![]( "Deerfield Lakes Golf Course and the areas of trees that surround the property are owned by Ken Greene and Chad Grogan. The duo wants to place an RV park with water features on the site, but several area residents are opposed.")
Deerfield Lakes Golf Course and the areas of trees that surround the property are owned by Ken Greene and Chad Grogan. The duo wants to place an RV park with water features on the site, but several area residents are opposed.
The Nassau County Planning and Zoning Board chose not to “open Pandora’s box” last week, but the county commission still has a chance to do so Nov. 26.
Sixteen citizens spoke against a proposed 500-lot RV and water park at the current Deerfield Lakes Golf Course in Callahan. The golf course is neighbored by residential homes with a tree buffer of 30 to 100 feet around the property.
“There are several RV parks in the area. This is not needed,” Deerfield Road resident Kelly Deolin said. “This is a residential area. It’s a rural area. There is absolutely no need to change the character of the area.”
Deolin was referring to Flamingo Lake RV Park just 7 miles south of Deerfield on Lem Turner Road and Pecan Park RV Resort 15 miles away.
Flamingo Lake, which has an assortment of water features, is what developers Ken Greene and Chad Grogan told neighboring property owners they wanted to model their site after. They held a meeting with those neighbors in November, expressing interest in placing up to 500 RVs on the site as well as a pool, lazy river, swimming and fishing lakes and various other features. They planned to reduce the golf course to nine holes.
The P&Z board considered Greene and Grogan’s request to amend the Future Land Use Map Oct. 2. Greene and Grogan purchased the property in January as Greene and Grogan Properties, LLC with Greene also purchasing land parcels near the course in May under the name Angel Lakes Gated, Inc.
The majority of the property is zoned for low-density residential and the reclassification of the 265-acre section owned by Greene and Grogan was to recreation, which has been the use of the property since the golf course opened in 1964.
But the county’s definition of recreation in its 2030 Comprehensive Plan is vague, which concerns residents.
“That opens up Pandora’s box,” Steve Williams of Hazel Jones Road said. “What can happen under recreational? … What does it open up? … I don’t want a zipline in my backyard. … This is not the location, location, location for this to happen.”
Faye Shute of Lawhon Road wants to keep the peace.
“If it’s changed to a recreation area, it’s going to change the whole livelihood of the area,” she said. “I moved out there because I like peace and quiet. I like the rural area. … If we wanted it to be like Jacksonville, we would have stayed in Jacksonville.”
Several residents expressed concerns about noise disrupting the typically quiet area. Nassau County does not have a noise ordinance.
Cher Carswell of Dornbush Road added her concerns as a single mother, including the idea of sexual predators residing in the proposed RVs.
“You don’t go out and do background checks on all those people who are living in the RVs,” she said.
Benny Holton of Vikki Road added concerns about drainage. Homes along Dornbush and Church roads, which abut the property, have flooded during major storms. He said any change to the golf course property would cause further issues.
“We have a lot of drainage problems in this area is one of the concerns I have, and the increased traffic of people cutting through,” Holton said.
The cut-through of U.S. 1 to Booth Road, connecting up through Dornbush Road to Lem Turner is already popular and he said RVs would only add to the issue.
Those who addressed the P&Z board also broached the subject of crime in RV parks and concerns that a change from a golf course to an RV park would decrease the value of neighboring properties. The quality of drinking water was also addressed.
“Our major concern is what it will do to our water,” Church Road resident Janice Sain said. “We have wells. There’s the threat of contamination.”
None of the citizens at the meeting spoke in favor of the FLUM change. Despite citizens’ comments, P&Z board member Bruce Jasinsky recommended approval of the change with Jeff Gray seconding the motion. Jasinsky, Gray, Jimmy L. Higginbotham and John Stack all voted to approve the developers’ request.
Board members Bobby Franklin, Scott Murray, Sr., Ronald Green, Linda Morris and Charles Rogers voted against the reclassification, with the request denied 5-4.
The P&Z board also planned to hear a request for a planned unit development on the property that outlined the process of developing the RV and water park. It would have allowed for 150 RV sites before the construction of a pool by 2023 with the other water features coming as additional RV sites were in place.
Greene spoke with the Record Oct. 3, expressing his disappointment.
“I wanted to do something that leaves a lasting impression on Callahan,” said the developer who has built hundreds of homes in Callahan. “This project is 267 acres and all I’m affecting is 75 acres.”
He added that current zoning allows for approximately 500 homes on the property and that it could be developed in less than a year if he placed mobile homes there.
“I could have this sold in less than two years,” Greene noted. He later added, “I can make much more money building houses here, but this project is fun and it’s for Callahan, the people who have supported me and my business the last 20 or 30 years.”
He added that the addition of homes on the property will include creating access roads to the subdivision that will enter onto Dornbush and Church roads, increasing traffic and making more of an impact than he feels the RV park would have made.
The possible FLUM amendment will still be presented at the Nassau County Commission Nov. 26, as the P&Z board makes its recommendation, but the commission has the final vote. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the James S. Page Governmental Complex in Yulee.