1/25/23 @ 4:40 p.m. - The Board of County Commissioners has received an Award of Excellence for Culture and Historic Preservation for the American Beach Community Master Plan. Since 2018, the County has worked hard to design a plan to enhance the community while maintaining its unique history and culture. The scope of work included extensive community engagement including public meetings with property owners, public workshops, and interviews with stakeholders. The needs and priorities identified through the outreach efforts were then used to develop the final master plan which includes protection of the beach and dunes, as well as the history of the community. The plan also includes enhancements for the community such as water/sewer lines, street lighting, paved streets and sidewalks, and preservation of historic structures such as the Evans Rendezvous. 

Seeing all the efforts put forth, the Northeast Florida Regional Council selected the County for this prestigious award. The Board was then recognized at their Awards Luncheon held on January 5, 2023. The Northeast Florida Regional Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Beth Payne, stated, “The Northeast Florida Regional Council is happy to recognize Nassau County’s outstanding efforts to preserve a piece of Northeast Florida history. American Beach is one of our area’s hidden gems and it is the Council’s pleasure to recognize the work done by the County, it’s staff and volunteers to continually engage the residents of American Beach and work together to safeguard the cultural history, as well as the future of the American Beach community."

Interim Planning Director/Economic Resources Coordinator, Holly Coyle, stated, “The American Beach Master Plan captures the essence of American Beach by protecting the sense of place, honoring the rich cultural heritage of the community, and authentically telling the story of American Beach through the built and natural environment. Through an extensive public engagement process, the community identified its needs and priorities and created a list of recommendations to achieve their final vision. Among those recommendations were the installation of public water and sanitary sewer; the paving and resurfacing of roadways; re-evaluation of The Crossroads; and the expansion of the A. L. Lewis Museum.  We are honored to have been selected for this award and look forward to bringing this initiative to fruition.”

To view the Northeast Florida Regional Council's Press Release regarding the 2023 Awards, please click here. 

If you have any questions related to the American Beach Community Master Plan, please visit https://www.nassaucountyfl.com/990/American-Beach-Neighborhood-Planning or contact the Planning Department at (904) 530-6300.

-Sabrina Robertson
​ Public Information Office

1/18/23 @ 10:00 a.m. 

During the most recent Florida Planning & Zoning Association’s Awards Banquet, the Board of County Commissioners won a total of 3 awards for several Nassau County projects and initiatives, further demonstrating the County’s commitment to building a resilient, sustainable, and people-centric future that prioritizes quality of life and quality of place.
 
The First Coast Chapter of the Florida Planning & Zoning Association (FPZA) is a fourteen-member board of directors that annually nominates specific awards throughout the Northeast Florida region. Board member, Sarah King, stated, “Every year, an award chairman and a four-person committee are selected to review and verify that all the nominated projects meet the specific award criteria. With several projects being reviewed, the committee is responsible for selecting and nominating the award winners for each category to the full board of directors for final approval. This process is vetted to the entire board and not every submittal is guaranteed the award. FPZA is proud to present three outstanding Nassau County projects at our annual awards ceremony.”
 
The first award was an Outstanding Public Participation Award for the American Beach Cultural Heritage Experience Enhancement Initiative which was designed to capture the essence, protect the sense of plan, honor the rich cultural heritage of the community, and authentically tell the story of American Beach through the built and natural environment.
 
The project began with a survey of existing conditions of the street network, utilities, tree canopy, parks and beaches. This effort was followed by hundreds of hours of community engagement including telephone interviews, online surveys, public workshops, and meetings at American Beach for the purpose of obtaining input from the residents on future enhancement projects that reflect the community’s values. The result was the creation of a long-term visioning plan that provides for public infrastructure enhancements, installation of public water and sewer, paving of roadways, street lighting, installation of historical markers, expansion of the A.L. Lewis Museum, park improvements and resource protection.  
 
The second award was an Outstanding Public Impact Award for the Westside Regional Park. This park is located off US 1 between Callahan and Hilliard and will serve as a centrally accessible park amenity that retains the visceral beauty of the natural environment. The site’s varying ecosystems include pine flatwoods, a freshwater marsh, and hardwood hydric forests which function together as a diverse yet cohesive setting. Spreading over 110 acres, Westside Regional Park will feature a variety of recreational opportunities for residents to enjoy including, but not limited to, outdoor event/green space, community playground, restrooms, multi-use trails, outdoor fitness stations, a fishing pond and multi-purpose fields. The conceptual plan for this park was derived from community input collected through a series of citizen surveys and public outreach events. The Westside Regional Park is currently in the final stages of engineering for Phase One with construction anticipated to begin in the fall of 2023. Upon completion, the Westside Regional Park will be a world-class destination unlike anything Nassau County has ever seen.
 
The third and final award from the Florida Planning & Zoning Association was an Environmental/Natural Resources Award for the County’s Conservation Land Acquisition and Management (CLAM) Program adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on January 25, 2021. The purpose of the CLAM was to preserve and conserve the County’s natural, historic, and working lands resources by identifying, ranking and accessing conservation lands for acquisition and management. An essential tool of the CLAM Program is to create, analyze and manipulate geographic information, known as data layers. These data layers are maps of resources which can be displayed as they overlap and interact, and where different statistical and analytical processes can be applied to better understand a landscape filled with multiple interacting resources.  Nineteen different data layers were selected for consideration, representing different potential conservation resources.  The different data layers all relate to one of the four most common considerations for acquiring conservation land: Water Issues, Habitat and Species Protections, Working Lands, and Outdoor Recreation/Quality of Life.  This map is used to analyze properties being considered for acquisition. By having a CLAM Program in place, the County will increase its ability to further preserve our natural environment and enhance quality of life for our residents. 

County Manager, Taco Pope, stated, “I am extremely proud of all the hard work and effort put into these initiatives and for being selected for these three prestigious awards. As Nassau County continues to grow, it is imperative that we have plans in place to accommodate current and future residents while protecting the County’s unique history, culture and natural environment. I feel fortunate to be a part of these initiatives which will benefit the community for many years to come.” 

​

12/1/22 @ 10:00 a.m.

Nassau County has received a State-wide Award of Merit in the Neighborhood Planning category from the American Planning Association, Florida Chapter for its Timber to Tides Initiative [State Road 200/A1A  Corridor Master Plan]. This is now the 2nd State-wide award and 3rd overall award the County has received for the Initiative.

The Timber to Tides Initiative is the culmination of extensive public engagement and application of best practices to re-envision what the State Road 200/A1A Corridor from Police Lodge Road to the Amelia River has the potential to become over the coming decades and then produce a realistic, obtainable, and incremental Action Plan that sets the community on an evolutionary course to reach their defined vision and goals. The results were not only uplifting and transformational, they were reasonable and obtainable!     

The Timber to Tides Initiative is centered on five planning priorities:

1. Nurture Nature: 
Maintain, enhance, and extend the natural environment by creating opportunities for residents to access and enjoy Florida’s unique natural areas

2. Grow Sustainably: 
Help stage vibrant shopping center and neighborhood growth through development that creates places for people, supports local businesses and generates additional jobs, encourages an active lifestyle, and comprises a mix of housing options.

3. Connect Communities: 
Improve linkages between neighborhoods, shopping centers, and amenities through a network of slow, safe, and livable primary and secondary streets, trails, bike paths, and pedestrian infrastructure

4. Catalyze Culture:
Build on heritage while establishing new cultural assets that celebrate community creativity and identity in the public realm.
​
5. Future Proof:
Prepare for a future by looking ahead to build a resilient community in the face of growing climate concern and technological advancements

Melissa Zornitta, the American Planning Association Florida Project Awards Chair stated, “The Master Plan was a complete envisioning of a new future for this important community corridor; the committee was impressed by the ability to overcome the challenges of Covid-19 in the community outreach and the thorough approach to addressing future issues along the corridor such as view sheds, multi-modal transportation and the need for mixed use nodes.”

Taco Pope, County Manager and life-long resident stated, “This is our home, it's where we, as a collective community, have chosen to invest our time, effort, and resources to build a life. Nassau County is what we, as a collective community, make it. We have an opportunity to define a resilient, sustainable, and people-centric future that prioritizes quality-of-life and quality-of-place. While it may seem a daunting task, a collective community moving in a unified direction can be the catalyst for generational change. The future is bright for Nassau.” 

The Board of County Commissioner adopted the Timber to Tides Initiative [State Road 200/A1A Corridor Master Plan] vision + planning priorities document and action plan on December 13, 2021 and directed County to staff to move forward with implementation. The referenced document can be found at https://bit.ly/SR200MasterPlan. 

-Sabrina Robertson
​ Public Information Officer

10/28/22 @ 11:50 a.m. 

At the American Planning Association’s Florida Chapter Conference held in Orlando this past August, Nassau County received a State-wide ‘Award of Excellence’ in the Best Practices category for the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan (PROSMP).
 
The Nassau County Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan (PROSMP) represents a fundamental shift in how public and private recreation demands are addressed from a county-wide perspective. The PROSMP couples traditional planning and design principles with progressive regulatory standards that treat parks as essential infrastructure similar to electricity, water, and streets. This shift in local public policy has charted a course for developing and maintaining a fiscally sustainable parks system that is representative of all citizens.
 
County Manager, Taco Pope, AICP, stated, “It is a great honor for the County to receive an Award of Excellence from the American Planning Association. It’s an even greater honor to play a small part in facilitating public policy that will improve the quality-of-life for residents of Nassau County for generations to come”.  
 
The annual award for Best Practices from the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association is given to a project or program that represents “…a significant advancement to specific elements of planning. This category emphasizes results and demonstrates how innovative and state-of-the-art planning methods and practices helped to implement a plan”. 
 
While Nassau County has received several regional and state-wide community planning awards over the past few years, this particular award is Nassau County’s first state-wide ‘Award of Excellence’. The distinction as an ‘Award of Excellence’ indicates that the review panel for the American Planning Association found Nassau County’s PROSMP to be innovative, of superior quality, and transferable to other communities.  
 
Information on the Nassau County PROSMP and implementing legislation can be found at https://bit.ly/NassauCountyPROSMP.
 
A special thanks to the late Dr. David Barth for all his hard work and efforts. He was instrumental in creating a plan that will serve the residents and future generations for years to come. We encourage residents to view a 2-minute project spotlight/video that highlights the project and recognizes Dr. Barth posthumously on this outstanding achievement. The video can be found on our YouTube Channel at https://bit.ly/VideoPROSMP.
 
-Sabrina Robertson
​ Public Information Officer

5/25/22 @ 10:00 a.m. - Two employees of the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners have been selected for the News-Leader's inaugural 40 Under 40 class. In the today's paper, Scott J. Bryan, Editor for the News-Leader, and Amanda Ream, Publisher for the Nassau County Record, are quoted as stating, "We asked readers to nominate the county's community-driven young adults, whether rising entrepreneurs, educators, creators or motivators. We wanted to highlight the young adults who have a passion to achieve and leave a footprint on the local landscape. The decisions made now affect future generations, so we must envision a brighter, better tomorrow, which is the goal of many members of this first class".

The Board of County Commissioners is pleased to employ two of these young professionals. County Manager, Taco Pope, has served Nassau County in various capacities since December 2005. Firefighter/Lieutenant, Adam Bolger, has served Nassau County as a member of Nassau County Fire Rescue since June 2008.

We are proud of both and feel fortunate to have them representing the County. We would like to congratulate them, as well as all the other award recipients for their achievement. Thank you for leading the way and dedicating your talents to making our community a better place to live.

-Sabrina Robertson
 Public Information Officer

Board Receives Regional Award of Excellence for Newly Adopted State Road 200/A1A Corridor Master Plan

We are excited to report that the Board of County Commissioners has earned a 2021 Regional Award of Excellence from the Northeast Florida Regional Council for the State Road 200/A1A Corridor Plan. This plan was the result of a two-year planning initiative which consisted of online citizen surveys, interviews and community meetings in which stakeholders were asked to share their thoughts about the State Road 200/A1A Corridor.

This process revealed that county residents, young and old, share a desire for a safe, comfortable, and attractive corridor that connects them to the places they are seeking access to. They also desire more trees, sidewalk/bicycle paths, and social spaces such as parks and public markets. Nassau County recognizes that the current pattern of development along the SR200/A1A Corridor is not fiscally sustainable, nor does it represent the interests of the community. With the recent widening of SR200 to six lanes, its wide vehicle travel ways, unshaded sidewalks, and unprotected bike lanes, automobile transportation is prioritized. Nassau County’s goal is to establish nodes of compact, walkable areas along the corridor, linked by safe routes for bicycling and future transit, while creating a sense of place and historic identity. Five planning priorities identified include:

• Nurture Nature: Maintain, enhance, and extend the natural environment by creating opportunities for residents to access and enjoy Florida's unique natural areas.
• Grow Sustainably: Help stage vibrant shopping center and neighborhood growth through development that creates places for people, supports local businesses, and generates additional jobs, encourage active lifestyles, and comprises a mix of housing options.
• Connect Communities: Improve linkages between neighborhoods, shopping centers, and amenities through a network of slow, safe and livable primary and secondary streets, trails, bike paths, and pedestrian infrastructure.
  
• Catalyze Culture: Build on heritage while establishing new cultural assets that celebrate community creativity and identity in the public realm.
  
• Future Proof: Prepare for a future by looking ahead to build a resilient community in the face of growing climate concern and technological advancement.
  

At the Board of County Commissioner’s meeting held on December 13, 2021, the Board adopted a Resolution approving the SR200/A1A Corridor Master Plan which will serve as the blueprint for plan implementation through upcoming comprehensive plan policies and land development code standards.

At the meeting, Blake Drury, Director of Urban Planning & Design for GAI Consultants, stated, “This is an important time in the life of this community. This master plan sets the vision for how this community wants to grow. There’s an opportunity to put parks and public spaces in the forefront and this master plan will create an avenue to change the trajectory of development along the corridor”.

County Manager, Taco Pope, added, “The population in Nassau County is going to increase. There’s nothing we can do legally to stop people from coming here. We have two options…. we can take a laissez-fair approach and do nothing and just see what happens. Or we can take the reins and craft a community we want. Adopting the State Road 200/A1A Master Plan is the first step in doing that. This plan promotes quality of life, invests in our community and makes Nassau County a better place to live”.

The Master Plan can be located here.

-Sabrina Robertson
 Public Information Officer

2/17/21 @ 4:45 p.m.- Nassau County recently won Awards of Excellence from the Northeast Florida Regional Council for two planning related projects. The first project, the Western Nassau Heritage Preservation Vision Book, was selected in the Planning & Growth Management category. The Nassau County Conservation Land Acquisition and Management Program was selected in the Environmental Stewardship Category.

Beth Payne, Chief Executive Director for the Northeast Florida Regional Council, attended today's Board of County Commissioner's meeting and presented the County with two plaques. Planning & Zoning Board member, Linda Morris, was invited to  accept the award for the Western Nassau Heritage Preservation Book. Ms. Morris served on the Western Nassau Heritage Preservation Committee and has been credited with keeping the Committee on task and ensuring they succeeded in their goal of adopting a vision book that will guide the future of western Nassau. Staff members from the Department of Planning & Economic Opportunity were in attendance to accept the award for the Conservation Land Acquisition and Management Program.

Ms. Payne stated, "These awards are showcasing the work that you (the county) are doing now. These innovative, forward thinking, public engagement related activities are valued. Surrounding counties value it as well and it will be immolated across the region".

Thank you Ms. Payne for visiting with us today! And a big thank you to Ms. Morris for all her contributions,  as well as to the Planning Department staff, for overseeing the process of these two very large projects.

-Sabrina Robertson
 Public Information Officer