Artificial turf in St. Johns, FL, for new lots with a low, wet corner.

Pick the part that serves daily use.

A lawn beside the lanai or a dedicated pet area can leave room for planting, paths and shade. On a small lot, choose the priority rather than assuming all available ground should be covered. Include pet cleaning access and the time the surface will spend in full sun.

Show us the existing grade, wet patches and drains. Preparation needs to fit the property’s drainage plan; a surface change alone does not resolve water arriving from elsewhere.

Identify who controls the proposed space.

In communities such as RiverTown, Aberdeen, Durbin Crossing and Shearwater, private-lot and amenity projects can have different governing bodies. Confirm who controls the exact space and can authorize the work before requesting a shared-area scope.

In RiverTown, that reviewing body is the Rivertown Community Association Inc., which publishes its own ARB Guidelines and ARB application. A RiverTown owner takes a lawn, pet-area or putting-green layout to that association before work starts, not to a citywide office.

For a district dog park or other activity area, describe traffic, maintenance, equipment and access during the work. Do not apply a single-family turf standard to a commercial or common-area project without checking the requirements for that use.

The county won't stop you. The pond sets the limits.

St. Johns is unincorporated, so county rules apply, and the county's Land Development Code never mentions artificial turf (St. Johns County LDC). Since 19 May 2026 it couldn't ban compliant turf on a single-family lot of an acre or less anyway (Fla. Stat. 125.572). What the state's standard asks for is permeable turf, with every edge and seam anchored against wind and flooding.

Water is the line that moves layouts here. The same standard keeps turf out of swales, ditches and stormwater ponds, and back from the edge of any lake, pond or creek (DEP Rule 62-308.100). In RiverTown, Aberdeen and Shearwater a great many back fences face water, so the custom layout you approve before work starts is where that line gets drawn.

Your HOA is a separate matter, because the state rule binds the county, not associations. An association can't restrict turf nobody can see from the street, a neighbouring lot, a common area or a community golf course (Fla. Stat. 720.3045), so a yard open to a lake path or a Cimarrone fairway may fall outside that protection. Our guide to turf and Florida HOAs covers the rest.

St. Johns Golf & Country Club goes further than a sightline test: its Architectural Guidelines, effective 15 November 2010, require St. Augustine sod and state plainly that no artificial grass is permitted on the exterior of a lot (St. Johns Golf & Country Club Architectural Guidelines). Fla. Stat. 720.3045 still keeps that ban from reaching turf that can't be seen from the street, an adjoining lot, a common area or the club's golf course, so a pet area or putting green sited fully outside those sightlines can still be possible; a siting plan goes to the association through its architectural review application, submitted ahead of the monthly ARC meeting. The club's amenities are a separate matter again, run by the Sampson Creek Community Development District under its own 2026 policies; a CDD enforcing its own deed restrictions sits outside the state's sightline protection, so confirm the community's current rules with the association before a layout is set.

One watering day a week, and new sod on hold.

The county and the St. Johns River Water Management District declared a Phase III extreme water shortage on 11 May 2026, and it was still in force on 7 September. It allows one watering day a week, reaches private wells and pumps as well as utility water, and restricts new sod and new plantings (St. Johns County).

That lands hardest on a young lot whose builder sod never rooted into the fill. Turf takes no watering day at all, so it looks the same whichever phase the district is in.

Water service is split between St. Johns County Utility, JEA and the City of St. Augustine, with no published map, so confirm yours by address (St. Johns County). The county utility says reclaimed water sits outside the one-day schedule (St. Johns County); if your community irrigates with it, ask how its own schedule runs.

Built on fill, and graded to send rain to the pond.

Most of St. Johns was built on graded flatwoods and old pine plantation, with the wetlands kept as the view: Aberdeen alone keeps more than 500 acres of wetland and more than 65 acres of lakes. On a lot from the last twenty years, expect thin builder topsoil over compacted fill, and a low back corner that holds water after a summer storm, because the whole grade is engineered to move rain toward the retention pond.

Below the fill is the region's sand over a slower layer. USDA soil data puts 78.5% of mapped St. Johns County acres in the poorly or very poorly drained classes, and on 75.7% of mapped acres the water table comes within six inches of the surface at some point in a normal year (USDA).

So the free visit starts at that low corner. We check the ground, then build the base for what we find, so rain moves through the turf and on toward the pond the way the grade intends. Trees on these lots are still young and most yards sit in full sun, so put play areas where the afternoon shade will fall; our guide to how hot turf gets has the numbers.