Paradise Found

St. Johns County at a glance

LAND AREA: 609 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 202.2
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 131,684
POPULATION INCREASE, 1990-2000: 46.9%
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 33.19%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 26.3 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $50,099
FACTOID: During World War II, four Nazi saboteurs carrying cash and explosives paddled to shore from a German submarine off Ponte Vedra Beach. Their mission, dubbed "Operation Pastorious," was to commit acts of terrorism in large cities. However, all were captured when two of the Germans alerted federal authorities.

NORTHERN ST. JOHNS COUNTY

County Road 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 Waterway and flanked by open fields where horses graze.

But 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 Jacksonville" target="_blank">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.

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 Beach 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 is 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.

Jacksonville developer Telfair Stockton bought 800 acres from National Lead in 1942 and began building homes and expanding the golf course.

Then, in the early 1970s, half-brothers Paul and Jerome Fletcher bought 6,000 acres from a company that had planned to develop a manufactured home community and began selling off tracts for such upscale developments as Sawgrass. The Fletchers also started their own luxury community, Marsh Landing.

In addition to luxurious living, Ponte Vedra Beach has also become synonymous with golf, and is home to the international headquarters of the Professional Golfers Association as well as The Players Championship, held each March at Sawgrass.

The PGA Tour was attracted to Ponte Vedra Beach by a now-legendary 1978 real estate deal in which the Fletchers sold PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman 415 wooded acres for one dollar. Beman certainly got a bargain, but the presence of the Tour and its signature tournament also vastly increased the value of the Fletchers' holdings.

Sometimes overlooked is the fact that Ponte Vedra Beach is also home to the Association of Tennis Professionals, which holds its Pro Tennis Classic here each October as well as various exhibition matches and tournaments throughout the year.

Oceanfront or Intracoastal lots in Ponte Vedra Beach can command seven figures, although an occasional condominium farther from the water can offer the panache of a Ponte Vedra address for as low as the $200s.

There is little room for large new developments in Ponte Vedra Beach or neighboring Palm Valley, but smaller projects are popping up. Last year, St. Johns County approved five developments along Palm Valley Road, ranging in size from 14 to 61 single-family homes or condo units.

ST. AUGUSTINE

The aspect of St. Augustine is quaint and strange, in harmony with its romantic history...It is impressive from its unlikeness to anything else in America. It is as if some little, old, dead-and-alive Spanish town, with its fort and gateway and Moorish belltowers, had broken loose, floated over here and got stranded on a sandbank.-Harriet Beecher Stowe

That circa-1872 description of the Oldest City remains accurate, at least physically. But the St. Augustine Stowe visited was a sleepy, isolated place, where she noted, "The current of life has an indolent, dreamy stillness."

If you've ever visited St. Augustine on a weekend, the words "indolent" and "dreamy" are not likely to come to mind. This is a bustling place, teeming with shopping, nightlife and some of the state's best restaurants.

And there's always a festival of some sort going on, including Founders Day, Menendez Day, Greek Landing Day, the Minorcan Festival and the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, held to commemorate the folksinger who celebrated Florida's heritage through his music.

Located 35 miles south of Jacksonville beside the Matanzas Bay, St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. That makes it the nation's oldest continuously occupied city.

Fort Castillo de San Marcos, completed in 1695, still overlooks the bay, while more than 85 other historic sites, including the oldest schoolhouse and the oldest jail, line the cobblestone streets alongside intriguing Spanish- and Victorian-style homes.

Because the downtown historic district is built-out, living in St. Augustine proper means buying and renovating an older-and we do mean older-home. Prices near downtown are now topping $400,000, although fixer-uppers can be had for less.

Most new development bearing a St. Augustine address is occurring on the vast open tracts north and west of the city.

WHATS NEW in St. Johns County

Ryland Homes has opened a new, 380-home phase at Durbin Crossing on Russell Sampson Road. Three-, four- and five-bedroom homes, ranging in size from 1,487 to 4,000 square feet, will be offered. .

In the county's booming northeast sector, look for activity on Nocatee, the long-anticipated, master-planned community where more than 14,200 homes and 4 million square feet of commercial space will be built over a 10-15 year period. .

Activity has been strong in award-winning St. Johns Forest, a 435-acre Taylor Woodrow community where Toll Brothers, ICI Homes, David Weekley Homes and Morrison Homes are offering new models ranging in price from the $300s to more than $1 million. .

In northern St. Johns County, D.R. Horton's Gables at Wingfield Glen, a gated town home community, is attracting buyers with prices from the mid-$160s to the high $180s. .

Another D.R. Horton project, Heritage Landing at World Golf Village, is offering homes ranging in price from the $200s to the mid-$300s. A unique selling point is the community's theme, modeled after a nostalgic summer camp with such amenities as a storytelling area, a horseshoe pit and an Old Florida-style clubhouse. .

Mattamy Homes has chosen Worthington Park to debut its Taylor model, a 3,451-square-foot beauty loaded with designer features. Mattamy plans to build 78 homes in Worthington Park, with prices starting in the $400s.

Camden County at a glance

LAND AREA: 783 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 69
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 44,061
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 15.5%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 22 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $41,056
FACTOID: Camden was one of the eight original Georgia counties, established in 1777. It was named for Charles Pratt, the Earl of Camden.

More than 250 years after it was chartered, Camden County was discovered. Or perhaps rediscovered is a more appropriate word. After all, prior to the Civil War, this heavily forested corner of southwest Georgia was dotted with plantations growing rice and sea-island cotton. And St. Marys, then the southernmost city in the United States, was a lively seaport parish.

The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and Gilman Paper Company later relocated to Camden County, spurring growth and helping to diversify the local economy. But in 1996, when Money magazine placed St. Marys at No. 1 on its list of "America's 50 Hottest Little Boomtowns," relocators took notice.

Since then, St. Marys and neighboring Kingsland have emerged as bedroom communities for Jacksonville, located just 35 miles to the south. And that trend has accelerated, thanks in part to Home & Garden Television's much-ballyhooed Dream Home 2004.

But in addition to resort-style real estate developments, buyers are drawn to the St. Mary's area because of its natural splendor. Camden County is home to the Cumberland Island National Seashore, the largest southernmost barrier island in Georgia and an erstwhile getaway for turn-of-the-century industrialists.

There is no more majestic sight than watching the island's population of wild horses gallop along the 17-mile shoreline as the sun sets. And it's positively eerie to wander through the ruins of Dungeness, the once-opulent Carnegie estate, and its forlorn outbuildings.

Also on the 36,415-acre island is Plum Orchard, a circa-1898 Georgian Revival-style mansion originally built by the Carnegies and donated to the National Park Service in 1971. And the circa-1901 Greyfield Inn, a Carnegie property still owned by the family, offers luxurious accommodations and a wonderful restaurant.

WHATS NEW in Camden County

Brookshire Retreat and Laurel Landing at Laurel Island Country Club in Kingsland, Ga., are offering carefree living in a bucolic setting. Homes in Brookshire Retreat are priced beginning in the mid-$170s and amenities include a golf course, tennis courts, a pool/spa, a picnic area and a playground. Laurel Landing homes start in the mid-$190s with similar amenities.