Community Details at a Glance
The Homes
Product
New-construction single-family plus planned townhomes across four builders
Builders
Lennar, D.R. Horton, DRB Homes, and Dream Finders Homes
Sizes
Roughly 1,245 to about 3,500 square feet across builders and series
Ownership
Fee-simple; gated entry part of the published plan
Costs & Fees
HOA
Early single-family listings showed dues around 1,200 dollars a year; confirm by section
CDD
A special-assessment district is almost certain at this scale; pull the full tax bill
Reality
Early-phase pricing with builder incentives; the fee stack is the homework
Amenities
Lagoon
Planned Crystal Lagoon, roughly 3 to 4 acres of swimmable water, targeted around 2027
Amenity site
About a 17-acre amenity area with swim-up bar, splash pad, and paddling
Tech
ULTRAFi internet and Streetleaf solar streetlights, the Metro playbook
Status
Sports fields, tot lot, and dog park under construction or planned
Location
Setting
Far West Jacksonville on Normandy Boulevard at Bright Lagoon Boulevard, ZIP 32234
Jobs
Cecil Commerce Center about 10 to 15 minutes
Access
I-10 about 12 to 15 minutes via US-301 or Chaffee Road
Reality
Downtown and NAS Jacksonville realistically 30 to 40 minutes each
The Homes & Style
Diamond Springs is Metro Development Group's first Jacksonville master plan: roughly 1,195 acres planned for about 2,400 to 2,700 single-family homes and townhomes, built by Lennar, D.R. Horton, DRB Homes, and Dream Finders Homes. The community celebrated its grand opening in October 2025 and welcomed its first homeowner in February 2026.
The product is new-construction single-family today, with D.R. Horton's townhomes slated to release around summer 2026. Plans run roughly 1,245 to about 3,500 square feet across the four builders, so the price ladder is wide, from a compact entry home to a five-bedroom.
The buyer pool skews young: first-time buyers stretching into a first single-family home, Cecil-corridor and logistics workers, and military and veteran buyers using VA loans, plus a share of investors drawn by entry pricing.
Because four builders compete inside one community, the real work is comparing their effective pricing, incentives, rate buydowns, lot premiums, and options, rather than reading any single advertised "from" number.
About 80 percent of homes are planned to back a preserve or water, so the homesite, not just the floor plan, drives the premium here.
Living Here
The headline amenity is the planned Crystal Lagoon, roughly 3 to 4 acres of swimmable water inside an amenity site of about 17 acres, with a swim-up bar, a floating obstacle course, a splash pad, kayaking and paddleboarding, and about 500 parking spaces. Metro has targeted completion around early 2027.
Beyond the lagoon, the published plan adds sports fields, a tot lot, and a dog park, along with ULTRAFi internet and Streetleaf solar streetlights, the Metro playbook brought to Northeast Florida for the first time.
The lagoon is planned as public-access, with residents able to buy passes and non-residents limited to day passes, so expect a programmed, lively calendar of events once it opens, closer to a public beach club with houses around it than a private club.
Daily life runs Normandy Boulevard: Cecil Commerce Center is 10 to 15 minutes, I-10 is 12 to 15 minutes, and most major retail is 15 to 25 minutes east, with Baldwin's basics about 10 minutes away.
Buying here in 2026 means living in an active construction zone for several years, truck traffic, dust, and early framing crews included, which is normal for a master plan this size but belongs in the decision.
Before You Offer
The inland Westside location is quietly one of the better insurance stories in Northeast Florida: no coastal wind-pool exposure, new construction built to current Florida code, and brand-new roofs, which together typically price below older coastal stock. Get a bindable quote on the specific home during your inspection period.
The site is interlaced with wetlands and stormwater systems, which is partly why so many homes back preserve or water, so individual lots can still touch mapped flood zones. Pull the FEMA panel and an actual insurance quote on the exact lot during your contract period.
Confirm utility providers and typical bills for the section, JEA serves most of Duval, but a far-west development deserves a written answer, along with the internet specifics under ULTRAFi and whether the base package is bundled into HOA dues.
A development of this scale almost certainly carries a community development district or similar special assessment whose bond debt rides the property-tax bill for decades. The specific per-lot amounts were not widely published as of this writing, so pull the projected full tax bill, assessments included, from the builder disclosures and public records before you sign. Never accept a new-construction monthly estimate that omits this line.
Comparisons
Diamond Springs' cross-shops are the other new-construction Westside addresses and the region's lagoon communities. Against the established Oakleaf Plantation master plan, Diamond Springs is brand-new with a more novel amenity and lower entry pricing, but its amenities are mostly future-tense, its schools rate lower today, and it sits meaningfully farther out; Oakleaf offers resale certainty, mature amenities, and its own retail, with well-known CDD fees. Against nearby Bellbrooke, Diamond Springs trades a simpler, lower-fee community for a master-plan amenity package and a gated entry, at a higher long-run fee stack. And against the Beachwalk lagoon in St. Johns County, Diamond Springs offers a smaller, public-access lagoon attached to homes that cost hundreds of thousands less, where Beachwalk sells private-club exclusivity at St. Johns pricing. The honest summary: Diamond Springs sells early-buyer access and amenity upside, and gives ground on proven amenities, schools, and proximity.
Who It Fits
Diamond Springs fits the early buyer who wants the cheapest entry the community will ever offer and is comfortable pricing real risk, the Cecil-corridor or logistics worker anchored to the Westside, and the buyer who genuinely wants a lively, public-access lagoon lifestyle rather than merely tolerating it. It fits VA-eligible buyers and patient buyers willing to spec across four builders. It does not fit the buyer who needs the amenity and the answers today, the buyer commuting to the Southside, beaches, or downtown who underestimates the drive, or the buyer who cannot absorb years of nearby construction and an unsettled fee stack. Anyone buying here should verify the lagoon access model, the HOA dues, and the full assessment in writing before counting on any of it.



































