St. Johns County Commission Votes 4-1 to Deny Doubling of Inman Road Warehouse Zoning, Citing Florida 16 Traffic Already Over Capacity

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to deny a request that would have doubled the size of a planned warehouse project on Inman Road in northern St. Johns County. The proposal would have raised the maximum building area of the Last Mile Distribution Facility planned unit development from 125,000 to 250,000 square feet. Traffic on Florida 16 was the central concern, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record, and the site remains vacant.

What the developer asked for

The request was a major modification to an existing planned unit development, or PUD, on a 58.74-acre site east of Interstate 95 and north of Florida 16. The applicant wanted to split the 250,000 square feet among six buildings. Maximum building height would have dropped from 50 feet to 35 feet, and driveway connections to Inman Road would have gone from four to five.

About 32.38 acres of wetlands, roughly 55% of the site, would have been preserved under the plan, according to the Daily Record. The applicant also proposed 43 prohibited uses, including restaurants, hotels, gas stations, data centers and last-mile distribution facilities. The distribution-facility prohibition was added during the hearing, the applicant's agent said, and the applicant also waived the right to build a Live Local Act residential project on the land.

The vote

Commissioner Ann Taylor made the motion to deny, and the board approved it 4-1. Commissioner Sarah Arnold was the lone no vote. The hearing was then reopened after the applicant's agent, Brad Wester of Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, said he had not been allowed to rebut public comment. After that rebuttal, the second vote also came out 4-1.

The county's Planning and Zoning Agency had already voted against recommending the change in October. The agency split 3-4, which was treated as a recommendation for denial. Three members supported the request, and four opposed it.

Why traffic drove the decision

County staff said two segments of Florida 16 near Inman Road are already over capacity. Once approved but unbuilt projects are counted, staff said, those segments would reach about 180% of capacity. The applicant's own traffic engineer said the inbound left turn onto Inman Road clears only about half of signal cycles during afternoon peak hours.

The project was exempt from the county's concurrency rules because it is nonresidential, according to the report. It would still have paid road impact fees, and Inman Road would have been improved to county minor collector standards with a 5-foot sidewalk. Those improvements would have run from the project's northern access to just south of Outlet Centre Drive, and a 20-foot right-of-way reservation already appears on the 2020 map.

How the site got here

The Inman Road property has changed plans several times over two decades. The Daily Record laid out the timeline in its report. The table below summarizes it.

What the applicant said

The developer, Michael McNaughton of RealtyLink, said he had the land under contract pending approval. He described the project as service-business space and said, "This is not a 24/7 logistics-type distribution/liquidation thing." No tenant was identified at the hearing.

Wester told commissioners that annual property taxes on the site would rise from about $22,000 to nearly $600,000 and that the project could create 400 to 700 jobs. Construction was expected to begin within one year of approval and finish within two years after that start. Those figures are the applicant's estimates, not county projections.

County Growth Management Director Mike Roberson said any approval motion would need to include new language on prohibited uses. County staff also pointed out that other uses the existing zoning allows could include warehousing, vehicle repair, light manufacturing, outdoor storage, mini-warehouses and an indoor shooting range. The report did not say whether any of those uses is planned for the site.

What happens next

The Daily Record's report did not describe any next steps after the denial, such as an appeal or a new application. The site stays vacant, and the 2020 approval for a 125,000-square-foot warehouse remains the last approved entitlement described in the article. Anyone who lives near Inman Road or drives Florida 16 can watch the county commission agenda for any new filing.

Quick facts

• Vote: 4-1 to deny on Nov. 3, with Commissioner Sarah Arnold dissenting.
• Request: raise maximum building area from 125,000 to 250,000 square feet in six buildings.
• Site: 58.74 acres, about 32.38 acres of wetlands preserved under the plan.
• Traffic: two Florida 16 segments near Inman Road would reach about 180% of capacity, per county staff.
• Planning and Zoning Agency vote in October: 3-4, treated as a recommendation for denial.