4 Editorial / Community News
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Speak out at next week’s
commission meeting
Next Tuesday, Oct. 20, the St. Johns
County Commission will consider a
variance on the 17-acre property at
1044 Ponte Vedra Blvd. to build 22 new
homes instead of the eight which are
allowable, due to the prevailing topography and wetlands.
They would be bringing in some
20,000 yards of fill, thereby destroying wetlands directly at the head of the
Guana Preserve.
Astonishingly, the Ponte Vedra Zoning & Adjustment Board gave it their
blessing, as being not contrary to the
public interest. And this, despite the fact
that the only “hardship” involved is the
developer’s wish to build more than
eight homes.
Approval of this request is definitely
NOT in the public interest. It renders
obsolete a perfectly reasonable wetlands code and it contributes to the
ever-more-difficult task of limiting our
Ponte Vedra Recorder · October 15, 2015
local population densities - all of this
at a time when local impact fees on
new residential construction do not pay
the total cost for the services that the
county and the school district are currently dedicated to provide.
Please, for the good of our community, kindly ask all of our county commissioners to reject this variance request.
Dan MacDonald
Ponte Vedra Beach
Citizen’s task force calls for full
PV-PV traffic study
Submitted by CTTF
The Ponte Vedra-Palm Valley Citizens
Traffic Task Force (CTTF), comprised
of citizens and community leaders from
throughout the Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley
area, is working with St. Johns County,
Florida Department of Transportation
and the regional Transportation Planning Organization to seek funding for
a study to determine solutions to what
is perceived as rapidly growing traffic
congestion in the area.
The Citizens Traffic Task Force was
formed in late 2014 with the goal of
helping develop community consensus around the long-term traffic and
roadway needs in Ponte Vedra and
Palm Valley. The roadway system in the
PVPV area has seen no major improvements since the mid-1980s. Although
county and FDOT planning studies over
the past 20 years identified the future
need to widen portions of the corridors SR A1A, CR 210 and CR 210A, no
significant capacity improvements were
planned due to community concerns
and resistance.
Meanwhile, St. Johns County continues to attract residents due to our
high quality of life. Although the Ponte
Vedra/Palm Valley area east of the
Intracoastal Waterway has not seen
significant population change, population growth outside our area has been
significant and is estimated to continue
to grow. Additionally, changing demographics and driving patterns within our
own area appear to be a contributing
factor to the traffic congestion on our
roadways.
While growth has its benefits, many
Mary Lil celebrates 100 at Vicar’s Landing
Susan D. Brandenburg
Born on Sept. 26, 1915, Mary Lil McClure appeared
on the front page of the Mexico, Missouri Weekly Ledger at the age of one month when she took first place
in the town’s Beautiful Baby Contest. Still beautiful at
age 100, McClure celebrated her centennial birthday
on the 26th with more than 100 guests in the auditorium at Vicar’s Landing, including 60 family members.
“We have family here from as far away as Hong
Kong,” said McClure’s daughter, Mary Hughes Kendrick of Columbus, Indiana. “They came from Dallas,
Texas; Portland, Oregon; Geneva, New York; L.A.;
San Francisco and Napa Valley, California; Chicago, Illinois; Missouri and North Carolina — and some from
St. Augustine, too.”
The guest of honor, Mary Lil McClure was joined at
her table by her oldest grandson, Dr. David Kendrick,
his wife, Dr. Nan Crystal Arens, and their daughters,
Laurel, 11, and Rose, 9.
“David and Nan are both Harvard Ph.D’s,” bragged
the proud grandmother, adding that they are Professors of Geo-Science at Hoba