ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County’s Land Acquisition and Management Program — known as LAMP — is navigating a pair of significant setbacks: the loss of its top-ranked conservation property to a private buyer and a county-directed pause on all new land acquisitions tied to uncertainty over state property tax reform.
Top priority property slips away
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The property, located near the Matanzas River in the southeastern part of the county, was LAMP’s No. 1 acquisition target for 2025. Known informally as the Deltona property, the land ultimately sold for $12 million — well above what LAMP could offer.
According to our news partners at the Jacksonville Daily Record, 50 acres was sold along the Matanzas River to Ashley Homes on July 30th.
“Absolutely, it was number one on the lamp list for the 2025 year,” said Ryan Mauch, St. Johns County’s staff liaison to the LAMP board.
The county appraised the property at roughly $6.8 million and secured approximately $7 million in grant funding and offered to the seller, but Mauch says they declined.
“It’s a willing seller program. So the property owner, you know, already it’s, it incumbent upon them to submit an application and they, they, they want to have to sell it to the County,” Mauch said. “If people get better offers then they go for that and we try again for the next property.”
The site held strong ecological significance. Mauch said it represented “the most northerly mile of marsh coast left” in the southeastern part of the county and would have created a connected conservation corridor linking to Moses Creek Conservation Area to the south.
Mauch said it was disappointing.
“Again, we acknowledge that is a willing seller program.”
What LAMP does, how it works
LAMP, which launched around 1999-2000, is St. Johns County’s dedicated conservation land acquisition program. It paused during the 2008-2009 economic downturn and was restarted in 2021. Over the past three to four years, the program has acquired several new properties.
The program’s goal is to preserve ecologically valuable land — particularly forested wetlands and properties that connect to existing state conservation corridors — while also creating opportunities for passive recreation such as hiking trails, kayak launches and paddling trails.
LAMP owns 13 properties, according to its website.
“We want to link in with those properties and that provides really good value,” Mauch said. “You have the ecological side of things. You have passive recreation as well.”
LAMP currently holds approximately $5 million in available acquisition funds, with additional funding potentially available through state and federal grant programs.
“We have a pot of money, but then we also have additional pots of money out there through the state, as well as federal programs that we could potentially manage,” Mauch said.
Current priority list
With the Deltona property off the table, LAMP’s priority list now looks like this:
- Bailey family ranch property — Bishop Estates Road (~70 acres)
- Adams family property — County Road 13, Elkton area (~94 acres)
- Christina Drive/Shores Boulevard property (~2.8 acres)
- Glidden family property — County Road 13 North, Picatata area (~2.8 acres)
- McCullough Creek area property — County Road 13 South (~18 acres)
Property tax reform puts program on pause
Beyond the competitive real estate market, LAMP faces a broader challenge: the program has been directed to halt all new acquisitions while St. Johns County assesses the potential budget impact of Florida’s state property tax reform legislation.
“We’ve been asked to sort of have a hiatus on any new acquisitions at this time,” Mauch said.
The pause came earlier in 2026 as county officials began evaluating the fiscal year 2027 budget amid unknowns surrounding the reform’s funding implications.
“Everything is still status quo at this time,” he said. “It’s basically just to say, hey, we’re still evaluating the impacts to our budget because of it.”
Mauch said the program continues to evaluate incoming applications in the meantime.