When Rachel Brown and James Bodden purchased their home in the Ridgewood neighborhood two years ago, the couple thought they had found a little piece of heaven in Jacksonville.
“It was just this idyllic neighborhood,” Brown said. “People were out walking their dogs, kids were playing in the street. We just loved it.”
But that idyllic life may soon to come to end, the couple fears, if All Saints Episcopal Church – whose land backs up to their house – accepts an offer from a local developer to purchase 4 acres behind the church for possible construction of a new housing development. The church governing board confirmed that it has received an offer from real estate developer SHEEPCO to purchase a portion of its campus and that it has established a land use committee to consider the offer.
The potential sale is particularly concerning to Brown and Bodden, they say, because SHEEPCO has purchased the home next door to theirs at 1607 Peachtree Circle North. They fear the developer may be planning to demolish that home to make way for the access road to his proposed development.
“My lot is not designed to be next to a road,” Brown said. “I’m very worried about all the traffic and people zooming through the neighborhood. Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Further complicating matters, Brown said, is the fact that SHEEPCO Founder and President Ryan Hiebsch lives across the street from her, yet she and other Ridgewood neighbors say they only learned of the proposed land sale and possible housing development through the grapevine from friends who attend All Saints Episcopal.
“I cannot fathom planning to knock down the house next door to someone and not giving them a heads up,” Brown said.
Neighborhood on notice
Melody Bachman has lived in the Ridgewood neighborhood for 38 years and is president of the community’s neighborhood association. She, too, said she first learned of the possible church land sale last October from a friend who attends All Saints and requested that City Councilmember Joseph Carlucci hold a community meeting to discuss it. The meeting was held at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.
“I think they were surprised by how many of us showed up,” Bachman said. “We filled that church and then some.”
At that meeting, Bachman said, she recalls Hiebsch describing a vision for a housing development of 40-60 homes ranging in price from $500,000 to $600,000 – significantly more than recent sale prices in the adjacent Ridgewood neighborhood of modest single-story homes, most of which average 1,200 to 1,600 square feet.
“Our little neighborhood is so perfect,” said Bachman, adding that she questioned how a resident of that neighborhood could consider building such a large development without notifying homeowners or considering the impact on neighbors.
“It’s zero consideration for others,” she said.
Not all Ridgewood residents oppose the proposed development. Whitley Carroll has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 15 years. Ten of those years have been in his current home on Peachtree Circle North, which abuts the church land. He said he thinks the development would bring much-needed new housing with modern amenities to the area.
“I have two young sons and we are fast outgrowing our 1,500 square foot home,” said Carroll, adding that he finds the opposition voiced by some of his neighbors to be “hugely disappointing.”
“I’m sure anyone who lives in our neighborhood loves living here,” he continued. “I can’t see how making that opportunity available to more people would be a bad thing.”
Peachtree Circle North neighbor James Fife agreed.
“Ryan is a neighbor, he’s a great guy,” Fife said of Hiebsch. “He lives in the community. He could have taken his money elsewhere but he’s investing in his own community and it’s great to be a part of it.”
New development
For his part, Hiebsch said his plans for the land are far less concrete than those who oppose the project believe. The plans he shared at the community meeting, he said, were little more than “an informal sketch” of what could possibly be done on the land, should the church decide to sell.
“I think the sketch was for at most 36 homes, not 40 to 60,” he said.
Hiebsch said it was premature to discuss details of a possible development until the church decides whether to sell the land.
“I’m trying to give the church the time and space to make a decision,” he said. “If they accept the offer, that would just be the start of a very lengthy development process. Bulldozers would be a long way out.”
According to All Saints, however, the church was first approached about selling a portion of its property five years ago, in 2019. And the church’s 4 acres are just the latest parcels of land adjacent to Ridgewood that Hiebsch and his family have sought to purchase.
The Florida State Division of Corporations lists at least 17 different limited liability companies – some active and some inactive – registered to Ryan Hiebsch, his parents or his wife, Erin Hiebsch. Within the past five years, two of those LLCs – SHEEPCO, which is registered to Ryan Hiebsch, and Lake Texas LLC, registered to Erin Hiebsch – have not only purchased four homes on Ridgewood’s Peachtree Circle abutting or near the church’s land, but also nine adjacent vacant parcels totaling approximately 16 acres on Towee, Wright, Caljon and Callahan streets.
“That land was bought with no real plan, no real intent,” Hiebsch told The Resident. “It was bought because it was available. I’ve had a million dreams of what could go there.”
Community concerns
Ridgewood neighbors who oppose the project say they fear what building a large housing development on 20 acres of virgin wetland will do to their neighborhood, which is still on septic systems.
“If you take away all this natural wetland,” Brown said, “where is all the water going to go?”
Her husband agreed. “If you build on it, any additional runoff could affect our drainage,” Bodden said.
Traffic is also a concern for some residents. The Ridgewood neighborhood has narrow, winding roads and no sidewalks. Bachman, the neighborhood association president, said city officials say the church land under consideration was rezoned from wetland to low density sometime in the 1950s.
“In the 1950s, most families had one car,” Bachman said. “Today, most families have anywhere from two to four cars. That’s a lot more traffic coming through our neighborhood.”
Carroll, however, thinks the proposed development might improve the traffic situation.
“We see traffic challenges all the time right now,” he said, noting that cars have come up into his yard after taking a turn too fast. “With a new development, we could get speed humps to address that.”
Project timeline
All Saints Episcopal’s governing board said that while it has not come to a decision on the land, any decision to sell would have to be approved by the Episcopal Diocese, which owns the property in question. How long that process will take is uncertain.
“The diocesan sale review process requires a number of steps of review by several committees of the Diocese, during which value, title, future needs and other aspects and issues will be considered,” said Keith Daw, chief operating officer of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. “Thus, it’s not feasible to establish a timeframe on the decision. It’s not just a ‘rubber stamp’ of approval.”
Meanwhile, Ridgewood residents on both sides of the issue ponder what the future will bring for their neighborhood.
“Change is going to come,” Fife said. “Growth is going to happen. For me, I’m fine with it.”
Bachman is less optimistic.
“I work in the home construction and renovation industry, and my father was a builder/developer – so I understand about development,” Bachman said. “What I don’t understand is destroying one neighborhood to get to another.”
