{"id":413026,"date":"2026-09-28T18:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413026\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:44:10","slug":"st-johns-county-reverses-decision-on-developments-totaling-1000-plus-acres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413026\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Johns County reverses decision on developments totaling 1,000-plus acres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bucking a new state law meant to fast-track rural development, St. Johns County\u2019s Board of County Commissioners has reversed course on two project proposals the board previously approved<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Heritage Development East and West projects could have brought as many as 15,000 homes near the already busy intersection of Interstate 95 and State Road 207 in the county\u2019s southwest.<\/p>\n

The applications came to the county as part of a new Florida law that gives landowners more authority to build on so-called agricultural enclaves<\/a>: chunks of farmland surrounded by land that has existing, or, as some developers have argued, planned residential and commercial development.<\/p>\n

The County Commission previously approved the two projects from local developer Chris Shee<\/a>, whose company MasterCraft Builder has built homes in communities like RiverTown, Silverleaf and TrailMark.<\/p>\n

The amended decision to deny the proposed developments came by a split 3-2 vote of the County Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

County Commissioners Krista Joseph and Ann Taylor \u2014 frequent critics of the county\u2019s pace of growth \u2014 were joined by Commissioner Sarah Arnold, who voted in August to approve the project. County Commission Chair Clay Murphy and Commissioner Christian Whitehurst voted in favor of the projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arnold did not comment during Monday morning\u2019s meeting about why she chose to deny the projects, nor did she respond to Jacksonville Today\u2019s request for a comment.<\/p>\n

\"ForestedIn September, the St. Johns County Commission denied a proposal to develop forested land along the intracoastal waterway in St. Johns County. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Changing minds on developments<\/p>\n

After denying another controversial agricultural enclave development<\/a> proposal earlier this month, the County Commission agreed to reconsider the previously-approved Heritage Development projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The push to reexamine the projects came from Commissioner Whitehurst, who ultimately maintained his vote to approve the Heritage Development projects during Monday morning\u2019s meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitehurst has been critical of the developments, but he has maintained that the county still must follow the law. He argued that bills like the one that led to the new agricultural enclave law<\/a> come from state lawmakers who believe local governments don\u2019t take their oaths to uphold state laws seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m reminding everyone listening that denying certification of a state-governed process based on who the applicant is, or which district the project will be built in, or which way the political winds happen to be blowing on that specific day or that specific election cycle, and not making the decision based on the evidence is inviting more and more state interference into our county government process, which we have been entrusted to run,\u201d Whitehurst said. <\/p>\n

After calling to avoid \u201ccheap political victories\u201d with their votes, Joseph motioned to censure Whitehurst. She argued that by calling the special meeting without planning to change his vote, he was \u201cwasting everyone\u2019s time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That move was not met with support by any of the other members of the board.<\/p>\n

It was Taylor who argued that the proposed developments on either side of I-95 did not fit with the guidelines laid out by the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a number of members of the public outlined their own concerns, from traffic to water quality and shortages, the County Commission voted to deny the projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Walters, an attorney representing the developer for the projects, maintained that the county did not have a right to revisit their previous approvals for the project. Walters did not immediately respond to Jacksonville Today\u2019s query about whether the developer would challenge the county\u2019s latest decision in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monday morning\u2019s decision is not the last time the county will discuss the state\u2019s agricultural enclave law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of mid-September, county staff were reviewing eight more agricultural enclave proposals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bucking a new state law meant to fast-track rural development, St. Johns County\u2019s Board of County Commissioners has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-413026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413026","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=413026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}