Commissioners should not make it any easier to build on, near or around what's left of the county's wetlands. That was the main thrust of drafting the ordinance. The preserve's huge buffer put a balm on many arguments about future overcrowding or our vanishing quality of life. Those concerns are even louder now. Three million tourists visit St. Johns County each year because it is beautiful and historic.
People decide to build homes here for similar reasons.
And those two interests should fit together. North Florida wetlands create such harmony. They are not just insect-ridden bogs with floating mats of habitat. Their water levels fluctuate. Their limestone sinkholes filter nutrients and pollutants.