Split 3-2 Votes Certify Two Ag Enclaves Near I-95 and SR 207, Opening Door to Thousands of Homes

St. Johns County commissioners voted 3-2, twice, at a special meeting Aug. 19 to certify two agricultural enclaves on former timberland near Interstate 95 and State Road 207, clearing a legal path for an estimated 15,000 new homes on land the county can no longer say no to. The certifications cover 1,166 acres south of SR 207, a stretch of the county where a build-out that size would land on roads, schools and water supply that residents already fight over.

The applications, Heritage Development East and Heritage Development West, were filed by Heritage Development Company of Northeast Florida under Senate Bill 686, the state agricultural enclave law that took effect July 1, 2026. County staff told the board both properties met every requirement in the statute. The land has been in timber production for roughly 70 years.

Application	Acres	Location
Heritage East	615	East of I-95, south of SR 207
Heritage West	551	West of I-95, south of SR 207

Where the 15,000 figure comes from

Certification does not approve a subdivision. It does set the density ceiling, and under SB 686 that ceiling is drawn from surrounding land-use designations rather than negotiated with the county. On the Heritage properties that could run as high as 13 homes per acre. Do the multiplication and you get the number commissioners heard in chambers.

Heritage's attorneys made the point that specific development plans still have to go through staff review and meet applicable development regulations. What certification removes is the board's ability to reject the residential use outright.

The 3-2 splits

Commissioners Ann Taylor and Krista Keating-Joseph voted against both certifications. Taylor said too many questions remained about whether the acreage qualified as a bona fide agricultural operation, and she told colleagues she would be comfortable voting no and letting attorneys defend the county.

Chair Clay Murphy, Commissioner Christian Whitehurst and Commissioner Sarah Arnold supplied the votes to certify. Murphy said plainly that he is not happy about the growth in this county and that the Legislature has left the board bound by the law. Whitehurst pushed back at the idea that commissioners had rolled over, noting that staff had found grounds to turn away other applications and could not find them here.

He was referring to three other enclave requests that had been on the Aug. 19 agenda and never got a vote. Star IV Investments (176 acres) was withdrawn Aug. 7. Adler Creek and Osceola Lakes were withdrawn the following week. Six applications were noticed for the hearing. Two were certified.

The Nocatee case is still open

The biggest one is unresolved. An application covering roughly 4,462 acres north of Nocatee Parkway, between the Duval County line and the Intracoastal Waterway, was continued to Sept. 1 after questions surfaced about the property's northern boundary and perimeter calculations. A motion to deny it failed 3-2 before the continuance.

The applicant, representing the Davis family and The PARC Group, is asking for one unit per acre, which would top out around 4,462 homes. The firm's attorney told the board the application meets all applicable statutory requirements.

Nocatee residents who spoke were not focused on legal tests. They talked about drinking water, about what 40 years of change has done to traffic patterns, and about a process they described as being pushed onto them rather than run with them.

What happens next

Commissioners already voted 5-0 on Aug. 4 to have the County Attorney's Office consult outside counsel on whether an injunction against SB 686 is viable and what it would cost. That answer has not come back publicly.

The Sept. 1 hearing on the 4,462-acre property is the next date on the calendar, and more applications keep arriving, including a 51-acre request tied to the Entrada project filed in mid-August. County meeting agendas, backup materials and livestream links are posted at sjcfl.us; the Aug. 19 special meeting was held at the county auditorium, 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine, starting at 9 a.m.

Keep up with county growth decisions at St. Johns Community Website and follow us on Facebook for updates as the Sept. 1 hearing approaches. Have a view on how the enclave law is reshaping the county? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

Read more government and politics stories and more business development stories from around St. Johns County.

Header photo: Michael Rivera / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)