What it costs in government fees to build a home in St. Johns County, Florida
Every impact fee, water and sewer connection charge, and building permit for a new
single-family detached home in unincorporated St. Johns County — itemized, sourced, and dated.
Total government fees$34,294Single-family detached, 2,000 sq ft heated/conditioned, 4BR, 3/4" water meter, county water and sewer, unincorporated area. Ranges from $33,139 (pre-run water service instead of a new tap)
to $36,544 (if the $2,250 Sewer Infrastructure Charge applies).
Check the utility provider before you rely on thisJEA serves portions of northern St. Johns County under its own fee schedule. The county publishes no service-area boundary map.
Impact & mobility fees
Fee
Amount
Multimodal Transportation Impact Fee
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · sourceRenamed from 'Roads' by Ord. 2025-45. Bracket: 1,801–2,500 sq ft heated.
Parks
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · source
$1,906.00
Public Buildings
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · sourceLibrary capital sits inside this fee; there is no separate library impact fee.
$968.00
Fire Rescue
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · source
$764.00
Law Enforcement and Correctional Facilities
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · source
$452.00
Conservation and Open Space
Eff. Mar 4, 2026 · Phase 1 table p.1 · sourceNew fee under Ord. 2025-45. Starts at 50% of recommended maximum, steps +12.5%/yr for four years.
$303.00
Subtotal
$22,490
Water & sewer — St. Johns County Utility Department
Fee
Amount
Sewer Unit Connection Fee, per dwelling
Eff. May 1, 2026 · Schedule A p.3 · source
$5,905.25
Water Unit Connection Fee, single or multiple family
Eff. May 1, 2026 · Schedule A p.3 · source
$2,926.95
Water & Reclaimed Water Tapping Fee, 3/4"
Eff. May 1, 2026 · Schedule F(1) p.16 · sourceDrops to $240 where the developer already ran the service (common in platted subdivisions).
FL BCAIB Surcharge, F.S. 468.631 (1.5%)
Eff. Invalid Date · sourceBase is issuance + plan check + permit fee combined — a definition published nowhere, which raises the surcharge ~53% over the naive reading.
Residential Lot Grading (includes first inspection)
Eff. Jul 21, 2026 · pp.24-25 · sourceIsolated single- and two-family dwellings are exempt from separate stormwater permitting.
$104.00
Clearing & Tree Preservation — single family lots
Eff. Jul 21, 2026 · pp.24-25 · sourceDrops to $26 under an approved Neighborhood Site Plan.
$104.00
Environmental Clearance Sheet & Inspection
Eff. Jul 21, 2026 · pp.24-25 · sourceDrops to $27 under an approved Neighborhood Site Plan.
Single Family Residential Driveway Permit
Eff. Jul 21, 2026 · pp.24-25 · source
$36.00
Subtotal
$1,471
Adopted five-phase schedule (impact fees only)
Ordinance 2025-45 eliminated automatic CPI indexing, so Phase V is terminal absent new action.
Phase
Impact fees
Phase I — now (3/4/2026)
$22,490
Phase II — 3/4/2027
$24,106
Phase III — 3/4/2028
$24,513
Phase IV — 3/4/2029
$24,918
Phase V — 3/4/2030
$24,994
What we could not verify
These are reported as gaps rather than estimated. The total above is a floor.
Building valuation basis — the county publishes no $/sq ft table. A plans examiner applies an internal table. The $300,000 valuation shown is a stated illustration, not a county figure. This is the largest soft spot in the estimate.
Sewer tap fee for gravity sewer has no fixed amount — Schedule F(2) prices it as cost of labor, equipment and material plus 25%
A $2,250 Sewer Infrastructure Charge was added by the April 7, 2026 tariff amendment with no descriptive text. If it attaches to new single-family connections the total rises to $36,543.53. Confirm with SJCUD at (904) 209-2700.
Fixture count (12) and electrical service size (150A) are stated assumptions, not county figures
Why this number is easy to get wrong
The Building Department page still advertises a COVID-era 30% permit fee reduction 'until further notice.' It is already baked into the published schedule — it is NOT applied again on top. Proven two ways: the county's live calculator matches the published schedule exactly, and the schedule's figures are clean 0.7 multiples of round base numbers.
The master fee schedule was amended 07/21/2026 but the utility tariff bound into its back pages is the superseded October 2025 version. Reading only the fee schedule produces three phantom fees and misses one real one.
The county's permit calculator electrical field is 'number of residences,' not square feet. Entering 2000 returns $10,019 instead of $24.
How to use this. Every figure is transcribed from an official
St. Johns County or Florida Statutes document, linked inline, with its effective date. No third-party
legal-code mirrors were used — in testing, one returned impact fees off by 2.4×. Built for screening
and pro-forma work; confirm with the county before you sign anything.