Committee reviews St. Johns County workforce-housing zoning model; Habitat project cited as example

Nassau County planning staff presented a summary of St. Johns County's workforce/affordable housing zoning district and a recent Habitat for Humanity project during an Affordable Housing Committee meeting. The presentation explained how developers that set aside at least 30% of units as workforce housing can access density bonuses and relaxed development standards.

The zoning category was described as intended to encourage a mix of housing types affordable to households in the upper-low to moderate income ranges as defined by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Staff gave 2025 illustrative figures for a family-of-four area median income (AMI) of $102,500, noting roughly $48,650 at 50% AMI (very low), about $77,850 at 80% AMI (low) and about $116,760 at 120% AMI (moderate). Staff said St. Johns'County programs tend to target the 80% to 120% AMI range more than the very-low (50%) band.

The presentation used Cypress Village, a Habitat St. John's proposal, as a case study. Staff said Cypress Village proposed rezoning 3.94 acres from single-family residential to the workforce category to allow construction of 17 single-family homes for eligible low- and moderate-income homeowner partners; the St. Johns planning and zoning board recommended approval 6-0 on Jan. 3, 2025. Staff said for-sale workforce units require a recorded deed restriction that (1) requires owner-occupancy and (2) caps the initial sales price (staff cited $260,000) for a stated period (staff said two years as an example). For workforce rental units, staff said a deed restriction would cap rent at no more than 70% of AMI for five years from the certificate-of-occupancy date.

Staff reviewed three density-bonus paths described in the St. Johns model: (1) the workforce/affordable housing density bonus tied to on-site affordable units; (2) an optional density bonus tied to public-benefit dedications (examples given included land dedication for public use); and (3) a wetland density bonus intended to encourage including wetlands in parcels proposed for development and preserving those wetlands. Within the workforce zoning category staff said density increases vary by underlying future land use, citing examples that some residential categories increase to up to 6 units per net usable acre and some to 13 units per acre under the workforce designation.

Committee members asked whether density bonus "points" or credits can be banked or transferred to a different property. Staff said this is typically evaluated on a project-by-project basis and that they did not often see transfers between developments; committee members discussed transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) programs in general and said TDR is a topic under early consideration for the county but has not been enacted.

Members debated deed-restriction term length. Staff noted short terms (two years for an initial sale cap, five years for rental limits in the St. Johns example) risk losing units back to market quickly; committee members suggested longer restrictions can preserve inventory but also discussed upward mobility and equity-share approaches used by organizations such as Habitat. Members also raised that small lot sizes are possible under the zoning: staff said workforce districts in St. Johns can allow lots as small as about 3,000 square feet in some locations.

The committee asked staff to return with additional local analysis and legislative updates and to review the Schimberg market study and other data as Nassau County moves forward on its comprehensive plan, land-development code changes and Vision 2050 implementation work.

The committee did not take a formal action on the model itself during this meeting; staff framed the presentation as background for future policy discussion.