Years-long dispute over public boat ramp access puts St. Johns County neighbors face to face<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI know we\u2019ve been hearing from Boat Ramp Billy for some time now,\u201d Taylor said at a recent county commission meeting. \u201cHe\u2019s been speaking before the county commission. I just wanted to share some of the photos that I\u2019ve taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor acknowledged that one of Hennessey\u2019s key concerns \u2014 a driveway placed in the right-of-way \u2014 has limited options for a fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was approved many years ago by a county employee that is no longer even with the county,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cUnfortunately at this time, there\u2019s not a lot we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Taylor said there is something the county can control: making sure the turnaround area near the ramp stays clear for boaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people are using that boat ramp and they need to turn around in that relatively small area, we need to make sure that that area is clear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The county has agreed to conduct weekly check-ins to keep the right-of-way accessible to the public. When News4JAX visited Monday, the right-of-way was clear.<\/p>\n
Hennessey says he is encouraged by the progress \u2014 but he is not slowing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, about time,\u201d Hennessey said. \u201cI\u2019ve been bringing it up for, what, five, six years, something like that. Quite a while. So I guess just finally getting through to them that I\u2019m not gonna go away.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked how he felt hearing the commissioner address his concerns publicly, Hennessey offered a measured response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWheels of justice are real slow,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is what\u2019s being addressed, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor said she wants Hennessey to know his advocacy has not gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want him to think at all that, at least in my perspective, that I don\u2019t hear him loud and clear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In June, the county provided the following statement about the residential property across the street from the ramp:<\/p>\n
\u201cWith regards to the Palmetto Road Boat Ramp: For specifically the residential properties, driveway locations are an administrative approval only and requires that the driveway meet Land Development Code Article 6.04.05.C, which the properties meet. No variances were required and no easements were needed.<\/p>\n
The one home at 379 Palmetto meets the Code and there was no requirement for it to access Sunset Landing Circle. Prior to approval, staff consulted with Parks and Recreation to determine if there was any object to a driveway in the vicinity of the ramp. The Director of Parks and Recreation at that time, back in 2015, had no objection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 For years, William Hennessey has shown up to St. Johns County Commission meetings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,5902],"class_list":["post-406699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-st-johns-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}