Local officials celebrate the announcement that a private company had withdrawn its request to take 600 acres of conservation land in Ponte Vedra. From left are St. Johns County Commissioner Clay Murphy; Rep. Kim Kendall, R-St. Augustine; St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell; St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline; and St. Johns County Commissioner Ann Taylor. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on May 20, 2025 at 3:11 pm
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A state legislator says she will pursue more steps to avoid land deals like the one that could have handed a developer 600 acres of conservation land in Ponte Vedra.
The deal ended Monday when Upland LLC withdrew its request to obtain the land, citing public outcry and “misinformation.”
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During a news conference Tuesday, state Rep. Kim Kendall, R-St. Augustine, said she intends to sponsor legislation to “button up” Florida’s rules surrounding land swaps.
“I’m not going to let this go. This doesn’t end here,” Kendall said. “It is out of the spirit of land swapping, and it’s also against what we unanimously just passed in the House, which was stopping development in state parks. In my opinion, this was a workaround.”
Upland was offering 3,000 acres of conservation land in pockets across the state in exchange for a 600-acre strip of land in the Guana Wildlife Management Area.
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State law says that in order to swap for land, a landowner must own an adjacent parcel. The company New Outpost LLC is the only landowner other than the state adjacent to the Guana conservation area.
Not much information is available about New Outpost or Upland. A statement from Upland’s attorney said the intention was never to develop the land, but Kendall said she believes this was a private company’s way of getting around vocal opposition to developing in public lands.
Kendall said she wants to ensure public lands are protected from private development, and she believes the Legislature will rally around her, just as it did when a measure to prevent development development in state parks received bipartisan support in the current legislative session.
Kendall said she is committed to learning who was behind the proposed land swap. She even suggested that the state purchase the 100-acre parcel owned by New Outpost to prevent a land swap proposal from coming before the state again.
In addition to Kendall, the news conference featured remarks from a number of other elected officials, including St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell and nearly the entire St. Johns County Commission.
Commissioner Sarah Arnold compared the fight to save the Guana conservation area to last year’s fight to prevent the development of a lodge in Anastasia State Park.
“To everyone listening out there, especially in Tallahassee, I hope you are keeping score,” Arnold said, “because that’s two out of two for St. Johns County, and I would caution anyone about coming for us a third time.”
