The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 on April 21 to adopt its 2050 Comprehensive Plan, establishing the binding legal framework that will govern development and infrastructure capacity within county borders for decades.
Following the state’s rejection of an earlier draft of the plan, the vote was on a revised version designed to comply with Florida Senate Bill 180, which was enacted in 2025 to restrict local governments from adopting stricter land-use regulations or burdensome development rules in areas affected by 2024 hurricanes and tropical storms.
“We ended up hitting a roadblock where the state found that our proposed comprehensive plan was more restrictive or burdensome, and we had to adjust. And so we adjusted our comprehensive plan to remove the policies deemed more restrictive and burdensome, and we went back and retransmitted in January of this year,” County Planning Division Manager Jacob Smith told the board.
The adjustments moved the plan from what a county memo described as “vision-based” to a legally compliant version that cleared state-mandated hurdles by removing or softening local provisions.
According to the memo, the original draft sought to impose a specific 10% open space requirement on all larger developments, which was removed in favor of case-by-case evaluation consistent with state law.
Language that would have allowed the county to more strictly tie development approvals to the immediate availability of road and school capacity was softened to avoid “burdensome” designations, and specific heightened canopy requirements for tree preservation in new subdivisions were scaled back to align with existing state standards.
The new plan maintains a Development Area Boundary framework, directing growth toward areas served by infrastructure. However, Policy A.1.2.3 introduces a specific “public benefit” framework.
Expansions of the DAB larger than 200 acres now will require applicants to demonstrate several triggers before an amendment is considered, including the creation of 50 or more jobs, the inclusion of at least 100 workforce housing units, the preservation of at least 40% as open space and proximity to water and sewer lines within one-quarter mile.
The 2050 plan also restructures county management by splitting the singular Coastal/Conservation Element into two standalone Conservation and Coastal Management sections.
A new Economic Development Element also was created to attract industrial and manufacturing employers to balance the residential tax base.
In the rural fringes, the plan preserves Rural/Silviculture and Agricultural-Intensive land use designations, directing the county to explore preservation tools such as agricultural easements, transfer of development rights and a new farmland conservation program intended to protect agricultural land in perpetuity.
Commissioners Christian Whitehurst, Sarah Arnold and Clay Murphy voted in favor of the adoption. Commissioners Krista Joseph and Ann Taylor dissented.
Joseph argued the original 2025 submission reflected what the public wanted and that the revised version represented a “loss of local control” and a “loss of the public’s voice.”
“That’s why there’s no balloons today, because we’re getting a watered down plan,” she said.
Taylor focused on the financial toll of the revision process, calling the more than $500,000 spent on the original plan, including consulting fees, “an absolute waste of our tax dollars.”
The vote marked the conclusion of a planning process managed in partnership with consulting firm Inspire Placemaking Collective that began in 2023 and included several community workshops and meetings to engage the public.
The state rejected the original draft in September 2025, citing violations of Senate Bill 180.
The law freezes many growth management rules until Oct. 1, 2027. It also prohibits moratoriums on new development following hurricane and tropical storm damage.
St. Johns County incurred flooding, downed trees and other damage from Hurricane Milton in 2024.
Upon recording the county approval, the plan will be sent back to the state for adoption. State officials approved the revised comprehensive plan before sending it back to the county for the April 21 vote.
“And then my staff does plan on updating our land development code over the next year, as required by state law, so that our land development code is in sync with the comprehensive plan,” Smith said.
Generally, Florida law requires comprehensive plans to guide growth. If a county fails to adopt a required comprehensive plan, the state can enact one on its behalf using its own population projections.