Planning board backs Moment School and Community Center; board adds site‑access condition

The St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency recommended approval of a Special Use Permit for the Moment School and Community Center on Racetrack Road, voting Jan. 15 after reviewing traffic queuing, site layout and neighborhood buffering.

Kristen Reed of Kimley‑Horn presented the application for a K–8 private school with up to 340 students and an associated community center. The design clusters buildings at the east of the 8‑acre site to preserve specimen oaks and places recreation fields and trails between the school and adjacent single‑family neighborhoods. Reed said a queuing analysis based on similar charter schools supports three on‑site stacking lanes with capacity greater than the expected peak queue and proposed new turn‑lane work on Racetrack Road.

Traffic engineer Jack Holzberg told the board his team tested u‑turns and peak‑hour conditions and included projected background traffic growth in their modeling. "We are proposing a right‑turn lane inbound and an extension of the left‑turn lane," Holzberg said, and observed that in field checks u‑turn delays averaged several seconds in the peak period.

Board members pressed the applicant on lighting, hours for outdoor recreation and pond fencing; the applicant offered dusk‑to‑dawn closures for soccer and pickleball fields but suggested limited nighttime use of the playground and basketball courts. The applicant also agreed to further access and engineering work in conjunction with staff’s construction‑plan review.

The board moved and seconded a recommendation to approve the special use with the staff‑recommended conditions, adding an explicit condition on site access work prior to construction plans. The vote passed unanimously.

Speakers quoted (first reference): Kristen Reed, Kimley‑Horn planner (SEG 6061); Jack Holzberg, traffic engineer (SEG 6414).