County Earns State-Wide Award for the Timber to Tides (SR200/A1A Corridor Master Plan)

Pictured: Blake Drury, Director of Planning & Urban Design, GIA Consultants; Thad Crowe, AICP; Taco Pope, County Manager; Kelly Gibson, Planning Director for the City of Fernandina Beach

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, this 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 in 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