Housing proposal points to affordable living struggle, St. Johns County leaders say

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — On Tuesday, St. Johns County commissioners could say yes to 110 single-family homes aimed for essential workers. The board will hear a proposal to build the ‘Mills Workforce Housing’ near Lewis Speedway and Woodlawn Road off US-1, a few miles north of downtown St. Augustine.

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But local leaders like Bill Lazar, executive director of the St. Johns Housing Partnership, say it would hardly help what he calls an urgent need.

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“We’ve got a huge deficit of any kind of housing for our workforce,” Lazar says.

Some developers, including the ones behind the Mills Workforce Housing proposal, have been struggling, recently, to take on that deficit. The proposal was first introduced back in December, when the county’s planning and zoning agency took it up during a meeting.

Both members of the agency and nearby neighbors shared traffic and safety concerns, with the board recommending denial of the proposal in a 3-3 vote. The county says the developer asked for a continuance of the proposal during a board of county commissioners meeting last month.

RELATED: Affordable St. Johns County apartment complex proposal draws concerns from nearby neighbors

This comes after the Mills proposal was turned down twice last year, though, at the time, it wasn’t designated as workforce housing, and only pitched 96 homes in the area. Now, it’s one of two workforce housing proposals that could move forward this month.

The other is called Codera Townhomes. The developer wants to build 234 single-family homes on Rio San Juan Road, not far from West Augustine, designated as workforce housing.

But local leaders, like Lazar, say more homes wouldn’t be enough for the county’s essential workers. St. Johns County’s land use and designation code says tenants living in workforce housing need to make 70% of the area’s median income, which is around $59,360 a year.

A recent report from the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce says that’s too expensive for these essential workers:

• Hospitality workers: $28,300 average income
• Teachers: $47,500 average income
• Law enforcement: $55,000 average income

St. Johns County code says the maximum price of a single-family workforce-housing designated home is $260,000. The chamber of commerce report says a buyer would have to be making at least $97,400 to afford, adding next to no essential workers are capable of affording one on a single-earner wage.

“It’s essentially, I think, a recipe for disaster,” Lazar says.

RELATED: New St. Johns County apartments look to address need for affordable housing

As more housing proposals pop up, Lazar says finding space for them may prove to be a struggle, but the need is too great to turn them all down.

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“The big challenge ends up being if not here, where?” says Lazar, “And when?”

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