Six weeks after certifying them, the St. Johns County Commission has taken back its approval of the Heritage East and Heritage West agricultural enclaves, two tracts totaling about 1,166 acres on either side of Interstate 95 south of State Road 207. At a special meeting on Monday, September 28, 2026, the board voted 3 to 2 to change the August 19 certifications to denials, per News4JAX, Jacksonville Today and the St. Johns Citizen, all of which reported the vote the same day.
It is the second time in September that the board reversed course on an enclave. On September 15 it denied the 4,462 acre Davis application north of Nocatee, two weeks after a deadlock had put that tract on track for automatic certification; we covered that in our September 16 report. This page sets out what each outlet reported, where they differ, and what the reversal means for property near the I-95 and State Road 207 interchange.
How the vote broke
All three outlets report the same split. Commissioners Krista Joseph, Ann Taylor and Sarah Arnold voted to deny certification. Chair Clay Murphy and Commissioner Christian Whitehurst voted to keep the August certifications. Arnold is the vote that moved: Jacksonville Today notes she voted to approve the projects in August, and that she did not comment at the meeting about why she changed her vote or respond to its request for comment.
The meeting was Whitehurst's idea, and he ended on the losing side. News4JAX quotes him saying he brought the applications back to prompt a board discussion of "the standards by which we're evaluating these applications." Jacksonville Today reports he argued that denying a state governed certification based on the applicant, the district or "which way the political winds happen to be blowing" invites more state interference in county government. Joseph then moved to censure Whitehurst, saying the special meeting was "wasting everyone's time" if he did not plan to change his vote; per Jacksonville Today, no other commissioner supported that motion.
The legal question that changed the outcome
The argument on Monday was narrow. Senate Bill 686, the agricultural enclave law that took effect July 1, 2026, requires a qualifying parcel to meet a perimeter test, and one version of that test refers to an urban service area. Jacob Smith, speaking for county staff, told the board that staff "did analyze it as our development area boundary as the stand in for that terminology," per News4JAX.
Taylor disagreed. "The development area boundary is a very general growth management line whereas an urban service area is a very specific designation that the statute specifically defines," she said, per News4JAX. Under the state definition, she argued, the area must be identified in the comprehensive plan, with public facilities and services such as roads, water and sewer already in place or identified in the county's capital improvements element. She asked where the county had identified and funded those projects for this area, and answered: "Clearly we don't have that." The St. Johns Citizen reports that the issue had not been raised before Monday's meeting and that Taylor made the motion to deny both applications.
The applicant's attorney, Robert Walters, argued the opposite. Per News4JAX, he told the board the parcels are undeveloped, owned and controlled by Heritage Development, have carried agricultural classifications for at least 10 years and meet the perimeter requirements, and that staff had reached the same conclusion. He asked the board to "take no action today and uphold the prior approvals that occurred on August 19." Residents who spoke raised water supply, traffic, stormwater, roads, schools and emergency services, per News4JAX.
The developer had already gone to court
Walters also challenged the board's authority to reopen the decision at all. The St. Johns Citizen reports that Heritage Development filed a petition on September 23 asking a circuit court to block the county from holding the hearing, arguing that once commissioners certified the land on August 19 they had no authority to revisit it. The board proceeded anyway. The Jacksonville Daily Record ran a September 24 headline to the same effect, "Heritage Development seeks to block St. Johns County from reconsidering enclave certifications"; that report is paywalled and we cite its headline only.
Jacksonville Today reports that Walters did not immediately respond to its question about whether the developer would challenge the new denials in court. The Citizen's assessment is that further litigation appears likely. The same argument, that a single public hearing was all the law required, was made by the Davis family's attorney before the September 15 denial, and The PARC Group, which represents the Davis family, told News4JAX on September 22 that it intends to appeal that decision.
What was proposed on the 1,166 acres
Heritage East covers about 615 acres east of I-95 and Heritage West about 551 acres west of the interstate, both south of State Road 207, per the St. Johns Citizen. Jacksonville Today reports the two projects could have brought as many as 15,000 homes near the interchange; that figure is a ceiling reported from the developer's plans, not an approved unit count, and no site plan was ever approved. The projects come from local developer Chris Shee, whose company MasterCraft Builder has built homes in communities including RiverTown, Silverleaf and TrailMark, per Jacksonville Today. Our August 20 report covers the original certification votes and has been updated with this outcome.
Where the reports differ
The three reports we read in full agree on the date, the 3 to 2 count, the names on each side and the central legal question. They differ on smaller points, and we carry each version.
First, acreage: the Citizen gives about 551 acres for Heritage West and about 1,166 acres in total; our August report, based on the August 19 coverage, used 550 and about 1,165; and the Jacksonville Daily Record's September 28 report, which we saw only in a search excerpt, gives 550.78 acres.
Jacksonville Today's headline rounds the total to "1,000 plus acres." Second, the court filing date: the Citizen dates Heritage Development's petition September 23, while a separately syndicated account we saw only in search excerpts dates a petition for a writ of prohibition in the Seventh Judicial Circuit to September 22. We have not seen the court docket.
Third, spelling: News4JAX writes the commissioner's name as Anne Taylor and the other outlets as Ann Taylor, which matches the county's usage in our earlier reporting.
What this means for buyers and sellers near I-95 and State Road 207
For anyone holding or shopping property in the southwest part of the county near the I-95 and State Road 207 interchange, the immediate change is the path, not the land. On August 19 the two tracts had cleared the enclave threshold, and our August report noted that the projects would not have come back before the commission or the public for approval. As of September 28 they have not cleared it. Per the Citizen, the vote does not permanently bar development; it closes the streamlined enclave route, so any project there would face the county's conventional review, which includes public hearings, unless a court restores the certifications.
That makes the court docket the thing to watch. A buyer weighing a home near the interchange, or a seller fielding questions about the land next door, should treat the status as contested rather than settled, and check the county's records and any ruling on the developer's petition before relying on either outcome. More applications are coming: Jacksonville Today reports county staff were reviewing eight more enclave proposals as of mid-September. For how SB 686 fits with the other housing laws that took effect this year, see our Florida housing laws for 2026, and for current prices and inventory across the region, our Jacksonville housing market data hub. Nothing here is a forecast, and nothing on this page describes any person or household; it describes parcels, a statute and a vote.
People also ask
Did St. Johns County deny the Heritage East and West agricultural enclaves?
Yes. At a special meeting on September 28, 2026 the St. Johns County Commission voted 3 to 2 to change the certifications it granted on August 19 to denials, per News4JAX, Jacksonville Today and the St. Johns Citizen. Commissioners Krista Joseph, Ann Taylor and Sarah Arnold voted to deny; Chair Clay Murphy and Commissioner Christian Whitehurst voted to keep the certifications. Arnold had voted to certify both tracts in August.
Why did St. Johns County reverse the Heritage enclave certifications?
The debate turned on whether the land meets the state law's perimeter test, which refers to an urban service area. County staff told the board it had treated the county's development area boundary as the equivalent, per News4JAX. Commissioner Ann Taylor argued the two are not the same, because the statute requires an area identified in the comprehensive plan with public facilities already in place or identified in the capital improvements element, and she moved to deny, per the St. Johns Citizen.
Can homes still be built on the Heritage land near I-95 and State Road 207?
The denial does not permanently bar development, per the St. Johns Citizen; it blocks the streamlined agricultural enclave route under Senate Bill 686. Any project would otherwise go through the county's conventional growth review. The developer's attorney argued the board had no authority to reopen its August decision, and the Citizen reports the company had already petitioned a circuit court to block the hearing, so the outcome may still be decided in court.
The takeaway
On September 28, 2026 St. Johns County undid the only two agricultural enclave certifications it had granted under SB 686, by the same 3 to 2 margin that granted them, after Sarah Arnold changed her vote and Ann Taylor argued the land does not sit inside an urban service area as the statute defines it. Combined with the September 15 denial of the 4,462 acre Davis tract, none of the large enclave applications heard so far is currently certified, and both developers are contesting the county's authority. We will update this page when a court rules or the developer files a further challenge.
Sources
- News4JAX, "St. Johns commissioners deny two previously approved agricultural enclave applications", by John Asebes, published September 28, 2026, 2:57 p.m., updated 5:12 p.m.: news4jax.com
- Jacksonville Today, "St. Johns County reverses decision on developments totaling 1,000-plus acres", by Noah Hertz, published September 28, 2026, 1:22 p.m., updated September 29: jaxtoday.org
- St. Johns Citizen, "Board Bomb: St. Johns County reverses course, blocks major Heritage projects weeks after approval", by Selim Algar, published September 28, 2026: sjcitizen.com
- Jacksonville Daily Record, "Heritage Development seeks to block St. Johns County from reconsidering enclave certifications", published September 24, 2026 (headline only, paywalled): jaxdailyrecord.com
- Jacksonville Daily Record, "St. Johns County reverses decision on agricultural enclave certifications", published September 28, 2026 (search excerpt only, paywalled): jaxdailyrecord.com
- News4JAX, "St. Johns County chair discusses 4,462-acre project denial, developer plans to appeal the ruling", by John Asebes, published September 22, 2026: news4jax.com
How this article was prepared: every vote, figure, name and quotation above is taken from the named reports and attributed to the outlet that published it. The September 28 News4JAX, Jacksonville Today and St. Johns Citizen reports were read in full; the Jacksonville Daily Record reports are paywalled and are cited from their headline or search excerpt only, as labelled. Where the sources disagree, each version is shown. This is a summary of third party reporting on a public meeting, not legal advice and not the county's official record, and Momentum Realty has no role in any of the applications described. Figures are deemed reliable but not guaranteed; verify with St. Johns County before relying on them.