For decades, Clay County's identity as a community has been as a satellite to
the city of Jacksonville. Residents seek to live in homes with a sense of
privacy and security on inexpensive land, then hop in their cars and drive to
work.
Now, with 60 percent of Clay County's work force leaving the county to drive to
work every day -- the highest percentage of labor force out-migration in the
state -- county planners hope to reverse the trend.
Likewise, Baker County is on the verge of growing from a "bedroom community --"
with 52 percent of its residents driving into Jacksonville for work -- to an
"edge city" of its own, complete with business and industrial centers that
generate thousands more jobs.
Several developments of regional impact, or DRIs, are in the works that might
steer these counties toward independence from Jacksonville, the employment hub
that gave them their livelihoods in the first place.
"It's a natural progression for suburbs that started out allied with
metropolitan Jacksonville to create their own sources of income," said Chris
Coutts, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at Florida State
University. "Communities are getting smarter and more self-sufficient."
Job centers that draw highly skilled, high-wage, light industrial jobs in
aviation, aerospace, medical research and specialized manufacturing are the
focus in Clay County.
"We're trying to capture our work force, become less dependent on transportation
and diversify our economic base," said Clay County's economic development
director Danita Andrews.
Her goal is to create 2,000 such jobs by 2010. So far, there are 1,586 jobs that
fit that category. By 2025, she expects Clay County will have 10,000 such jobs.
Developer Jackson-Shaw Co. has proposed a DRI near Green Cove Springs that would
create an employment center with 6,300 new jobs generating annual payroll
contributions estimated at more than $225 million.
Called Governors Park, the project is expected to take up to 20 years for
complete build-out. The emphasis would be on job centers, with residential
districts radiating from them, said Jackson-Shaw development partner Tom Jones.
Governors Park would fill 3,200 acres of land that was once home to Gustafson
Dairy and would include 6,000 new residences, 800,000 square feet of retail,
700,000 square feet of offices and 550 hotel rooms, in addition to 2 million
square feet of industrial space.
Jackson-Shaw has offered to reroute U.S. Highway 17 to bypass commercial traffic
around the city of Green Cove Springs, as well as to donate 230 acres of land
for an envisioned Outer Beltway freeway, plus three schools and 800 acres of
land permanently dedicated as open space.
This project still needs to go through a public hearing process before being
sent to the state for approval.
For Baker County, Jackson-Shaw has a DRI before the state's department of
community affairs that would generate more than 4,000 jobs in 6 million square
feet of industrial space, 300,000 square feet of commercial space and 200 hotel
rooms.
The 700 acres of timberland is under contract with the Knabb family and sits
just north of Interstate 10 at the juncture where Baker, Duval and Nassau
counties meet.
Nearby, along U.S. Route 90, is the county-owned and operated Enterprise East
Industrial Park, where Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has an 880,000-square-foot
distribution warehouse.
With access to I-10 and an adjacent CSX Corp. rail line, the Jackson-Shaw
Business Park could tap into the growing need for distribution centers for goods
brought through the expanding Jacksonville port, Jones said.
The project is dependent on Jackson-Shaw getting permission to build an
interchange at I-10. Typically, developers of such large projects incorporate
plans for improving infrastructure, including roads and utilities.
Another Baker County developer has been granted the area's first utility
franchise. In May, the county agreed that Avery Robert's Woodstock Utilities LLC
could provide water and sewer services to nearly 10,000 acres near Sanderson,
which includes his proposed Woodstock Industrial Park.
Like the Jackson-Shaw project, the Woodstock plan has already been through local
public hearings and is before the state's department of community affairs.
To build Woodstock Industrial Park, Roberts needs to have 1,500 acres near the
intersection of I-10 and U.S. 90 rezoned from agriculture to industrial. He
plans to build up to 10 million square feet of industrial space on timberland
owned by Roberts Land & Timber Investment Corp.
A project supplied with water and sewer rather than septic tanks can attract
higher quality industrial tenants, and that can translate into higher property
taxes and levels of jobs, said Darryl Register, Baker County Chamber of Commerce
executive director.
"We have a job deficit here, and that means we are missing out on local sales
taxes because folks who work in Jacksonville spend their money there," Register
said. "When people work in Baker, they will spend money in Baker."
Copyright @2008 [InsightRealty Group, Inc.]. All rights reserved.
Revised: July 09, 2008
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