BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— The 2020 census, delayed by the COVID-19 Pandemic has revealed that Green Cove Springs has surpassed Orange Park as Clay County’s largest municipality.
While the county seat experienced a population growth of 42% in the last decade, its neighbor to the north only grew by 8% over that same time period.
Officially, Green Cove Springs had 9,786 residents in 2020, and Orange Park 9,089. Keystone Heights grew by 7% to 1,446 people and Penny Farms grew by 10% to 821 residents over the decade.
Annexation strategy
The county seat overtook the Jacksonville suburb, in large part because Orange Park is mostly built out while Green Cove Springs has land to expand.
And addition to population shifts due to the extension of the First Coast Expressway, Green Cove Springs embarked on an aggressive annexation plan in 2014.
Under the plan, the city hoped to take on areas to its north, west and south, including a large swath south of the planned expressway.
One of the key selling points it made to residents in unincorporated areas was that although residents living within the city paid a municipal tax nonresident did not pay, the increase was mitigated by some county taxes city property owners are not subject to.
That is because while the city’s millage at the time was 2.9821 mils, the county charged unincorporated property owners 2.2503 mils for its law enforcement municipal service taxing unit and another 0.1110 mils for an unincorporated MSTU. Therefore, property owners who joined the city got a new 2.9821-mil city tax, offset by county millage rates of 2.3613 which no longer applied to them.
Developers have also found that due to the city’s aggressive annexation policy, they may get more favorable land use and zoning treatment from the city than from the county.
Last year, the owners of 560.52 acres on County Road 15A, south of the city voluntarily joined the municipality. During the same city council meeting in which the annexation was approved, council members also approved changing the future land use of the parcel from a county land use of rural fringe-industrial to a city classification of residential low density.
Two impacts to the municipalities change in ranking have already occurred. Green Cove Springs has taken over Orange Park’s permanent seat on Clay County’s Tourist Development Council and in the near future, the county seat will get a larger portion of the county’s half-penny infrastructure sales tax surcharge.
Tourist Development Council
Clay County Tourism Director Kimberly Morgan told county commissioners earlier this month that because Orange Park is no longer the largest municipality in the county, it will lose its permanent seat on the county Tourist Development Council.
During the April 12 meeting, commissioners voted to assign the permanent seat to Green Cove Springs and assigning a seat that rotates among the county’s municipalities to Orange Park. The four-year rotating seat is currently held by Green Cove Springs. Orange Park will lose its rotating seat in two years; however Green Cove will retain the permanent seat for at least 10.
Commissioner Betsy Condon asked why the TDC was recommending the rotating seat for Orange Park, since it has held the permanent seat for so long.
“I think it is a matter of keeping consistency with the TDC,” responded Morgan. “One of the things that you will see is that the council is changing, most have been on the TDC for less than four years. To have continuity amongst the nine-person board is important.
Commissioner Mike Cella, who chairs the tourist council, added that most of the county’s hotels are in Orange Park and council members felt that also justified assigning the rotating seat to Orange Park.
Infrastructure Tax
The population shift also benefits Green Cove Springs in the distribution of the county’s half-cent discretionary infrastructure sales tax. The half-penny levy is collected throughout the entire county, but the county must share the proceeds with the municipalities based on population.
Orange Park Town Manager Sarah Campbell recently told the town council that its share of the infrastructure surcharge would decrease.
“Because our percentage of the whole has gone down,” she said, “your sales tax is going to go down. Finance and I will account for that in the capital improvement budget later this spring.”
