Florida developers are racing to take advantage of a fast-track approval process for turning rural land into subdivisions, a process that state lawmakers expanded this year in their latest move to shift control over Florida’s sprawling growth from local governments to Tallahassee.

Since July, at least 17 landowners have submitted 21 applications for “agricultural enclave” designations, which would allow them to build single-family homes on former farmland while sidestepping opposition from local governments, zoning laws and angry neighbors. The applications cover more than 9,400 acres of rural Florida in St. Johns, Orange, Brevard, Marion and Martin counties.

The rate of applications has been much higher than predicted by the agricultural enclave law’s House sponsor, Bonita Springs Republican Adam Botana, who told The Trib in June that he expected “probably, in total, five or 10 around the whole state” by 2028. Neither Botana nor Ocala Republican Stan McClain, the law’s sponsor in the state Senate, responded to recent interview requests.

The state has passed a string of laws wresting power over local development away from local government. The Live Local Act, passed in 2023 and expanded in 2024, 2025 and 2026, allowed developers to ignore local zoning, density and height restrictions for certain projects. Last year, SB 180 blocked cities and counties from tightening zoning rules. Lately, state lawmakers have also handed down laws preempting local ordinances on workplace safety, cruise ships, climate goals, fertilizer, naming of airports and painting sidewalks.

Earlier this year, state legislators made it easier to qualify for an enclave designation with a new law that took effect July 1. Parcels of agricultural land surrounded on a certain percentage of their borders by homes, businesses, highways or land zoned for future development can apply for the designation. Local governments must decide whether the applicant meets the definition laid out in state law within 90 days, or the application is automatically approved.

So far, just one enclave application has been approved: a 142-acre development on environmentally sensitive land on North Merritt Island near the Kennedy Space Center. Brevard County commissioners had already rejected the developer’s rezoning application through the normal planning process in April, but they were forced to approve it when the developer applied again under the agricultural enclave law in July.

Other agricultural enclave applications in Orange, St. Johns and Martin counties also seek to revive development projects that county commissioners had already considered and rejected.

“We’re getting development that basically nobody, except for a few landowners in the community, wants to move forward,” said Chris Farrell, a policy analyst at the environmental nonprofit Audubon Florida. “Whoever helped to make this law happen probably felt they wouldn’t be able to get approved using the normal county process.”

Local officials and residents at public hearings have been overwhelmingly opposed to the development projects applying for fast-track approval — especially in St. Johns County, which has fielded 16 agricultural enclave applications. St. Johns commissioners have taken a stand against the law, arguing that it’s the latest move by lawmakers in Tallahassee to take power away from local governments to control their own growth.

“We’re beginning to get very overrun with houses,” said Clay Murphy, the Republican chair of the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners. “We need a break to catch up on infrastructure and figure out for ourselves where the new growth is going to go, if we really want new growth. That’s a decision we need to make locally.”

Botana previously told The Trib he sponsored the law because “sometimes certain municipalities and counties get a little big for their britches, and they need to be either restricted or cut back.”

The fight in St. Johns County has set up a legal battle with statewide implications. Commissioners hope to convince a judge to block the law outright — or at least stop developers from redrawing the borders of their properties to meet the definition of an agricultural enclave.

“If we allow landowners to have this creative approach to defining a parcel, we don’t really know how many more properties throughout the state might qualify,” Farrell said.

Shape-shifting properties

Orange County was the first to field an agricultural enclave application from a landowner who had redrawn her property boundaries to meet the definition of an agricultural enclave.

When she applied for an enclave designation on July 1, Mary Rybolt Lamar lopped off an inconvenient 59 acres from several parcels of ranchland in northeastern Orange County near the Econlockhatchee Sandhills Conservation Area. That brought the property’s total area to 1,258 acres — just under a key size limit set by state law.

Squeezing into the enclave size limit allowed Rybolt Lamar to make yet another attempt to turn her ranch into a subdivision, even though Orange County commissioners had already voted against development plans on the property in 2010, 2016 and 2024.

But Orange County planning staff concluded Rybolt Lamar wasn’t allowed to redefine her property boundaries and recommended that county commissioners deny the application. Rybolt Lamar’s lawyers withdrew her application a few weeks later, but wrote a letter to the county noting that she “reserves all rights to submit a new or modified application at a later date” for “some or all” of the same property.

St. Johns County has seen three landowners withdraw failed enclave applications and then resubmit them with redrawn boundaries.

One of the redrawn projects, dubbed Osceola Lakes, is up for its third and fourth attempt at developing 143 acres of rural land at the edge of suburban sprawl southwest of St. Augustine.

St. Johns commissioners first rejected the idea back in 2024 through their normal planning and zoning process. Then, owner Geoffrey Young sought to sidestep that rejection by applying for an agricultural enclave designation on July 1. When that application also failed, Young split his property in half and submitted two new agricultural enclave applications for the north and south parcels on Sept. 14.

“This is the concern,” said Farrell. “Folks can just keep experimenting with borders, wasting staff and local government resources all the while.”

Rebellion in St. Johns

St. Johns County took a stand against developers’ fuzzy parcel boundaries — and the agricultural enclave law in general — on Sept. 15.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to block an enclave designation for the 4,462-acre Palm Valley development near Nocatee. The land belongs to the Davis family, the owners of Winn Dixie.

Officially, commissioners rejected the application because the developer had altered the parcel boundaries to meet the definition of an enclave.

But Murphy, the commission chair, said the denial was part of a broader strategy to push back against the agricultural enclave law. St. Johns County will fight the Palm Valley application in court, seeking an injunction against the law or at least a ruling that developers can’t keep redrawing their property boundaries in their enclave applications. Meanwhile, Murphy has started collecting signatures on a petition against the law and plans to lobby state lawmakers to repeal it.

Murphy declined to say whether that lobbying effort would include the four Republican lawmakers who represent St. Johns County in Tallahassee — Sen. Tom Leek, Rep. Kim Kendall, Rep. Sam Greco and Rep. Judson Sapp — who all voted for the agricultural enclaves law.

Within a few days, the rebellion in St. Johns appeared to spread beyond Murphy’s carefully laid plan. On Sept. 28, the commissioners reopened two agricultural enclave applications they had already approved in August. Then, unexpectedly, they voted 3-2 to deny both applications. Residents in the room, who had spoken unanimously against the applications during the public comment period, broke into cheers and applause.

The new denials blocked about 15,000 homes from being built on nearly 1,200 acres on the Heritage Development East and West properties south of St. Augustine. But they also opened St. Johns County up to two more costly legal fights against wealthy developers.

“We’re setting ourselves up for lawsuits that we don’t have the ability to fight,” said Murphy, who voted to approve the Heritage Development applications because he believed they met the enclave criteria. “We’re looking at potentially millions of dollars to fight each and every one of these ag enclaves.”

Court cases can drag on for years, but Murphy worries the county’s budget could be slashed if Floridians vote to lower their property taxes by approving Amendment 3 in November.

Amendment 3 is another effort by Tallahassee lawmakers to restrict local wishes, albeit one requiring voter consent.

“I think about halfway through that journey, when services begin to be cut, or Amendment 3 gets passed, and we just don’t have the money to do it anymore, we’re going to find ourselves in a whole lot worse position than we would if we just approved the applications that checked all the boxes,” Murphy said.