henry Luke, who will facilitate St. Johns Vision. "In today's
fast-growing world, change is going to occur ... so if you don't
have a plan to follow, you're controlled by factors that you may or
may not like. There's no one in control of this plan except the
citizens."
Luke, who owns Luke Planning of Jacksonville, will be paid
$66,000 for his role as facilitator and will be given $5,000 to
cover his expenses.
The plan will include findings and goals in six areas: education,
quality of life, infrastructure, economic development, government,
and private sector leadership. These statements will include around
100 strategies that could be used to accomplish the goals, and
benchmarks will be incorporated to monitor success.
Perhaps because of the voluntary acceptance required to make such
goals work -- there will be no regulations or requirements
established from them -- vision statements sometimes are viewed as
"feel-good" pronouncements that seldom result in change.
"We had our naysayers at the beginning, but we had enough people
that believed in it, in the power of having a united vision, that
we've carried through," said Leslie Burnside, executive director of
Asheville-Buncombe (N.C.) Vision.
In the mid-1990s, that community was facing a variety of
problems, including falling high school graduation rates and
declining job opportunities. Through the visioning process -- which
included meetings generally attended by hundreds of community
members -- the most immediate problems were targeted and solutions
identified.
Newspaper accounts since have documented a gradual but notable
change in the targeted areas. Supporters of the process said there
is no overnight solution to some of the problems.
What has changed is the number of high school graduates after
around $1.5 million in private funding was given to develop programs
to help students graduate. Other visioning-process goals have
included Buncombe County adopting a land-use plan, local politicians
adopting a code of ethics and some city and county services being
consolidated.
Backers prevail
In 1996, the Dalton-Whitfield (Ga.) Chamber of Commerce
spearheaded an effort to develop a vision-driven strategic plan for
the county.
"We had a lot of skeptics and naysayers and we probably still
have a few," said George Woodward, chamber president and a member of
Target Tomorrow, the area's vision steering committee. "But the
credibility of a document like this and a process like this is it's
been All the meetings have been in the public. It's hard for
anyone to say that's not what we need to do because so many people
have participated in the process."
As accomplishments, the group points to establishing four-year
degree programs at the local community college, expanding water
service outside Dalton into other areas of the county and creating a
community foundation to collect donations and invest the money to be
put back into the community.
"All of those wouldn't have been possible without bringing people
together," Woodward said.
Bringing people together is a key point in St. Johns County's
approach. Once a strategic plan is finalized in July, it will be
presented to various organizations -- everything from businesses and
churches to neighborhood associations and schools. It is hoped those
entities can become partners and commit to implementing some of the
strategies over several years.
By getting so many people involved, supporters think it will
compel organizations to embrace the goals because they will be what
a majority of residents want.
"I think it would be great for everyone if there's some kind of
consensus about the way most people would like to see our county
grow in the future," said John Hewins Jr., chairman of the St. Johns
Vision steering committee and general manager of Marsh Creek Country
Club on Anastasia Island.
Luke said all but four of the 51 communities in which he's
facilitated similar projects implemented at least part of their
plans. Once the implementation begins, the plan becomes embedded in
the community and likely will continue, he said.
Luke's first vision project was in Jacksonville in 1983, but he
said the approach wasn't as extensively developed as it is now. The
city accomplished some of the goals established through the plan,
such as eliminating the area's bad odor, but since has moved on,
Luke said.
The St. Augustine & St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce and
St. Johns County Commission, as founding partners of St. Johns
Vision, each chose 11 members for a steering committee and those 22
members chose five more members. The chamber and the county are
splitting the $250,000 cost of the program.
Jim Sutton, former editor of The St. Augustine Record, was hired
as executive director of St. Johns Vision. His duties include
organizing meetings, writing agendas, ordering supplies and
distributing information. He will be paid $60,000 for 18 months'
work; an assistant will make $33,000 for the same length of time.
Harnessing growth
Part of the reason for the push now is the explosive growth St.
Johns County has experienced during the past decade. According to
the U.S. Census, population rose from 83,829 in 1990 to 123,135 in
2000. And the anticipation is that growth will continue to be
strong.
Several small visioning groups made up of residents in particular
areas of the county have formed in recent years, but their plans
have focused only on their particular areas, said Scott Clem,
director of growth management services for St. Johns County.
The first visioning group formed around 1994 in Ponte Vedra
Beach. Three others since have formed and a fifth is in the works,
Clem said.
Development of a Vilano Beach town center is on tap as a result
of a visioning group in that area. Zoning overlay districts that
have specific regulations regarding signs, lighting, landscaping and
architectural design have developed during some of those visioning
processes. The County Commission has adopted the overlay districts
as part of the county's land-development code and county officials
also review area visioning plans when considering things such as
capital projects, Clem said.
"We do have very much a citizen-driven planning process," Clem
said. "We just have a higher level of participation than is
typically seen. We have, I think, an active citizen-based
conscience, a lot of interest in citizens of the county
participating in county government and the future of the county."
Staff writer Shawna Sundin can be reached at or
via e-mail at
ssundin.
