ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners gave unanimous approval to a special use permit for the Episcopal School of Ponte Vedra, following an earlier unanimous approval by the county’s Planning and Zoning Agency.
The school, located at 895 Palm Valley Road, will serve about 850 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. It will be housed in a 78,000-square-foot building on a 45.88-acre site currently occupied by the St. Francis in the Field Episcopal Church.
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The plan includes athletic fields, parking, and stormwater management designed to minimize impact on the surrounding community. A 20-foot buffer with natural vegetation will help shield the adjacent Walden Chase neighborhood from noise and activity.
Traffic studies estimate the school will generate about 3,500 daily trips, mostly during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. Palm Valley Road currently operates below capacity, and the school will manage traffic with on-site stacking areas to ease congestion.
Some nearby residents remain concerned, like Jeffrey Pierce, who lives adjacent to the site in Walden Chase.
“Peak hour traffic is concentrated into short, high-volume windows during arrival and dismissal,” Pierce said. “The record does not demonstrate analysis of how stacking could affect safe ingress and egress for adjacent residential access points.”
Speaking on behalf of the school, Patrick Kruchowski emphasized the existing natural buffers.
“You can see the significant buffering from 140 to over 400 feet,” Kruchowski said. “This is existing vegetation. This is not stuff that has to be planted and mature and maintained. It’s already there.”
He also addressed traffic concerns.
“There will be probably 60 to 70% of the kids will leave at the same time, but again with the flow and participation by the school operations to make sure this works the right way,” he said.
Outdoor athletic lighting will be limited to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The school aims to open for the 2027-2028 academic year, starting with lower grades and expanding over time.