St. Johns County, FL Ordinances (2026)

Garage, yard, patio and apartment sales are a permitted accessory use in every St. Johns County residential district, but the county limits each property to one sale per six-month…

Unincorporated St. Johns County regulates all development in mapped Flood Hazard Areas under the Flood Damage Control Regulations at LDC Part 3.03.00. Flood zones are set by the…

Private boat docks, piers and boathouses are a permitted accessory use in St. Johns County's residential and Open Rural districts, but undeveloped waterfront lots need on-site or…

If you live in your St. Johns County home full time and it's your homestead, you can rent out rooms or the whole house short term without registering it as a Short Term Vacation Rental…

St. Johns County LDC 2.02.04.B.19 caps short-term rentals at two transient occupants per sleeping room or common area, with a maximum of ten per rental, excluding children twelve and…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code requires every Short Term Vacation Rental lease to disclose compliance with County Noise Ordinance 2015-19 and hand transient occupants a…

St. Johns County shifts code enforcement from tenants to owners after repeat violations at a Short Term Vacation Rental. Land Development Code Section 2.02.04.B.19.g gives occupants a…

St. Johns County LDC 2.02.04.B.19 requires short-term rentals to provide at least one off-street parking space per three transient occupants, and total vehicles on site cannot exceed…

St. Johns County lets homeowners keep up to five domestic hens as an accessory use in any residential zoning district, but roosters, ducks, geese, turkeys and peafowl are all off the…

St. Johns County groups pet grooming operations with veterinary offices and animal hospitals under Land Development Code Section 2.03.41, which requires Growth Management to approve a…

St. Johns County protects nesting Bald Eagles with a mandatory Primary Zone extending 750 feet from every documented nest tree, where new buildings, tree removal, platting and toxic…

Unincorporated St. Johns County requires veterinary offices and animal hospitals to obtain a Special Use permit from the Planning and Zoning Agency, and imposes fixed setbacks from…

Unincorporated St. Johns County caps household pets over ten weeks old at five per residential lot. Keeping more without an approved Special Use is a zoning violation, and small caged…

St. Johns County Ordinance 2015-19 makes a dog or animal whose noise is plainly audible across the owner's property line for 30 minutes or more, while unprovoked, prima facie evidence…

St. Johns County Ordinance 2015-19 allows leaf blowers, mowers, and domestic power tools during the day but makes their use unlawful between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. daily when noise…

St. Johns County Ordinance 2015-19 permits construction and industrial noise only 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sundays and holidays, if not…

St. Johns County Ordinance 2015-19 bars radios, instruments, and sound equipment played to disturb the peace or louder than needed for listeners present, judged plainly audible at 100…

St. Johns County Ordinance 2015-19 sets nighttime quiet hours of 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday, judged by a…

Unincorporated St. Johns County draws an Airport Overlay District around the St. Augustine-St. Johns County Airport using the FAA-required 65 decibel noise contour map plus a 200-foot…

A carport is an accessory structure in St. Johns County and needs a building permit. It meets the accessory setbacks, 3 feet from side and rear lines when 10 feet or more from the…

St. Johns County's accessory-dwelling equivalent is the Guest House: a detached unit for a non-paying guest or family member, limited to microwave-and-bar-sink kitchen facilities and…

Unincorporated St. Johns County runs four density bonus programs under LDC Part 5.07-5.10: Workforce/Affordable Housing, Wetland preservation, Variable (PUD), and Optional. The Wetland…

Unincorporated St. Johns County enforces a dedicated downtown design code for Vilano Beach: the Vilano Beach Town Center (VBTC) Overlay under LDC Part 3.10.00. It sets architectural…

Within the Vilano Beach Town Center Overlay District, Section 3.10.05.L.4.h requires street trees to be Cabbage Palms with a clear trunk of 12 to 18 feet, spaced on average 20 feet on…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code protects any tree of 8 inches or more in diameter at breast height, and drops that threshold to just 2 inches for Southern red cedar and sand…

Site plans for development in a St. Johns County Flood Hazard Area must show base flood elevations, and Section 3.03.05 sets numeric limits on how much a project can raise those…

Unincorporated St. Johns County bans chain link and barbed wire fencing in the required front yard of the Palm Valley Overlay District covering Ponte Vedra, and requires landscaping or…

Side and rear yard fences in unincorporated St. Johns County can reach six to eight feet depending on grade changes, but front-yard fences within 25 feet of the property line are…

When a fence sits within five feet of a retaining wall on a St. Johns County residential lot, the two structures together cannot exceed eight feet measured from the base of the wall…

Unincorporated St. Johns County bans turf grass and exotic or non-native plants from Upland Buffers that must be restored around wetlands, estuaries and natural water bodies. Growth…

Within the Vilano Beach Town Center Overlay District, a sidewalk cafe may open only alongside a legally established restaurant or takeout food store that prepares food on site. Section…

St. Johns County designates historically or culturally significant sites as County Landmarks or Landmark Districts under Land Development Code Section 3.01.03. The Cultural Resources…

St. Johns County allows adult bookstores, theaters, cabarets and similar adult uses only as a Special Use under Land Development Code Section 2.03.03, and only far from other land…

St. Johns County requires child care centers and adult day care centers to obtain a Special Use Permit under Land Development Code Section 2.03.04 before opening. Centers need at least…

St. Johns County requires NFPA 13D fire sprinklers in every home of a one to ten dwelling subdivision built more than half a mile from a central utility provider, if the developer…

St. Johns County requires every industrial, commercial or hotel/motel use in the unincorporated county to build on-site loading berths sized to its square footage, from one berth under…

St. Johns County bans parking an RV, utility trailer or boat trailer in a required Front Yard on residential property: Section 6.01.03.H.5 confines that major recreational equipment to…

Unincorporated St. Johns County exempts single-family and two-family homes from its off-street parking paving mandate. LDC Sec. 6.05.02.H.1 requires every other parking or vehicular…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code bars parking or storing any vehicle over 8,000 pounds net vehicle weight in a residential zoning district, unincorporated county-wide. Dump…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code bars any bright light from a covered project that spills onto adjacent property, streets, or individual residential lots as nuisance or…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code requires full cutoff light fixtures on any non-residential, multi-family, or common-area project built next to a residential use or…

St. Johns County bars flashing, scintillating, beacon or running lights and animated copy on any billboard under LDC § 7.01.03. Lighting is otherwise allowed only if it meets the…

St. Johns County exempts working farms, ranches, nurseries and silviculture operations from the tree-removal permit that applies to everyone else. Land Development Code Section…

St. Johns County doesn't regulate a household compost bin in your own backyard, but it does set hard numbers for a composting structure that serves more than one home. Land Development…

Nonresidential sites near an interstate interchange in St. Johns County can add one extra pole sign for freeway visibility under LDC § 7.02.05. Size and height scale with distance from…

St. Johns County effectively bars digital billboards: LDC § 7.01.03 bans flashing or animated lighting on any billboard face outright. What the code allows instead is a narrow…

St. Johns County allows political signs on residential property as temporary signs. Land Development Code §7.02.02 permits up to two temporary signs per parcel, 6 square feet each…

St. Johns County caps window signs at 25 percent of the window or door area under LDC § 7.02.06. Window signs must be legible only from the premises or from inside the business, cannot…

Every St. Johns County Short Term Vacation Rental has to keep trash covered and stock at least one storage container for every four guests. Land Development Code Section…

St. Johns County doesn't run a residential trash pickup calendar through its Land Development Code, but it does require every Short Term Vacation Rental to tell guests when pickup…

In St. Johns County's Office, Commercial and Planned Districts, a waste dumpster pad and its containers count as a permitted accessory use, but the code sets a hard placement rule: the…

St. Johns County's Land Development Code requires any new subdivision built around a golf course to install reclaimed water lines so the course can be irrigated with recycled water…

St. Johns County prohibits Medical Marijuana Treatment Center Dispensing Facilities in every zoning district, including PUDs, PSDs and PRDs, under the local opt-out authority Florida…

St. Johns County bans campfires and bonfires on the beach every night from sunset to sunrise during Marine Turtle Nesting Season, May 1 through October 31. The Land Development Code…

St. Johns County caps building lot coverage by zoning district under LDC Table 6.01: as low as 20% in the RS-E estate district, rising to 25% in RS-2, 30% in RG-1 single-family lots…

St. Johns County requires a Right-of-Way Permit from the County Administrator before anyone builds a driveway connection, sidewalk, drainage alteration, mailbox, sign, or similar…