Affiliate disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of these relationships.
Florida · Northeast Florida · #248 Most Populous County in the US
St. Johns County, Florida
America's oldest city meets Florida's top-ranked schools — from St. Augustine's 450+ years of continuous settlement and the Castillo de San Marcos to Ponte Vedra Beach's PGA Tour headquarters and TPC Sawgrass, Nocatee's master-planned community, and one of Florida's wealthiest and most rapidly growing counties. Property tax, courts, public records, and senior services for St. Johns County residents.
Affiliate disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of these relationships.
What do you need to do?
Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
St. Johns County's assessment ratio means effective tax rates are low — but incorrect appraisals still cost money. Ownwell manages the appeal with no upfront cost.
Office: St. Johns County Emergency Management – (904) 824-5550 | co.st-johns.fl.us/emergency
Alert System: SJC Alert; Florida FDEM; CodeRED; NOAA Weather Radio
Shelter Info: Multiple shelter locations; St. Johns County Fairgrounds; sjcem.org for current info
FEMA Region: Region 4
Notes: Northeastern Florida historic county; St. Augustine is county seat – the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the US (founded 1565); hurricane risk (Matthew 2016 caused historic flooding in St. Augustine – the worst flooding in 500 years of the city’s history; Irma 2017; the historic district’s vulnerability to storm surge is extreme); flooding (Matanzas River; Tolomato River; Intracoastal Waterway; historic St. Augustine is essentially at sea level; sea level rise is a profound threat to America’s oldest city); severe thunderstorms; one of Florida’s fastest-growing counties (Jacksonville bedroom community; extremely active); Ponte Vedra Beach (PGA Tour headquarters)
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
County Roads: St. Johns County Public Works – (904) 209-0120
Transit: St. Johns County Transit (very limited); JTA connections to Jacksonville; primarily auto-dependent
Notes: I-95 (north-south through western St. Johns County – connects Jacksonville north and Daytona Beach south); US-1 (through St. Augustine); SR-16 (west to I-95 from St. Augustine); A1A (the scenic coastal route through Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Augustine Beach, Vilano Beach); the Matanzas River crossing into Anastasia Island (SR-312 and the Bridge of Lions – the historic bascule bridge in St. Augustine’s historic district); Nocatee (US-1 corridor – one of the largest master-planned communities in Florida; very active development); the county’s I-95 access and proximity to Jacksonville drive explosive growth
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: St. Johns County Growth Management Department – (904) 827-5650 | co.st-johns.fl.us
Services: County permits; St. Augustine (separate – historic preservation regulations extensive; active), St. Augustine Beach (separate), Ponte Vedra Beach (unincorporated but wealthy; active), Nocatee (unincorporated – one of the most active master-planned communities in the US; enormous residential and commercial development), Palm Valley, Swiss, Flagler Estates separate
Notes: St. Johns County is one of the fastest-growing and wealthiest counties in Florida; Nocatee (master-planned community in northern St. Johns County) has been one of the top-selling planned communities in the US; Ponte Vedra Beach’s luxury residential market is continuously active; St. Augustine’s historic downtown has active restoration and tourism-related development; the county ranks consistently as one of Florida’s highest-income and fastest-growing counties
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: St. Johns County Veterans Services – (904) 827-5570
VA Medical: VA Jacksonville CBOC (about 30 miles north via US-1/I-95)
Services: Benefits claims; Jacksonville VA CBOC very accessible; large veteran community (Ponte Vedra and suburban Jacksonville retirees)
Notes: Jacksonville CBOC easily accessible; St. Johns County’s large and affluent retiree community includes many veterans; active VSO chapters
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: St. Johns County Public Library System – (904) 827-6900 | sjcpls.org; 8 branches; an excellent and well-funded library system
Branches: Ponte Vedra Beach (main – outstanding), St. Augustine (historic district), Southeast Branch, Hastings, Ponte Vedra, Anastasia Island, Northwest Branch, Julington Creek
Services: Books, e-books, public computers, Wi-Fi, genealogy (outstanding – Florida and St. Augustine heritage; 500 years of documented history; the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History at UF is the companion archive), children’s programs; multilingual (Spanish); PGA Tour and golf heritage; Flagler era heritage
Notable: St. Johns County Library has some of the finest Florida history and heritage collections in the state, reflecting St. Augustine’s extraordinary 500-year European history (the longest continuous record of European presence in the continental US)
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Federal: Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (St. Augustine – the oldest masonry fort in the continental US (construction began 1672; it was never taken by force); the coquina shell stone construction; extraordinary preserved fortress; the story of the fort (alternately held by Spain, Britain, and the US) is a 350-year history of North American geopolitics; free for children 15 and under; one of the NPS’s most historically significant sites); Fort Matanzas National Monument (Anastasia Island – a smaller Spanish fort that defended the southern approach to St. Augustine; beautiful coastal setting; accessible by free ferry)
State Parks: Anastasia State Park (St. Augustine Beach – excellent barrier island park; beautiful Atlantic beach; camping; wildlife; coquina quarry (the coquina stone that built Castillo de San Marcos was quarried on Anastasia Island; the quarry is visible in the park)); Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (St. Johns/Flagler County – one of the finest NERRs on the East Coast; protecting the Matanzas River and associated coastal ecosystems); Washington Oaks (see Flagler County – accessible)
Regional: Historic St. Augustine (the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental US (founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565); the Spanish Quarter Museum; the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse (c. 1788 – the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the US); the Oldest House (c. 1723); the Flagler College (the former Ponce de León Hotel built by Henry Flagler in 1888 – the most extravagant hotel in the United States at the time; now Flagler College; the Tiffany stained glass windows and the magnificent Spanish Renaissance architecture are extraordinary; tour available to visitors)); the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine (established 1565; the oldest Catholic parish in the continental US); Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (a landmark St. Augustine attraction since 1950); the Castillo de San Marcos (NPS – the oldest masonry fort in the US); the horse-drawn carriage tours; the ghost tours (St. Augustine is famously haunted – the concentration of ghost tours may be the highest per capita of any US city); the Lightner Museum (in the former Alcazar Hotel – Henry Flagler’s second magnificent St. Augustine hotel; now housing an outstanding museum of Gilded Age antiques and curiosities)
Ponte Vedra Beach: TPC Sawgrass (home of The Players Championship – one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world; the Stadium Course’s 17th hole (the famous island green par-3) is the most photographed hole in professional golf; the PGA TOUR headquarters is in Ponte Vedra Beach); Atlantic Ocean beaches; luxury resort community
Notes: St. Augustine is one of the most historically significant cities in North America – 500 years of continuously documented history makes it extraordinarily rich; the Castillo de San Marcos (begun 1672) is genuinely one of the most impressive fortifications in North America; Flagler College’s former Ponce de León Hotel (the 1888 Flagler flagship hotel with its extraordinary Tiffany windows and Spanish Renaissance architecture) is one of the finest historic hotel buildings in the US; the city’s ghost tour industry (dozens of competing tour companies) reflects the genuine antiquity of the built environment and the dark history (the Matanzas Massacre of 1565 – when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés massacred approximately 300 French Huguenot survivors near the Matanzas River – is the city’s darkest founding episode); TPC Sawgrass’s island green 17th hole is one of professional golf’s most iconic images
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: St. Johns County GIS – co.st-johns.fl.us/gis (excellent county GIS); St. Augustine historic district preservation maps; NOAA coastal mapping; sea level rise vulnerability mapping; Nocatee development tracking; TPC Sawgrass maps
Notes: Excellent GIS system; sea level rise vulnerability mapping for St. Augustine’s historic district is critical; Nocatee development GIS; historic preservation mapping for the 500-year-old city; Matanzas River watershed monitoring
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Shelter: St. Johns County Pet Center – (904) 209-6190; St. Johns County Humane Society; First Coast No More Homeless Pets (regional)
Services: Stray intake (growing volume), adoptions; wildlife management (sea turtles on Ponte Vedra and Vilano Beach; alligators; gopher tortoises; North Atlantic right whales offshore in winter; bobcats; Florida black bears)
Notes: St. Augustine’s barrier island beaches (Anastasia Island; St. Augustine Beach) have significant loggerhead sea turtle nesting; North Atlantic right whale management in offshore waters in winter (calving grounds); bobcat populations in the county’s wooded areas; Florida black bears increasingly in exurban communities
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Solid Waste: St. Johns County Solid Waste – (904) 209-0150; comprehensive programs
Environmental: Florida DEP; St. Johns River Water Management District; Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR (one of the finest National Estuarine Research Reserves on the East Coast); NOAA (right whale protection offshore)
Key Issues: Sea level rise and St. Augustine (America’s oldest city faces one of the most acute sea level rise threats of any US community; the historic district (built in the 16th-20th centuries on land that is essentially at sea level) already floods during significant storms and even during extreme high tides; the 2016 Matthew flooding was the worst in the city’s recorded history; the city is evaluating sea level rise adaptation strategies – but the challenge of protecting 500-year-old buildings from rising water while maintaining their historical character is unprecedented; the St. Augustine Rising initiative coordinates the community response); rapid growth environmental impacts (Nocatee and other fast-growing developments create stormwater management challenges for the county’s coastal watersheds; the Guana Tolomato Matanzas estuary is the receiving water body for much of the county’s stormwater; monitoring and managing nutrient inputs is critical); PGA TOUR golf course environmental management (the TPC Sawgrass and numerous other St. Johns County golf courses consume significant water (irrigation) and use fertilizers and pesticides that can affect the coastal watersheds; integrated pest management and water recycling programs are active)
Notes: St. Augustine’s dual character as America’s oldest city (500 years of European history; extraordinary colonial-era architecture; the Castillo de San Marcos; the Flagler hotels; the Cathedral Basilica) and as a living community facing 21st century challenges (sea level rise; explosive suburban growth in Nocatee and Ponte Vedra; tourism management; housing costs) makes it one of the most fascinating and challenged communities in Florida; the Matthew 2016 flooding event was a profound wake-up call – photographs of Matanzas Bay water pouring through the historic district’s streets were widely circulated; the question of how America’s oldest city adapts to sea level rise without losing the historic fabric that makes it extraordinary is one of the most pressing heritage preservation challenges in the nation
About St. Johns County
St. Johns County has been Florida’s fastest-growing county for much of the past decade – a distinction driven by the extraordinary expansion of Nocatee, one of the top-selling master-planned communities in the United States, and the continued growth of the Ponte Vedra and Julington Creek corridors south of Jacksonville. The county consistently ranks among Florida’s top counties for median household income, school district performance, and quality of life metrics, drawing families from across the state and the country.
St. Augustine (the county seat, population ~15,000) is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States – founded by Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565, more than 40 years before the English settled Jamestown. The city’s Colonial Quarter, Castillo de San Marcos (a 17th-century Spanish stone fort, now a National Monument), Flagler College (housed in Henry Flagler’s 1888 Ponce de León Hotel), and the ancient city streets draw millions of visitors annually and make St. Augustine one of the most historically rich small cities in the Western Hemisphere. Henry Flagler – John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil partner – essentially built modern St. Augustine with his Florida East Coast Railway and a series of grand hotels in the 1880s, transforming it from a sleepy village into Florida’s first winter resort destination.
Ponte Vedra Beach – unincorporated but one of Northeast Florida’s most prestigious addresses – is home to the PGA TOUR headquarters, TPC Sawgrass (home of The Players Championship, considered by many the “fifth major” of professional golf), and a concentration of wealth and professional talent from the Jacksonville financial, healthcare, and insurance sectors. Sawgrass Players Club and Marsh Landing are among the most exclusive residential golf communities in Florida.
Nocatee – a master-planned community straddling the St. Johns/Duval county line in the Ponte Vedra area – has been one of the top five best-selling communities in the United States for consecutive years, adding thousands of homes annually across multiple residential neighborhoods with shared amenity systems, retail, and employment centers.
County government is a five-member Board of County Commissioners with separately elected offices for the Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Sheriff, Supervisor of Elections, and Tax Collector.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Florida assesses at just value each January 1. TRIM Notice in August – 25-day petition window to the St. Johns County Value Adjustment Board. Homestead exemption: File with the St. Johns County Property Appraiser at 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084, phone 904-827-5500, by March 1. No FL estate or inheritance tax.
Recommended
St. Johns County TRIM notice August — 25-day appeal window. Ponte Vedra and Nocatee among Florida's premium markets driven by #1-ranked school district. No FL estate or inheritance tax. Ownwell manages the appeal with no upfront cost.
Courts & Legal
Circuit Court (Probate): The St. Johns County Circuit Court – 7th Judicial Circuit at 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084, phone 904-819-3600, handles probate, estate administration, and all civil and criminal matters. Clerk of Courts at clerkofcourts.stjohnsclerk.com.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURTS (Records, Marriage Licenses)
4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 819-3600
Genealogy
County-level record sources
St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above); holds divorce records from 1900, court and land records from 1821, plus marriage and probate records.
St. Johns County Public Library, Southeast Branch, 1960 N. Ponce de Leon Blvd., St. Augustine, FL 32084.
Local societies
St. Augustine Genealogical Society, c/o St. Johns County Public Library, 1960 N. Ponce de Leon Blvd., St. Augustine, FL 32084 – a member society of the Florida State Genealogical Society.
St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine, FL.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Probate Division 4010 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084 (904) 823-2333
St. Johns County sits in Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit. St. Johns is one of Florida’s two original counties (established 1821, alongside Escambia), roughly corresponding to the former colonial province of East Florida. It’s named after the St. Johns River.
IMPORTANT – a major statewide law change just took effect: Florida’s summary administration threshold DOUBLED from $75,000 to $150,000 effective July 1, 2026, under CS/HB 1337 (Chapter 2026-57, Laws of Florida). Confirm which threshold applies based on date of death when helping someone (see
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
4015 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 824-8304
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
4455 Avenue A, Suite 101, St. Augustine, FL 32095
(904) 823-2238
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
FL Dept of Health — St. Johns
200 San Sebastian View, St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 825-5091
FL DCF — St. Johns
(904) 827-5700
FL Medicaid
(800) 299-4833
Flagler Hospital
flaglerhospital.com
UF Health St. Johns
ufhealth.org/stjohns
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Florida DOH in St. Johns County – (904) 825-5003 | stjohns.floridahealth.gov
Services: Immunizations, WIC, STI testing, environmental health, vital records; behavioral health; tourism-related health (millions of visitors to St. Augustine); historic district water quality monitoring
Hospital: Baptist Medical Center Beaches (east Jacksonville – very accessible); Flagler Hospital (St. Augustine – (904) 819-4200; the county’s primary hospital; well-regarded community hospital); Advent Health Palm Coast (south); Jacksonville hospitals for specialty care
Notes: Flagler Hospital serves as the primary county hospital; Jacksonville hospitals easily accessible for specialty care; the enormous tourist population in St. Augustine creates unique public health demands; behavioral health; the county’s wealth creates excellent private healthcare access
Editorial independence: CountyOffices maintains strict editorial independence from our affiliate partners. Our content is researched from official government sources. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations or the information we publish.
Recommended for Florida
Ownwell
Property tax appeal service. Contingency fee - no savings, no charge.
