Worried about snakes in Amelia Island / Fernandina Beach (Plantation: subdivision, place to live)

[JBtwinz]

I really don't know what is going on..............building both on and off the island is going ballistic.........Yulee is seeing unprecedented growth. Traffic which was slowly growing is dam near like NASCAR now at all hours.

We had the bust........... and the return of building did not seem to start off slow, but instead with a bang.

To me the island is becoming very affluent and the political climate seems to be more about promoting the island for tourists than quality of life for the long time residents.

I see where they would like to move the ball fields at central park to the airport in order to provide more availability for festivals and more at central park.

We have been here 26 years and still do not consider ourselves locals....my daughters who were born here are, and they will enjoy a beautiful quality of life growing up......but for better or worse the times are a changing and our sleepy little coastal beach town has been discovered in a big way.

It's to bad that quaint and progress can not coexist!

[New2Yulee]

Originally Posted by JBtwinz

Yulee is seeing unprecedented growth. Traffic which was slowly growing is dam near like NASCAR now at all hours.

Does this mean people driving fast or bumper to bumper? lol

[canajo]

I am relocating to Jacksonville this July. I see there are a couple of Yulee/Amelia locals on this thread and I was wondering what the current commute to the Federal Building downtown from Fernandina and also from Yulee? I would be commuting from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also, I checked the area out earlier about 2 months ago and got stopped for at least 20 minutes at the train crossing. Does that happen a lot and if so, it is on a regular schedule?

[JBtwinz]

Originally Posted by New2Yulee

Does this mean people driving fast or bumper to bumper? lol

I embellish a bit.............but it is bumper to bumper heavy traffic at times..............is it bad, no but for those that have been here a while it has changed dramatically in the last ten years.

[JBtwinz]

Originally Posted by canajo

I am relocating to Jacksonville this July. I see there are a couple of Yulee/Amelia locals on this thread and I was wondering what the current commute to the Federal Building downtown from Fernandina and also from Yulee? I would be commuting from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also, I checked the area out earlier about 2 months ago and got stopped for at least 20 minutes at the train crossing. Does that happen a lot and if so, it is on a regular schedule?

The construction on A1A east and west of 17 has increased in the last two months and the A1A/17 intersection can turn into a bottle neck. I breeze through at 6:00 AM and it might be a little bad at 4:00PM when I come back through. 7:00 AM is a bad time for that area. Construction will be ongoing from the bridge coming off the island all the way to I-95.................it is supposed to last until the Summer of 2017.

The trains are running sporadically I rarely get caught at the crossings..............maybe every two months I get caught.

Travel times from Fernandina and Yulee I would say could be 50-60 minutes from on island and about 40-50 from Yulee depending where you are locating (good days).

Rentals are in steep demand here....................good luck with the move and welcome

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by centauri

That was a little joke I threw in there, but growing up here was not bad. Yulee was not too developed and the ma Now it seems that the A1A can't handle the current traffic that it has. (I do not think making it wider will help either.) Downtown Jacksonville (before it became Jack and Kill) was 30 min away. I knew all of the locals and we had our local hang out before it became all touristy. If I did not want to go into my current career, I might want to stay here, but I can make more money out west, and most of my friends are out there too. (Hopefully the family will follow suit.)

LOL--I moved here from out west because Denver was becoming so crowded.
I sure do agree with you about A1A.

Originally Posted by JBtwinz

I really don't know what is going on..............building both on and off the island is going ballistic.........Yulee is seeing unprecedented growth. Traffic which was slowly growing is dam near like NASCAR now at all hours.

We had the bust........... and the return of building did not seem to start off slow, but instead with a bang.

To me the island is becoming very affluent and the political climate seems to be more about promoting the island for tourists than quality of life for the long time residents.

I see where they would like to move the ball fields at central park to the airport in order to provide more availability for festivals and more at central park.

We have been here 26 years and still do not consider ourselves locals....my daughters who were born here are, and they will enjoy a beautiful quality of life growing up......but for better or worse the times are a changing and our sleepy little coastal beach town has been discovered in a big way.

It's to bad that quaint and progress can not coexist!

Yes, we are discovered. It is indeed too bad that quaint and progress have so much trouble integrating. I know it's not impossible, I've seen it work in other places.

OP, I've been here almost 8 years and I've had a resident black racer, I rescued a cold-stunned garter snake from a street near Egan's Creek, and I saw a humungous (but HARMLESS) rat snake out at the state park at Ft. Clinch. That's about it.

Snakes eat rats. 'Nuff said.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by canajo

I am relocating to Jacksonville this July. I see there are a couple of Yulee/Amelia locals on this thread and I was wondering what the current commute to the Federal Building downtown from Fernandina and also from Yulee? I would be commuting from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also, I checked the area out earlier about 2 months ago and got stopped for at least 20 minutes at the train crossing. Does that happen a lot and if so, it is on a regular schedule?

Hi Canajo. I commuted from Fernandina to downtown Jax for 7 years. Time-wise it was actually quicker than when I lived in Jacksonville. It's not a bad commute at all.

[Mark5W]

Snakes are fairly simple to control. I wouldn't let them influence your decision to move to a beautiful place. Here is a resource if you ever need help getting rid of them:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRIQIAZyeL8

[The_Rational_male]

I've lived in Florida off and on for a combined 12 years at least.

I used to live in Island Forest in Clay County, back when it was actually mostly forest. I use to wander those forests, often alone when I was a kid, even walking through swampy parts without any proper equipment. I've only encountered snakes 3 or 4 times that I can recall. On three of those occassions I was never at risk, the snakes will usually slither away from your direction since thay can detect the vibrations from you walking. The other time was when my sister killed a water mocasin in our front yard with a shovel.

The risks snakes pose are highly exaggerrated, same with the sharks at Florida's beaches.

You're more likely to be killed by a lightning strike than a venomous snake bite, according to the CDC.
Are you afraid of lightning? Florida gets plenty of that!

Also you're probably more likely to encounter poisonous spiders in Florida rather than snakes, since spiders love to live inside people's homes, whereas snakes try to stay out of people's way.

[SaintCabbage]

Originally Posted by The_Rational_male

I've lived in Florida off and on for a combined 12 years at least.

I used to live in Island Forest in Clay County, back when it was actually mostly forest. I use to wander those forests, often alone when I was a kid, even walking through swampy parts without any proper equipment. I've only encountered snakes 3 or 4 times that I can recall. On three of those occassions I was never at risk, the snakes will usually slither away from your direction since thay can detect the vibrations from you walking. The other time was when my sister killed a water mocasin in our front yard with a shovel.

The risks snakes pose are highly exaggerrated, same with the sharks at Florida's beaches.

You're more likely to be killed by a lightning strike than a venomous snake bite, according to the CDC.
Are you afraid of lightning? Florida gets plenty of that!

Also you're probably more likely to encounter poisonous spiders in Florida rather than snakes, since spiders love to live inside people's homes, whereas snakes try to stay out of people's way.

While I agree, spiders are a lot easier to kill and/or prevent entirely.