The St. Johns County Commission reversed course and denied two proposed developments that the board previously approved in August | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on September 28, 2026 at 1:22 pm
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Bucking a new state law meant to fast-track rural development, St. Johns County’s Board of County Commissioners has reversed course on two project proposals the board previously approved.
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’s southwest.
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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: chunks of farmland surrounded by land that has existing, or, as some developers have argued, planned residential and commercial development.
The County Commission previously approved the two projects from local developer Chris Shee, whose company MasterCraft Builder has built homes in communities like RiverTown, Silverleaf and TrailMark.
The amended decision to deny the proposed developments came by a split 3-2 vote of the County Commission.
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County Commissioners Krista Joseph and Ann Taylor — frequent critics of the county’s pace of growth — 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.
Arnold did not comment during Monday morning’s meeting about why she chose to deny the projects, nor did she respond to Jacksonville Today’s request for a comment.
Changing minds on developments
After denying another controversial agricultural enclave development proposal earlier this month, the County Commission agreed to reconsider the previously-approved Heritage Development projects.
The push to reexamine the projects came from Commissioner Whitehurst, who ultimately maintained his vote to approve the Heritage Development projects during Monday morning’s meeting.
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 come from state lawmakers who believe local governments don’t take their oaths to uphold state laws seriously.
“I’m 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,” Whitehurst said.
After calling to avoid “cheap political victories” with their votes, Joseph motioned to censure Whitehurst. She argued that by calling the special meeting without planning to change his vote, he was “wasting everyone’s time.”
That move was not met with support by any of the other members of the board.
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.
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.
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’s query about whether the developer would challenge the county’s latest decision in court.
Monday morning’s decision is not the last time the county will discuss the state’s agricultural enclave law.
As of mid-September, county staff were reviewing eight more agricultural enclave proposals.
