St. Johns County commissioners voted 3-2 on Monday to strip approval from two massive housing developments south of Florida 207, reversing a decision they made just five weeks earlier. The properties, known as Heritage Development East and West, sit near Interstate 95 and together could have supported as many as 15,000 homes.
Commissioners Sarah Arnold, Krista Joseph and Ann Taylor voted to deny the agricultural enclave certifications, while Clay Murphy and Christian Whitehurst voted to keep them in place, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The two properties — a 615-acre parcel east of I-95 and a 550.78-acre parcel to the west, both south of Florida 207 — are owned by Heritage Development Company of NE Florida LLC. The board had approved both certifications on Aug. 19, each by the same 3-2 margin, before reversing itself at Monday's special meeting.
As reported by News4JAX, Commissioner Christian Whitehurst brought the applications back for discussion, arguing the board needed to evaluate them based on the letter of the law rather than public pressure. Per the station's account, Whitehurst said the board should base its decision on evidence, not politics, and pushed his colleagues to walk through the applicable legal standards one more time before any reversal.
A Fight Over the Definition of Urban Service Area
At the center of the dispute is whether St. Johns County's development area boundary counts as the urban service area required under Florida Senate Bill 686, the law governing agricultural enclave certifications. The applications were evaluated against statutory perimeter requirements that include an urban service area or line, and county staff had analyzed the county's development area boundary as the equivalent of that statutory term. County official Jacob Smith said staff used the development area boundary as a stand-in for the statutory terminology, per the same News4JAX account.
Commissioner Ann Taylor disagreed, arguing the boundary did not meet Florida's definition of an urban service area. She questioned where specific road, water and sewer projects tied to the properties had actually been identified and funded, since the statutory definition requires public facilities and services to already be in place or identified in the county's capital improvements element. Robert Walters, the attorney representing the applicants, countered that county staff had reached the same conclusion as Heritage — that both parcels met the requirements of the law — and said the applicant would negotiate with the county to provide public services.
Walters also argued the parcels, which are undeveloped and have carried agricultural classifications for at least 10 years, satisfied the statute on their face. He questioned whether the commission even had authority to reconsider certifications it had already granted, and he asked the board to uphold the prior Aug. 19 approvals. Heritage Development has separately challenged the county's authority to revisit the certifications in court, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record's earlier reporting on the company's attempt to block reconsideration.
Residents Cited Traffic, Schools and Water
Heritage submitted both applications to the county on July 1, and county staff determined by July 31 that they appeared to satisfy the law's requirements — the same conclusion Walters cited at Monday's meeting. Residents who spoke at the meeting raised concerns about water supply, traffic, stormwater, roads, schools, emergency services and the pace of continued development in the area, per News4JAX's reporting.
The reversal does not permanently bar development on the two properties, but it does cut off access to the agricultural enclave process, according to SJCitizen. As JaxToday notes, county staff were still reviewing eight additional agricultural enclave proposals as of mid-September, meaning Monday's fight is unlikely to be the last.
Part of a Broader Pattern Countywide
The Heritage East and West reversal marks the third planned development whose agricultural enclave status has failed in the county, according to Action News Jax, which reports that the North Palm Valley development's enclave status failed to pass as well. Earlier this month, the county commission denied a separate agricultural enclave proposal near Nocatee by the same 3-2 vote, and the board previously continued a third application, from BR-4700 for roughly 4,462 acres north of Nocatee, after questions arose about boundary calculations.
The battles reflect the pressure facing a county projected to nearly double in population, from about 361,000 residents today to roughly 665,000 by 2050, according to Florida Politics. More than 350 housing developments are already being built or planned countywide, and St. Johns County already carries the highest median home price in the six-county First Coast region, at more than $600,000. Florida law treats agricultural land as a resource of statewide importance and limits how far local governments can go in restricting farm operations, a backdrop that has shaped much of the legal wrangling over these enclave applications.
