by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Howard White, St. Johns County’s deputy building official, wants you to feel free to contact department to ask questions and request information.
“If you don’t get answers to your questions, I need to know that. I can’t fix if I don’t know it is broken. Part of my philosophy when I started this job four and a half years ago was to have people helping people,” said White at the Ponte Vedra Council breakfast last month at the Sawgrass Beach Club. “We are no longer that big 800-pound gorilla that you are afraid to talk to. I want everyone in this room to know that. Our philosophy is one that is service-oriented and we are embarking on new technology to help contractors and Realtors with questions they may have relative to construction.”
White told the crowd that Florida is very unique because while every other state enforces the International Building Code, Florida enforces the Florida Building Code.
“We are the only state in America that has its own building code,” he said. “We have a lot to learn as we develop this new building code and I think we are doing well in that regard.”
In St. Johns County, they are under a 120 mile-per-hour wind zone.
“Many of you are asked, ‘What is my house designed for? What will it withstand?’” said White. “In St. Johns County, a newly constructed home must meet a 120 mile-per-hour wind zone requirement.”
In the process of developing the new building code, the building department designed and offered over 40 educational classes that anyone interested can attend.
“It’s put on for contractors, architects or engineers,” he said. “If you are interested in any of those classes, they are very beneficial.”
White shared other facts about the building department.
“We have money earmarked for a brand new permitting center that we are very proud of,” he said. “It’s going to be a state-of-the art center that hopefully we will be moving into in December. This permitting center is going to allow us to do a few things we have been working on. One thing is a one-stop permitting process. We are hopefully going to implement this after the first of the year. If you want to permit a pool or screen enclosure, some of the smaller issues, we’ll do that in a 24-hour turnaround.”
Another thing they are implementing is if a developer is building a large condominium or town home project they will only review the plans one time with the understanding that there will be duplication of that same building.
“We are the largest building department in the state right now,” he said. “We have about 70 employees including 30 building inspectors, 10 plans examiners and 30 more support staff.”
White said the building department has become very technologically savvy over the last four years. He said all their plan review process is online. Plan applicants can access the Web site, www.co.st-johns.fl.us to review the comments made on their plans. All of their inspectors carry computers, so if someone needs information, the inspector can get it to them out in the field. Inspectors also carry computer cell phones that they can access anytime.
White said 2005 was the busiest year ever for the building department as they issued 12,310 permits.
“There were 4,800 single family home permits issued in 2005 as opposed to 3,000 in 2003,” he said. “There were 850 commercial permits issued as opposed to 500 in 2003. You can see the growth.”
White said the average square feet of a home being built in St. Johns County is 3,112 square feet and the average price is $270,000.
White gave an update on new developments happening in St. Johns County.
Rivertown, located off CR 210, will be 4,200 acres, have 4,500 homes and 500,000 square feet of non-residential space.
“This is one of the larger Developments of Regional Impact,” he said.
Twin Creeks, located along US 1 and I-95, will be 3,500 acres, have 5,000 homes and nearly 3 million square feet of non-residential space.
“That’s one of those projects that are referred to as a fast-track project,” he said. “That one scared us a little bit because we have to throw a lot of man-power at those projects. They are talking about building 1,000 homes a year there, so I’ll have to probably have to throw about 25 percent of our workforce at that project.”
Most of the infrastructure for these projects is being put in place right now.
The lion’s share of Nocatee’s, single-family residences are in St. Johns County bringing 12,579 homes, 4 million square feet of non-residential space and 30,000 people to the area.
“We permitted the first three or four houses for Toll Brothers earlier this month,” said White. “We call that prairie building because they are a little hard to get to right now, but we do get there.”
Aberdeen and Durbin Crossing, located south of Race Track Road, are both underway and infrastructure is being put in right now. Combined they will have 4,516 homes and 310,000 square feet of non-residential space.
“Silverleaf (located near World Golf Village) is an enormous project,” he said. “It will be 7,300 acres, have 10,700 homes and 1.7 million square feet of non-residential space.”
Ashford Mills on SR 210 and SR 16 will offer 2,600 homes and 280,000 square feet of non-residential space.
The next projects he discussed are on the drawing board.
Durbin, located on Race Track Road and I-95, will be 1,637 acres and have 4,500 homes.
Elkton, located on SR 207 and CR 305 will be 2,800 acres, have 2,600 homes and 1,000 multi-family units and 300,000 square feet non-residential space.
Lemburg, also known as Cordova Palms, located south of International Golf Boulevard, will be 1,500 acres, have 1,700 multi-family units and 900,000 square feet of non-residential space.
“We have a tremendous amount of construction that has been approved in St. Johns County,” said White. “There have been 65,000 lots and 22 million square feet of commercial space approved as of right now. So, yes, there is a little bump in the road here, but I don’t think it is going to last too terribly long. In the years to come you are going to be very busy.”
From 1990 to 2003 St. Johns County experienced a growth rate of 47 percent. “That is just incredible and the rate that is projected to 2030 is approximately the same thing,” said White.