St. Augustine Wants a 5-0 Vote Before Any Conservation Land Can Be Paved

Stripping the conservation label off a city-owned parcel in St. Augustine would take all five commissioners, not three, under a charter amendment the City Commission approved unanimously on first reading at its Monday, Aug. 10 meeting. The change covers roughly 30 acres of protected city land, including the city's share of Fish Island Preserve off State Road 312, the salt-marsh trail network where local families walk dogs, ride bikes and watch wading birds.

Right now, a simple three-vote majority is enough to remove that protection or to significantly develop one of those properties. The amendment would raise the bar to 5-0. One dissenting commissioner would be enough to stop it.

Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder brought the measure forward. She said the point is to keep places like Fish Island natural for the generations that come after this one, and that the city's conservation legacy should live on in perpetuity.

Several residents spoke in support. More than one pointed back to 2024, when proposed development inside Anastasia State Park drew public protests across St. Johns County. The state eventually withdrew those plans. Blonder said the episode was a reminder of how quickly a place people love can slip away.

What's actually protected

Fish Island is the parcel most people picture, and its ownership is split: the city owns a portion of the 62-acre preserve, the state owns the rest. The trailhead sits at the west end of Plantation Island Drive South. There are nearly two miles of trails through maritime hammock and marsh overlooks, and the preserve is open sunrise to sunset.

It came close to being something else entirely. Fish Island was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and in 2019 the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation listed it among the state's most endangered historic sites. That same year, after a long local campaign against a proposed development, the state bought the property with Florida Forever money. The city took over management in 2020.

The city's own Conservation Program has since purchased other tracts, including about 11.4 acres at the east end of Avery Street in Ravenswood and smaller parcels off Evergreen Avenue and near Beacon and Billings streets. Those are the kinds of properties the charter change is written to cover.

The amendment is not law yet. It needs a second City Commission vote before it takes effect.

The county side of the same fight

St. Johns County commissioners meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday to decide whether to send a $100 million land-conservation bond to voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. The meeting is in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View.

The money would run through the county's Land Acquisition and Management Program, or LAMP, and would be repaid with property taxes: a levy capped at 0.15 mills, according to the referendum language. That works out to no more than $15 a year per $100,000 in taxable value. The Trust for Public Land has estimated the average county homestead would pay roughly $42 annually.

Taxable value	Max annual cost
$200,000	$30
$350,000	$52.50
$500,000	$75

Tuesday's vote does not raise anyone's taxes. It only decides whether the question reaches the ballot. Commissioners directed county attorneys on July 21 to draft the referendum after research suggested voters would back conservation funding.

The timing is not an accident. Local news reports say a property the county had ranked as a top priority for purchase, near the Matanzas River, was sold instead to homebuilder Ashley Homes late last month for about $12 million, and that the county has paused new acquisitions while it sorts out its funding picture. LAMP money has swung up and down for years.

Residents who want to weigh in on the bond question can speak at Tuesday's meeting, which the county streams on its LAMP program page and website. The second reading of the city's charter amendment returns to the City Commission at 75 King Street, where the public comment period will again be open before the final vote.

More local coverage is always at St. Augustine Community Website, and you can join the conversation in our Community Forum. For more on how city and county decisions land in your neighborhood, read our government and politics stories or browse the latest community news.

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