St. Johns County voters head to the polls on November 3 to decide whether the county can borrow up to $100 million to buy land for conservation, a measure that would create the county's first dedicated bond funding source for preserving open space. The money would come from a new property tax capped at 0.15 mills, and supporters say it's long overdue given how little buying power the county's current conservation program actually has.
As First Coast News reports, the St. Johns County Land Acquisition and Management Program, known as LAMP, currently runs on just $500,000 a year in county funding, according to News4JAX. That annual allocation hasn't gone far. Matanzas Riverkeeper Jen Lomberk identified a stretch of estuary buffer land along the Matanzas River as the county's highest-priority conservation purchase for 2025, per First Coast News, but the county could not afford the property even at its assessed value, and Lomberk said that land is now being developed.
Lomberk put the shortfall bluntly, telling First Coast News that $500,000 cannot buy much land in St. Johns County. The bond measure is designed to change that math. If voters approve it, the county could issue general-obligation bonds in stages, each maturing within 20 years, repaid through the new property tax, according to News4JAX.
What the Tax Would Actually Cost
The levy is capped at 0.15 mills, which News4JAX calculates works out to $15 a year for every $100,000 in taxable property value. Lomberk offered her own estimate to First Coast News, putting the maximum cost for the average St. Johns County homeowner at less than $4 a month. The county government frames the proposal as an expansion of funding for the existing LAMP program rather than a new agency or mandate.
County commissioners voted 3-2 in August to place the referendum on the ballot, according to News4JAX, with commissioners Sarah Arnold and Christian Whitehurst voting against it. The same report notes that any purchase made possible by the bonds would still apply only to land offered by willing sellers; the LAMP board would evaluate and recommend potential acquisitions, while the Board of County Commissioners retains final purchasing authority.
Not Everyone Is Sold
The proposal has split local political opinion. Denver Cook, who the dossier identifies as chair of the St. Johns County Republican Party, said he would prefer a half-cent sales tax over a property tax as the funding mechanism, according to First Coast News, while the county party itself has taken no official position on the referendum.
John Regan, a supporter of the measure identified by First Coast News, said the Trust for Public Land found ad valorem taxation — the kind of property-tax-backed bonding at the heart of this referendum — more favorable than the alternative financing method under consideration. Regan and Lomberk both believe that greater purchasing power from the bonds could help the county secure more matching funds from state and federal conservation grants, First Coast News reports, potentially making land like the Matanzas River waterfront parcel near the SR 206 bridge attainable in the future.
How LAMP Picks Its Targets
LAMP's job, according to the St. Johns County government, is to identify, evaluate and recommend lands in unincorporated parts of the county for conservation, management and passive recreation, while final purchasing authority stays with the Board of County Commissioners. The program ranks candidate properties using a standard Property Evaluation Matrix, weighing factors like habitat protection for listed species, connections between natural corridors, and preservation of cultural resources, the county says.
County records show St. Johns has been testing multiple funding strategies for conservation beyond the bond measure. Commissioners approved a one-time $1.5 million transfer from the Tree Bank Fund to LAMP in January, intended for conservation, natural-preserve protection, environmental mitigation, wildlife-habitat preservation and land acquisition, according to the county. The county also created a Conservation and Open Space Impact Fee in late 2025 meant to help pay for protecting natural areas as growth continues, with the fee taking effect 90 days after the ordinance's effective date.
St. Johns isn't the only Florida county asking voters to weigh in on conservation funding this cycle. Similar proposals are on the November 3 ballot in six other counties — Brevard, Charlotte, Manatee, Marion, Santa Rosa and Sarasota — according to the Florida Wildlife Federation. In Manatee County, commissioners unanimously approved their own referendum that would authorize up to $75 million in bonds for parks, preserves and land easements, backed by a 0.16-mill tax that the Bradenton Herald estimates would cost the median homestead about $34 a year. A similar Manatee measure passed with 71% support in 2020 and has since helped protect more than 300 acres, the paper reports, and this year's version would for the first time extend eligibility to agricultural land through conservation easements.
Whether St. Johns County voters respond the same way remains an open question. The county's electorate overwhelmingly rejected a one-cent sales tax for infrastructure improvements in 2022, according to Jacksonville Today, a result that looms over this fall's debate even though the current measure relies on property taxes rather than sales tax. Jacksonville Today notes that approval would not force the county's hand on spending — it would simply give officials the ability to issue bonds and repay them later using property tax revenue, leaving the actual timeline and scale of any land purchases to future decisions by the Board of County Commissioners.
