St. Johns County Impact Fees: Schedule, 2030 Increases, and Deferrals

Impact fees in St. Johns County run from $11,074 for a home under 800 square feet to $30,332 for a home over 5,000 square feet, and every March 4 through 2030 those numbers step up under a five-phase increase schedule. The fees are one-time charges on new construction that fund roads, schools, parks, and other public infrastructure, and for a new home they are due before the county approves electrical power to the structure, not at building permit issuance.

Current Residential Fee Schedule

Residential fees are calculated per dwelling unit and tiered by finished square footage. Larger homes pay more because the county’s studies attribute more traffic, more school-age children, and greater service demand to bigger houses. The 2025 schedule, in effect until March 4, 2026, sets these totals across all seven fee categories:¹

Under 800 sq ft: $11,074
801 to 1,250 sq ft: $14,597
1,251 to 1,800 sq ft: $16,583
1,801 to 2,500 sq ft: $20,652
2,501 to 3,750 sq ft: $25,647
3,751 to 5,000 sq ft: $28,855
5,001 sq ft and over: $30,332

Transportation dominates every tier. For a home in the 1,801-to-2,500-square-foot range, the multimodal transportation fee alone accounts for $10,825 of the $20,652 total, with schools adding $6,082 and the remaining five categories splitting the balance.¹

What the Seven Categories Fund

The county splits the total across seven separate infrastructure funds. Knowing what each pays for helps when you’re reviewing the clearance sheet against your permit application.

Multimodal transportation, formerly the road impact fee, pays for road construction and intersection improvements.
Schools funds new student stations and school facilities.
Parks covers acquisition and development of recreational land.
Public buildings covers government and administrative facilities.
Law enforcement and correctional facilities, renamed from the former law enforcement fee, now also funds jail and detention capacity.
Fire and rescue pays for stations, equipment, and staffing.
Conservation and open space is a new category created by Ordinance 2025-45. It launched at 50% of the recommended rate in 2026 and rises 12.5% per year until reaching the full rate in 2030.²

Commercial Projects

Commercial impact fees are assessed per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area, with rates tied to the intensity of the use. A high-traffic use like retail or a medical office generates a much larger transportation fee than a low-traffic use like a warehouse. The county also ended its prior practice of subsidizing nonresidential impact fees, so commercial developers should expect rates that reflect the full studied cost of the project’s infrastructure impact.³

Phased Increases Through 2030

Beginning March 4, 2026, the county entered a five-phase increase schedule that runs annually through 2030. Each phase raises rates across most categories and further ramps up the new conservation fee.⁴

The jumps are meaningful. Under the 2026 Phase 1 schedule, the multimodal transportation fee alone for a 1,801-to-2,500-square-foot home rose to $13,206, up from $10,825 the year before. That is nearly $2,400 in a single category, and every other category is climbing on its own curve.²

If your permit will be pulled in 2027 or later, check the schedule for the phase covering your expected permit date. Pulling a permit in late February versus early March can put you in a different fee year.

When Payment Is Due

The deadline depends on the project type, and for a new home it is not at the building permit stage.

New construction: fees are due before electrical energizing. You can pull the permit and start building, but the county will not approve power to the structure until the fees are paid.
Additions and remodeling: fees for expansions that push the building into a higher category are due before the building permit is issued.
Shell buildings: fees are due before the certificate of occupancy or electrical energizing, whichever comes first.
Change of use: fees are due before electrical energizing for any construction or remodeling tied to the use change.
Model homes: the final inspection will not be completed until the full residential impact fee is paid.⁵

The Building Division verifies that the impact fees on the clearance sheet match the permit application before issuing the permit or approving energizing.⁶

Projects Beyond New Construction

Any new building requiring a permit carries impact fees, but three other situations also create an obligation.

Changing the use of an existing building triggers a fee based on the net difference between the old and new uses. Converting a warehouse into a restaurant, for instance, produces far more traffic and different service demand, and the fee adjustment reflects that gap.⁶

Expanding a home can trigger additional fees if the added square footage crosses a tier boundary. A 1,700-square-foot home adding a 400-square-foot addition moves from the 1,251-to-1,800 tier into the 1,801-to-2,500 tier, and the owner owes the difference between the two tiers’ totals. An expansion that stays inside the same tier owes nothing extra.⁶

Exemptions and Credits

Section 37.04 of the county’s Land Development Code lists the situations that owe no impact fee. Every exemption must be claimed when you submit the clearance sheet with your building permit application. Miss that window and the exemption is waived even if you would otherwise qualify.⁶

Fully exempt situations include:

Residential expansions that stay in the same size tier.
Residential replacement where the new home is in the same tier as the old.
Nonresidential replacement with a new building of the same size and use.
Residential accessory structures like detached garages and sheds, provided they are not open to the general public. A clubhouse restricted to residents qualifies; one operating as a public attraction does not.
Temporary residential units the county is assured will be permanently removed within two years.⁶

Credits are separate. Under Section 37.05, developers who have prepaid impact fees or entered an approved developer’s agreement can apply credit against what they owe. Like exemptions, credits must be claimed no later than the permit application, and unclaimed credits are forfeited.⁶

Affordable Housing Deferrals

The county offers a deferral program, not a waiver, for qualifying affordable housing. Fees are still owed; payment is pushed back up to 16 years.⁶

To qualify, the project must be a multi-family rental development under single ownership and management, with 100% of units restricted to households earning 60% or less of area median income. A deed restriction must lock in the affordability requirement for at least 30 years, and the owner or a controlling partner must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.⁶

Even qualifying projects face hard caps. No more than 100 units per fiscal year can receive deferrals, with no rollover. The total annual dollar amount of deferrals is capped at 3% of the previous year’s residential impact fee collections, excluding school fees. School impact fees cannot be deferred at all unless the St. Johns County School Board specifically authorizes it. Deferred balances accrue interest based on the Engineering News-Record construction cost index, capped at 4%, and the county secures the balance with a mortgage lien on the property.⁶

Before You Submit

Two things drive your fee, so pin them down first: the exact square footage of the project and the correct land use classification. A small floor-area difference can move a residential project into the next tier, and the jump can run several thousand dollars. For commercial projects, the specific use category matters. General retail, medical office, and warehouse all sit under “commercial” but pay very different rates.

Impact fee calculation forms and the current fee schedule for each phase are posted on the county’s impact fee page.⁴ Because the phased increases shift every March 4, confirming which schedule applies to your permit date is worth doing before you lock in your project budget.

1
St. Johns County. St. Johns County Schedule of Fees and Services
2
St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. St. Johns County Ordinance 2025-45
3
St. Johns County. St. Johns County Updates Impact Fee Ordinance, Creates New Conservation and Open Space Impact Fee
4
St. Johns County. Impact Fees
5
St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. St. Johns County Ordinance 2022-78
6
St. Johns County. Section 37.0 Impact Fees