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Zoning board won’t recommend rezoning North Fork Leadership Center

Company wants to buy Girl Scouts camp to dig 60-acre borrow pit

By Don Coble Managing Editor
Posted 8/7/19

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to deny a request by Jacksonville-based Girl Scouts of Gateway Council to rezone its 207-acre North Fork …

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Zoning board won’t recommend rezoning North Fork Leadership Center

Company wants to buy Girl Scouts camp to dig 60-acre borrow pit


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to deny a request by Jacksonville-based Girl Scouts of Gateway Council to rezone its 207-acre North Fork Leadership Center along the Black Creek ahead of a possible sale to a St. Augustine company that wants to dig a 60-acre borrow pit.

Commissioners listened to residents for nearly two hours and they spent another 30 minutes asking questions about the long-term ramifications of Ancient City Land Management’s plan to remove sand and fill dirt during the next five years to support construction of the First Coast Expressway extension before voting 7-0 against the plan.

The planning commission can only make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners, which will make the final determination. BCC will hear the proposal at its Aug. 27 meeting, followed by another public hearing before the planning commission on Oct. 1. The BCC then will make its final decision whether to keep the property zoned as residential or change it to agriculture on Oct. 8.

The county’s zoning department staff told commissioners it recommended approval since both Gateway and Ancient City satisfied their legal burdens.

Gateway has had its camp on the market for four years, said CEO Mary Anne Jacobs. She said the $25,000 a month mortgage was a financial burden on Gateway, especially since a lack of a dining hall limited summer activities to 70 girls.

Gateway bought North Fork for $2.2 million in 2002, Jacobs said, but it’s now paying on a $4.4 million mortgage. Jacobs, who was hired as CEO in 2013, told commissioners she didn’t know how the money was spent from the existing mortgage or the money earned when the county, with assistance from the Florida Communities Trust using Florida Forever Funds, bought Camp Chowenwaw Park in Green Cove Springs.

In retrospect Jacobs said it was a mistake to buy North Fork.

“We wanted to be free of the mortgage, but be able to use the property,” Jacobs said.

Several developers have made offers to build homes on the sprawling complex, but Ancient City’s plan to harvest dirt would allow Girl Scouts to pay rent and remain on another section of the property. Jacobs said the money would be used to upgrade its camp in Hawthorne.

Residents clearly didn’t like the proposal.

Most were concerned about as many as 300 dump trucks driving daily along Long Bay Road, Sunrise Farms Road and Lazy Acres Road, as well as how a 50-foot-deep pit would affect ground water, wetlands and Black Creek. Some mentioned how similar borrow pits in Keystone Heights led to significant drops of water levels at several lakes that forced St. Johns River Water Management to replenish the lakes with water from Black Creek.

Residents also said the area was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Irma. They questioned where ground water will be directed once the excavation begins.

“We were hammered by (Hurricane) Irma,” John Young said. “This is putting salt in the wound.”

Ancient City president and CEO Dan Laubacker said his company will recycle the ground water back into the aquafer with ditches and side pits. He also said the FDOT, EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and SJRWM all would be involved in planning and oversight of the project. Ancient City also would be responsible for obtaining permits and paying sales tax on the fill dirt it delivers to the beltway construction project.

“We know there’s a lot of concerns about flooding,” he said, “but we have to follow a lot of guidelines. Our goal is to keep the Girls Scouts here for a very, very long time. We’d like to see it used for corporate events, team events and church gatherings.”

Laubacker said once the project is completed, Ancient City will refill the pit with water and stock it with fish to create another attraction for the camp.

Commissioners said they believe Gateway had other options to either sell the property or resolve the financial burden. Most said they’d prefer to see homes along Trefoil Trail than a borrow pit.

If the rezoning request is denied, Ancient City and Gateway said fill dirt will be taken from smaller borrow pits – many from Clay County – that already are designated for agriculture use.

And North Fork will be sold, Jacobs said.