Developer Sues St. Johns County to Stop Do-Over on 1,165-Acre I-95 Development Vote

St. Johns County commissioners meet at 9 a.m. today at 500 San Sebastian View to reconsider two development approvals they made just five weeks ago, and the developer is in court trying to stop them from doing it.

Heritage Development Company of NE Florida LLC filed a petition Sept. 23 in the 7th Judicial Circuit seeking a writ of prohibition against the county. The company wants a judge to block today's special meeting before commissioners can touch the Aug. 19 approvals of two agricultural enclave certifications covering land split by Interstate 95, south of State Road 207: Heritage Development East, 615 acres, and Heritage Development West, nearly 551 acres. Together the two tracts run to about 1,165 acres, enough land under current zoning rules to eventually allow thousands of homes.

The dispute centers on a new state law, Senate Bill 686, the Agricultural Enclave Law, which took effect July 1 of this year. It lets landowners seek fast-track certification to develop farmland that state reviewers determine is already surrounded by development, largely bypassing the county's usual rezoning process. Heritage filed its applications the same day the law took effect. County staff reviewed them and found both met the law's requirements. Commissioners approved both certifications Aug. 19 on 3-2 votes, with Commissioners Ann Taylor and Krista Keating-Joseph dissenting.

Why the county wants a do-over

Nothing changed about Heritage's own applications after that vote. What changed was a separate, far larger case. On Sept. 15, commissioners denied enclave certification to a 4,462-acre proposal north of Nocatee Parkway from the Davis family, founders of Winn-Dixie, and The PARC Group. That fight has already produced an appeal threat from the developer and a promise from Commission Chair Clay Murphy to challenge SB 686 in court and in Tallahassee, arguing the law strips the county of meaningful control over growth.

At that same Sept. 15 meeting, Commissioner Christian Whitehurst raised the Heritage approvals during his commissioner report and moved to schedule a special meeting to reconsider both. According to Heritage's petition, the motion appeared without a published agenda item and without notice to the company. It passed 4-1, with Murphy the lone dissent.

Heritage's legal argument

Heritage's petition makes a narrow but pointed argument: SB 686 gives the county no authority to revisit a certification once it has approved one. The law spells out a specific sequence. A local government must issue a written report on an application within 30 days, then hold a public hearing to approve or deny certification within 30 days after that. If a government denies an application, the law gives the applicant a path to appeal. Heritage argues the statute includes no matching process for a county to reopen or reconsider an approval it already granted, and that once commissioners certified the two properties Aug. 19, the county lost jurisdiction over the matter entirely. Any further hearing, the company argues, would exceed the county's authority under state law.

Heritage is asking the court to issue the writ before this morning's meeting starts. As of the filing, St. Johns County had not responded in court.

What's actually at stake for the county

Certification does not, by itself, approve a specific subdivision or site plan. Any homes built on the Heritage tracts would still need to clear standard development review. But certification sets the ceiling. Based on surrounding land-use designations, the Heritage properties could support densities as high as 13 homes per acre, which is the kind of number that reshapes traffic counts on State Road 207 and enrollment projections at nearby schools for years to come.

That is the same math driving the county's broader pushback against SB 686. Chair Murphy has said St. Johns County has been affected by the enclave provision more than any other county in Florida, and that commissioners need time to plan for roads and infrastructure before more of this land converts to rooftops. Whether that argument gives the board legal grounds to reopen an already-approved certification is exactly the question a circuit judge now has to sort out, likely before commissioners gavel in this morning.

If you want to follow how today's meeting unfolds and what it means for growth near State Road 207 and I-95, keep checking back with St. Augustine Community Website. Join the conversation in our Community Forum, browse our government and politics coverage, or catch up on other business and development stories shaping St. Johns County. You can always find more at the St. Augustine Community Website homepage.