St. Johns County's entryway on State Road A1A. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 21, 2025 at 4:59 pm
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Despite the urging of two county commissioners, St. Johns County will not join more than 20 municipalities in suing Florida over a new development law.
During a meeting Tuesday, County Commission Chair Krista Joseph and County Commissioner Ann Taylor urged their fellow elected officials to consider joining a lawsuit against the state fighting a law signed earlier this year that sought to make it easier for hurricane-stricken communities to rebuild after storms.
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The state, however, has since used the law to challenge policies of cities and counties that are seemingly unrelated to hurricane recovery.
St. Johns County experienced the new rules firsthand when the state rejected the county’s revised comprehensive plan, a document that charts a long-term course for development in the area.
Joseph says the rejection of St. Johns County’s comprehensive plan flies in the face of home rule and local governance — and that many people in St. Johns County agree with her.
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“We elect the people in Tallahassee to represent us. I’m representing the people that are here in this county,” Joseph said. “I could go to Tallahassee and be a big shot, but I think it’s more important to answer my emails and do what I can for my loyal constituents.”
The board discussed the possibility of joining the lawsuit earlier this month, but Joseph wanted another discussion on the matter.
Opinions on development
Along with Joseph and Taylor, a number of local residents spoke up during the meeting’s public comment period urging the county to sue the state.
“You were elected to serve us,” one speaker said. “We want home rule in our state, in our county, by the people we elected and see every day in Publix. I don’t want somebody from Miami telling us how to negotiate who’s building what in this county.”
Sarah Arnold, Clay Murphy and Christian Whitehurst maintained that they did not want to sign onto a lawsuit.
Among their reasons were concerns that suing the state could damage the county’s relationship with lawmakers in Tallahassee, along with not wanting to get embroiled in a potentially lengthy legal process.
Murphy said he wants to give their representatives — all of whom voted for the bill — the benefit of the doubt before joining a lawsuit. He and others want to be patient and see whether a bill changing some of the new law’s verbiage will be introduced to the Legislature when it meets early next year.
“One of the things I know is that our representatives have an opportunity to fix this for us, and if they don’t, that’s when I’m going to get upset,” Murphy said. “But I’m not going to get upset about this until I know there’s no legal path forward to do a glitch bill and fix the poison pill they have in Senate Bill 180.”
With a majority against joining the lawsuit against the law, Joseph’s motion failed.
The County Commission must still address its comprehensive plan and make changes to the document before resubmitting it to the state. That discussion will take place at a future meeting.
