Nocatee's population is growing very slowly - from 1,200 to 1,500 people this year, a modest uptick to the expected eventual population of 30,000.

But officials at the development west of Ponte Vedra Beach can boast an increase in the number of school buses that will service their area this year - from three to four.

The admittedly modest population increase was enough to convince St. Johns County school officials to add another bus stop this year.

The new school bus route will begin Monday at the start of the new school year. The buses will shuttle students to and from Ponte Vedra Palm Valley Rawlings Elementary, Landrum Middle School and Nease High School.

Meanwhile, 164 school buses are assigned to transport about 17,200 children twice a day throughout the county, school district officials said.

Trina Pfoutz, route coordinator for county schools, said she's not sure how many students in Nocatee will benefit from the new routes this year until after the first week of school. But for the district to add another route to the area means the numbers are significant, Pfoutz said.

"The numbers grew, so we added another bus," she said.

Transportation Director Joe Purvis said this week that when the school bus routes began in Nocatee about a year and a half ago, only six elementary school students got on the bus. By the end of last school year the number had grown to about 100.

Toward the end of last school year, the district added a second bus for elementary school riders in the Nocatee area. The single bus had become overcrowded, reaching more than the allowed maximum of three students to a seat.

The district's buses come in three sizes, capable of holding 65, 77 or 84 people at a time, school officials said.

For Rick Ray, managing partner with the Parc Group, the Nocatee development company, the increase in student ridership to school this year wasn't a surprise. The uptick is consistent with a strong sales effort by Nocatee builders, he said.

"Our builders are very pleased with the activity so far in 2010," Ray said this week.

Currently, about 500 families, or 1,500 people, live in Nocatee. That's 25 percent more than earlier this year, when 1,200 people lived there. The development is expected to have about 30,000 residents by 2025, developers have said.

"We're very proud of what the community is today," Ray said.

The population accounts for a cross-section between young families, empty-nesters whose children have grown up and left home and families with teenage children, said Ray.

The community water park, which opened recently, has been a drawing factor in getting more families in the community, officials said. "We expected it," Ray said. "We knew it was going to be a significant amenity to residents."

Like other developments in recent years, Nocatee has had to contend with the shaky real estate market, but developers remain optimistic about the future.

"We are hoping for a rebound in the overall economy," Ray said.

School bus riders' parents should have received yellow postcards in the mail this month notifying them of their children's bus number, bus stop and morning and afternoon pickup times, school officials said.

The routes and other information are available online at www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/depts/transp/routes.