Baker's big break
Land, lifestyle, easy access spur county's growth

Chuck Day 
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Life isn't quite what one might expect these days in Baker County. Put huge tracts of land up for sale in many places, and almost on cue other landowners would worry about oversupply. But the way Baker landowners and developers see it, the 47,000 acres International Paper turned loose in the past two years is priming the pump.

Many folks around the country deride freeways as the bane of urban lifestyles. Here, they praise I-10 as a highway to heaven.

Critics of public schools are everywhere. But Baker residents tout their 4,625-student, six-building school district as a magnet.

Among retailers, the loathing of Wal-Mart is legendary. Yet nobody's complaining about the presence of the reigning grand dragon of discounting in Baker: Wal-Mart's 80,000-square-foot distribution center has created 600 jobs. Another 150 jobs might be on the way - along with a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Under control
Lest anyone envision a raucous transformation that turns a community inside out, it's best to put this construction in perspective. What's unfolding on the serene countryside west of Duval County's urban whirl fails to rival, say, Jacksonville's Southside. Baker has no Nocatee on the drawing board, either.

It remains the least populated Northeast Florida county. Even if its population of 23,000 doubles in the next five years, as Davis Oil Co. President Ricky Davis predicts, Baker will remain in last place. Flagler County has 50,000 residents, and it's been growing, too - by 73 percent in the past decade.

Moreover, only portions of all the fresh acreage in Baker is available for residential and commercial development. The county provides a textbook example of modest, controlled 21st century growth.

Land of opportunity
Still, growth has a stronghold here. Four hundred homes are in various stages of development, said Ginger Barber, director of the Baker County Chamber of Commerce, who serves as executive director of economic development.

"It's quite a change," she said. "Not too long ago, about 85 percent of the land out here was owned by six timber companies. Now more is available, and as those acres are being resold to others, there's a ripple effect. As many as 14 developers are involved."

Add to that the opening of Wal-Mart's distribution center - and its $11.25 an hour jobs.

A third factor has been changes in zoning procedures that have made it easier to build more homes on existing acreage, "without having to involve the state and lots of red tape," Barber said.

Baker also is moving on its first Planned Unit Development. Initiated in 2000, Cypress Pointe stretches across 126.5 acres within Macclenny under the direction of George Knabb Jr. It includes 132 multifamily units and more than 230 single-family lots.

"We're working under some fairly strict requirements, such as concrete driveways and curbs," Knabb said. "And while we can put manufactured housing on some of the lots in one section, no single-wide trailers will be permitted."

The size of Cypress Pointe homes will begin at 1,100 square feet but average 1,400 to 1,700 square feet, at price points of $90,000 to $120,000.

"Most people out here are prepared for what's going on," Knabb said. "It's going to happen regardless of what some may think."

 'Six years to sell' "I purchased 50 lots seven years ago and it took me six years to sell them all," Davis said. "Last February I purchased 51 more and sold them all in 11 days."

Since then, Davis bought additional residential property - 71 one-third-acre lots - and he figures all of them will be sold or under contract by March.

Spec homes are being sold almost as quickly as they're built, Barber said.

Like those in Cypress Pointe, prices of homes in other Baker developments reflect the middle-class focus - $150,000 to $225,000, Davis said.

"With I-10, you can be in Jacksonville in 30 minutes," said Bob Hathcox, an ex-Marine who serves as the county building inspector.

"We could use some restaurants and retail business out here, and first you've got to have the population to attract them. What I'm really hoping it all brings is a good steakhouse."

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