ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The cost of housing has been soaring, especially in Florida.
On Monday, St. Augustine city commissioners talked about making housing more affordable.
These are the three city-owned parcels of land, their acreage, and how many units they could fit:
- 450 N. Homes Blvd., 82.4 acres, 500 units
- 865 Fish Island Rd., 31.4 acres, 380 units
- 800 Plantation Island Drive South, 2.3 acres, 36 units
Commissioners also talked about the current state of the housing market in St. Johns County.
Assistant City Manager David Birchim reported that the average family in the county is spending 64 percent of their budget on housing and transportation each month -- far higher than the roughly 30-to-45 percent households should be spending.
“We don’t want to become a community in which everyone who works here has to drive to their job from Jacksonville or Palm Coast or Putnam County, and it re-enforces the community itself – the fabric of the community when we have a mix of different types of housing. So it all plays into our hopes that we can provide affordable housing in our community,” Birchim said.
Commissioners voted to hire a consultant to do feasibility studies on the three properties that the city owns. Birchim tells Action News Jax he expects that hire to be made by the summer at the latest.
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