Two agricultural enclaves are certified in St. Johns County, about 241 acres between them, and they are the first this board has granted and left standing. The record is the draft minutes of Oct. 20, which surfaced this week as backup to item 22 on Tuesday’s consent agenda.

Carter Road Associates, about 200.75 acres at the northern end of Carter Road, carried 4/1. Commissioner Arnold moved it, Commissioner Whitehurst seconded, and Commissioner Taylor voted no. It is on page 9 of the draft.

Pacetti Oaks, about 40.5 acres at 3975 Pacetti Road, carried 3/2 on the same motion and second. Taylor and Joseph voted no. Page 10.

The 241 is this paper’s addition of two figures the county prints as approximate.

Certification is not a rezoning. It is stronger.

Under section 163.3162(4)(e) of the Florida Statutes, a certified owner may submit plans for single-family housing at the density of an adjacent parcel or development, and the county’s comprehensive plan, future land use map and zoning stop governing the land.

Neither application came with a unit count, because the statute does not ask for one at this stage.

How the board got to yes

Until Oct. 20 the running score was three denials. ENCERT 2026-01, the North Palm Valley application, was denied Sept. 15, and its applicant says it has taken that denial to circuit court. Heritage East and West, about 1,166 acres, were approved 3-2 on Aug. 19 and then denied 3/2 on reconsideration Sept. 28. Those Sept. 28 minutes were themselves approved on Oct. 20, on consent.

On Carter Road, the draft shows the no votes running out of seconds. Commissioner Joseph moved to continue the item to Nov. 17 and nobody seconded it. Taylor then moved to deny on the grounds the Sept. 28 denial was built on, that the application does not establish that at least fifty percent of the perimeter is surrounded by parcels within an urban service district, area or line, because a development area boundary is not an urban service area identified in the comprehensive plan with facilities in place. Nobody seconded that either.

The approval followed.

The applicants put numbers on the record as the votes got close. Carter Road’s representative offered single-family homes at 1.3 units per acre, per the draft. Star IV’s attorney offered to limit development to no more than three units per acre. An offer from a podium is not a condition of a certification, and the approval motions as drafted carry neither figure.

One withdrawn, one continued, two new

Adler Creek, the largest of the four at about 594.42 acres, never got a hearing. The draft disposes of it in one line: the applicant withdrew it. County staff had written that it did not appear to satisfy the statute, on ownership and on the perimeter test.

Star IV, about 70.83 acres south of the Grand Oaks development, was continued to Nov. 3 on a 3/2 vote after a continuance to Nov. 17 failed on the same split. Staff’s updated report says it does not appear to qualify. The statute’s 90-day clock certifies an application the board never decides, and Star IV is the one file whose clock nobody outside the county can date, because its backup prints no receipt date. The two certified applications were decided inside their published clocks, which run out at the end of November.

Tuesday the board is asked again. Star IV is item 1, the continued hearing. Items 2 and 3 are new: ENCERT 2026-14 and 2026-15, Osceola Lakes North and South, approximately 103.29 and 40 acres south of Wildwood Drive and north of Watson Road, about a mile west of US 1. That is roughly 143 more acres, this paper’s addition, and both are marked District 3 where all four of the Oct. 20 applications were marked District 2.

Residents spoke against all three items that were heard, sixteen times across the three by this paper’s count of the draft’s list, on the perimeter test, traffic, schools, conservation and the staff reports. The hearings ran from 1:10 p.m., when the board reconvened from lunch, until the Grand Oaks items that followed them.

The board meets Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View. Tuesday is also Election Day. The polls close at 7 p.m., and the enclave file will be longer by morning either way.