Article Courtesy of the St. Augustine Record

By PETER GUINTA 

Posted: Thursday, March 23, 2006

ST. AUGUSTINE SHORES -- A last-minute compromise offer by Toll Brothers Inc. to abandon its plan to erect exclusionary gates inside a proposed 883-home addition to St. Augustine Shores was too little and came days too late.

Shores residents protested the gates and mobilized to oppose any compromise.

About 250 showed Wednesday to tell the St. Johns County Commission they were firm in their opposition.

After a five-hour hearing, the commission voted 5-0 to reject Toll Brothers' plan.

Commissioner Bruce Maguire made the motion to deny, saying the proposed community was "not consistent with the county's land development code and not in compliance with the county's comprehensive plan."

George McClure, attorney for Toll Brothers, said the company hasn't decided what to do yet.

"But it's likely we'll seek a court decision," he said.

Toll Brothers has already put millions of dollars into clearing the land and preparing infrastructure in Unit 7, the last undeveloped parcel of the Shores. It's not clear what will happen on the site until a court decision is made.

Maitland attorney Russell E. Klemm, representing the Shores homeowners, said he had not conferred with his clients yet but predicted, "They're going to litigate this."

But for the Shores residents attending, this was a triumphant moment.

Kevin Dunn, a member of the St. Augustine Shores Service Corp. governing board, said the county commissioners listened to the residents.

"This was a very important decision," Dunn said. "The most important thing for the people in the Shores to do is to continue to stand together and maintain their unity."

The project came under fire from Shores residents almost from the first. They did not want 53-foot-wide lots and multi-family homes along Shores Boulevard. Toll Brothers later offered to move the narrower lots away from the ring road and put 60- and 80-foot lots there.

But that was just one complaint.

A 1988 planned unit development agreement limits the number of homes in Unit 7 to 780. Toll Brothers proposed 901, then dropped that to 883.

The Planning & Zoning Agency voted 4-3 to reject the project because, "It was not consistent with the surrounding development in the Shores," according to the chief county planner, Bruce Ford.

McClure said the Shores planned unit development was one of the first in the county and was passed in 1975. It limited the development to 6,500 units. There are 3,100 to 3,200 homes there now.

Original homes there were manufactured homes on 50-foot lots that sold for $21,000. Homes have recently been sold in Tuscany Ridge for $575,000, he said.

"We are simply moving density around," McClure said. "In all other respects, we are compliant with the comprehensive plan."

Commissioner Karen Stern said she found the clear-cutting of trees in Unit 7 "devastating," since she and her children often walked those woods years ago.

"That was one of the really big issues for the people I talked to," Stern said, pointing out that Toll Brothers had offered to move their gates from Shores Boulevard to inside their development. "Why do you need them (at all)?" she asked.

McClure said being in a gated community adds $6,000 to $10,000 to the value of a home.

And, he said, there's a market for that type of community.

Both Maguire and Commissioner Cyndi Stevenson both said they disliked the gate idea.

Shores resident Cathie Grexa -- and dozens of other speakers -- said the community rejects the gates.

"We're a united community, for the most part," she said. "The gates, however, will divide us. It closes off free access to roam and to walk. It implies exclusivity and a class system."