Why

Since 2007, we’ve been engaged with our neighbors in and around Orange Park Acres including representatives from Mabury, The Reserve, Jamestown, Orange Citizens for Parks and Schools, and the Santiago Greenway Alliance to create a new plan to replace the 110-acre Sully-Miller asphalt and concrete crushing/recycling and back filling operations.

Over the years, we’ve proposed a luxury, active adult community of about 460 units with casitas and two- and three-story buildings adjacent to different recreational community facilities on the site, ranging from 12 “pay-to-play” open-to-the-public athletic fields, 250 horse stalls, RV parking/storage, and/or a 97,000 sq. ft. recreational center.

In response, you’ve asked us to reduce the number of total housing units (especially the three-story units), relocate, reduce or remove the horse stalls, add in some single-family detached homes, create a large open space buffer on both sides of Santiago Creek, and make the recreational facilities smaller in scale and privately operated.

 

You asked. We listened.

Rio Santiago has been transformed into a blended neighborhood of age-qualified and traditional single-family residential homes located within a large public natural open space and private recreational setting.

Specifically, the current plan for Rio Santiago now includes the following:

  • More than half of the site will be retained for open space and recreational uses including:
    • An increase to 48 acres of the Santiago Greenway Preserve, a new natural open space along both sides of Santiago Creek
    • A new creek-side trail offering the potential for future connectivity to regional trails and Santiago Oaks Regional Park
    • New multi-user trails off Santiago Canyon Road linked to a new linear community park (connecting the creek-side trails)
  • A reduction of 16,000 square feet to the recreational facility which will now include just 2 athletic fields and will be operated by a private, membership-based organization,
  • A reduction from 460 to 265 total luxury active-adult age-qualified villas and high-end independent and assisted living units, and
  • A residential neighborhood of no more than 130 single-family detached homes