The Good Life 3

FLAGLER COUNTY

For decades, even most Jacksonvillians regarded Flagler County as significant only because of the monolithic blue water tower at Palm Coast, which served as a convenient milepost indicating that the journey to Disney World was roughly halfway complete.

Today, Flagler County is the fastest growing county in the nation on a percentage basis, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The raw numbers don't sound that impressive—6,309 new residents in 2004—but that's a 10.1 percent increase since 2003.

And people are coming from everywhere, attracted by subtropical forests, freshwater lakes, unspoiled beaches and resort-like housing developments. Indeed, visitors who leave the interstate and explore the real Flagler County are invariably surprised to find upscale subdivisions along the Intracoastal, lavish condominium towers along the ocean and world-class golf courses designed to accentuate the area's natural splendor.

Quite a change for a place once regarded as little more than a handy pit stop for southbound tourists.

But Palm Coast, which was marketed heavily in the Northeast and Midwest, was an idea ahead of its time. By the early 1980s there were only a few thousand residents, most of them retirees. ITT, the tech conglomerate that had tried to create a bustling city in this once-remote stretch of coastal Florida, phased out its development division in the 1990s and sold its Flager holdings.

Today Palm Coast, which became an incorporated city in 1999, is the population center of Flagler County, with some 44,568 residents. And because every city needs a clearly defined downtown, the city council last year approved plans for a 1,550-acre project called Town Center at Palm Coast, located just south of Palm Coast Parkway.

Town Center, developed by Palm Coast Holdings, will ultimately contain 2,500 multifamily residential units, 1.4 million square feet of office space, 3.4 million square feet of commercial space, 640,000 square feet of institutional space as well as a movie theater, a hotel and a nursing home.

City Hall may also relocate to Town Center, where a nostalgic ambience will be enhanced by traditionally designed storefronts and horizontal street parking. Construction will be completed in three phases over the next 15 years.

Although Palm Coast is Flagler's fastest growing, most high-profile city, three other municipalities lie within the county: Flagler Beach (population 3,850), known for its 656-foot fishing pier and boardwalk; Bunnell (population 2,156), a sleepy inland city that serves as the unlikely county seat; and Marineland (population 10), a tiny city that encompasses a venerable, dolphin-themed tourist attraction.

Built in 1927, the Flagler Beach Pier still lures serious anglers who catch tarpon, snook, bluefish, whiting and snapper. Other local attractions include a Friday farmer's market, a wonderfully picturesque historical museum and such ecotourism treasures as Flagship Harbor Preserve and the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area.

The Rogers tract is of particular interest because it's named in honor of a quirky, Florida-based folk singer who immortalized the state's colorful characters and turbulent history in his songs.

Flagler Beach is the only municipality on The Hammock, a sparsely populated barrier island where sand roads front upscale beach houses and mobile homes. Residents there fear eventual annexation by land-hungry Palm Coast. If that happens, they say, the island's laid-back way of life would be endangered by too much growth.

At the northern edge of the county, Atlanta-based developer Jim Jacoby is moving ahead in his effort to remake Marineland, which opened as the world's first oceanarium in 1938, into a thriving, multi-use community in which the attraction and its performing dolphins will play a central role.

Residential development will include about 100 condominiums, 80 single-family homes and 25 mixed-use buildings with office space in the first floor and loft apartments on the second floor. An 80-room hotel with retail shops and a restaurant will overlook the marina.

Flagler County residents don't mind commuting to work; fully 40 percent have jobs in Jacksonville, St. Augustine or Daytona Beach. That's fine with county economic development officials, who aren't focused on attracting huge employers. Instead, they woo small operations with 10 to 25 employees that provide products and services for larger companies headquartered elsewhere.

NASSAU COUNTY

Everybody, it seems, wants a piece of Amelia Island. Florida's northernmost barrier island, located 32 miles from downtown Jacksonville, has been ruled under eight different flags since French explorers first came ashore in the mid-1500s. In addition to the French, Spanish and English, past conquerors have included Mexican rebels, Scottish mercenaries, local insurgents and the Confederate Army.

Nowadays, the Stars and Stripes are firmly entrenched in this Nassau County oasis, which has more in common with Key West than with West Jacksonville. Of course, the 13.5-mile-long island still endures invaders, but they're generally friendly tourists seeking pampering at posh resorts, relaxation at pristine beaches and good times at frolics and festivals held in funky Fernandina Beach, the historic city that anchors the island's northern edge.

Fernandina's 50-block downtown district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is packed with intriguing shops, incomparable restaurants and inviting taverns that occupy charming 18th-century buildings. Victorian mansions, many of them built between 1870 and 1900, front the brick-lined residential streets.

The heart of the historic district is Centre Street, which stretches the width of the island from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean. There you can stop for breakfast at the Marina Seafood Restaurant or a cup of coffee and a pastry at Amelia Island Gourmet Coffee and Ice Cream.

Then take a stroll to where Centre Street meets the Intracoastal. There you'll find Fernandina's docks, where nearly 80 percent of Florida's sweet Atlantic white shrimp—nearly 2 million tons per day—is brought ashore. Clearly, Amelia Island is a cool place to live—but space is running out.

Massive Amelia Island Plantation, a 3,500-acre luxury resort and residential community at the island's northern reaches, is finally nearing buildout after more than 30 years. Although resales are available in the environmentally friendly community, the only new construction consists of several luxury condominium projects.

Elsewhere on the island are several infill residential projects, but the bulk of Nassau County's growth is inland. Indeed, the U.S. Census Bureau projects the county's population to grow by as much as 50 percent over the next decade. Most of that growth will occur around Yulee, at roughly 10 square miles the county's largest unincorporated area.

"We don't have the hustle-bustle of a Jacksonville or an Orlando," says Clyde Goodbread, executive vice president of the Amelia Island/Nassau County Association of Realtors and son of a Nassau County farmer. "Nassau offers more of a laid-back lifestyle, but it's still close to Jacksonville. It's a beautiful place and so far, the development we've had has complemented the natural surroundings."

But the pace is picking up. The residential boom around Yulee, especially in the vicinity of S.R. A1A and Chester Road/Amelia Island Concourse, has already sparked plans for a 150,000-square-foot expansion of Trevett Construction Group's Lofton Square shopping center. The expansion will be anchored by the county's first multi-screen movie theater.

Facilitating more growth is a planned extension of Amelia Concourse from its current terminus at LandMar's successful North Hampton community to S.R. 107. Several new subdivisions are slated along that 3.5-mile, four-lane corridor, including Amelia National, an upscale golf community.

In fact, county planners expect that of 10,000 new homes to be built in Nassau County over the next 20 years, 7,000 of them will be in and around Yulee.

Mark Major, senior planner for Nassau County, says the county is, for better or worse, the right place at the right time for growth. "Nassau County in general and Yulee in particular are at the apex of two growth pressures," Major says. "The first is from Fernandina and Amelia Island, which is built out, and the second is from Greater Jacksonville."

Goodbread and others agree that overdevelopment could affect the rural charm of mainland Nassau, turning it into another ubiquitous Jacksonville suburb. "People are saying let's take it slow and do it right," says Goodbread. "High on our wish list would be to maintain our unique charm."

Fortunately, state and federally protected wetlands make up huge tracts of Nassau County, a happenstance that ensures some breathing room between developments. Commercial pine forests buffer the towns of Hilliard and Callahan in western Nassau, where one can still find working family farms.

ST. JOHNS COUNTY

Northern St. Johns County

C.R. 210 meanders across the top of St. Johns County, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the north-flowing St. Johns River. In many places, it remains a quiet country road dotted by marshes and bays stretching inland from the Intracoastal and flanked by open fields where horses graze.

But along the length of C.R. 210 and throughout the northern reaches of St. Johns County, those views are changing. Now huge master-planned developments, some the size of small cities, are springing up in this once-rural setting south of Jacksonville.

The most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that St. Johns County is the ninth-fastest growing county in the nation, with a 6.7-percent population increase between 2003 and 2004. Much of that growth was in the county's northwest sector, defined as roughly 80,000 acres south of Duval County, east of the St. Johns River, north of S.R. 16 and C.R. 208 and west of I-95.

According to county records, St. Johns officials last year approved developments encompassing about 61,000 single-family homes, mostly slated for the northwest along the burgeoning C.R. 210 corridor.

Staking its northwestern claim early was Julington Creek Plantation, a master-planned community that remains by far the region's hottest seller. The development, which is approved for more than 6,000 homes, notched an incredible 994 starts last year.

Primarily as a result of Julington Creek Plantation's success, other amenity-rich, master-planned communities are taking root. Of those on the drawing board, Nocatee will be the biggest yet, with more than 14,200 homes and 4 million square feet of commercial space to be built over a 10- to 15-year period.

"Nocatee will surround many of the developments that are already here," says Matt Wilkinson, a Realtor with KB Home who recently bought a home in Walden Chase on C.R. 210 near Ponte Vedra Beach. "It will bring in retail and offices and a lot of amenities that will bring up property values in the area. A lot of us feel lucky to get in now—the earlier the better."

The infrastructure required to support these massive developments is being funded largely by the developers themselves. For example, county officials expect to collect some $198 million for road construction from the developers of a half-dozen major projects approved since 2001, while others will chip in based on forecasts of their traffic impact.

Still, St. Johns County officials and residents are concerned about maintaining quality of life amid ongoing, rapid growth. In 2004, a 180-member task force called St. Johns Vision released a strategic plan for the county pinpointing six "foundation areas," including education, economic development, infrastructure, quality of life, government and private sector leadership.

Vision committees identified problems and set goals, and groups continue to meet to come up with ways of implementing the plan. Civic groups from Palm Valley and Ponte Vedra have joined the effort. The overall goal, according to Vision executive director Jim Sutton, is "to make St. Johns County the No. 1 place in the country to live and work."

The "work" part isn't quite there yet. About three-quarters of taxable real estate in the county are residential, according to the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. That's why about 40 percent of residents commute outside the county to work.

But county leaders are working hard to lure more jobs, and point to the success of the rapidly growing World Commerce Center, a 973-acre business park located off I-95 as an example of what's to come.

Ponte Vedra Beach

The home of The Players Championship golf tournament and some of Northeast Florida's most expensive real estate was a mining camp in 1914, when two young chemical engineers discovered that the dunes along the ocean contained more than a dozen industrial minerals.

What is now Ponte Vedra Beach was called Mineral City in those days, when the National Lead Company began producing titanium and zirconium during World War I.

But when the war ended and demand for minerals slackened, National Lead ceased its mining operation and converted the property into the region's first golf and country club—the precursor of today's Ponte Vedra Inn and Club—for the exclusive use of its executives and directors.