Mayport Zoning Laws: The Fishing Village That Fought a Cruise Terminal and Won

TL;DR: Mayport has two separate zoning systems in the same code subpart. The Mayport Road Zoning Overlay covers land 200 feet deep from the right-of-way along Mayport Road in commercial districts, and it regulates building form, including a ban on roofs that look flat from the street. Separately, the Mayport Village Working Waterfront Zoning Districts protect the historic fishing village, with mandatory architectural review under adopted design guides.

The short answers

What area does the Mayport Road Overlay cover?
Land extending 200 feet from the outer edges of the right-of-way along Mayport Road, in CO, CRO, CN, CCG-1, CCG-2, and PUD districts with commercial uses.

Can I build a flat-roofed building on Mayport Road?
Not one that looks flat from the street. Roofs giving the appearance of a flat roof from any street side are prohibited. Gabled, hipped, mansard, or other designs that avoid that appearance are allowed.

Can my bay doors face the road?
No. Open bay doors and similar large doors providing access to work or storage areas can’t open toward or directly face Mayport Road.

What about blank walls?
Exterior walls facing Mayport Road have to be relieved by doors, windows, and architectural details.

What happens if the overlay conflicts with the rest of the zoning code?
The stricter requirement prevails.

Is Mayport Village the same as the Mayport Road Overlay?
No. Mayport Village has its own Working Waterfront Zoning Districts with a separate architectural review and approval process under adopted design guides.

Why does the village have special protection?
It’s designated a Florida working waterfront under the state’s Waterfronts Florida Program, and the community organized to protect its historic fishing-village character.

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Mayport is the northern end of the barrier island, past Atlantic Beach, where Naval Station Mayport and what’s left of a commercial shrimping village sit next to each other.

It has two zoning systems doing two different jobs, and they’re easy to confuse because they live in the same part of the code. One is about a road. The other is about a village.

For the county-wide picture, start with the Duval ordinance guide. This one is Mayport.

The Mayport Road Overlay: a gateway rule

The first system is about appearance along a corridor.

The Mayport Road Zoning Overlay covers lands extending a depth of 200 feet from the outer edges of the right-of-way along Mayport Road, specifically in these zoning districts: Commercial Office (CO), Commercial Residential Office (CRO), Commercial Neighborhood (CN), Commercial Community/General-1 (CCG-1), Commercial Community/General-2 (CCG-2), and PUDs with commercial uses.

The stated intent is explicit about why. Mayport Road is a gateway into the Beach communities, and the overlay exists to improve its appearance, retain and enhance property values, promote redevelopment of blighted areas, and make the corridor safer and more appealing for pedestrians, bikes, and vehicles.

What the form rules actually require

These are unusually concrete for a design overlay:

• No flat-looking roofs. Roofs that give the appearance of a flat roof from any street side of the building are prohibited. You can use gabled, hipped, mansard, or any other design that avoids that appearance.
• Bay doors turn away from the road. Open bay doors and similar large doors serving work areas or storage can’t open toward or directly face Mayport Road.
• No blank walls. Exterior walls facing Mayport Road must be relieved by doors, windows, and architectural details.

If you’ve ever wondered why newer commercial buildings along that stretch have pitched roofs and articulated facades instead of the standard flat-topped metal box, this is why.

One rule worth memorizing: where the overlay’s requirements conflict with anything else in Chapter 656, the stricter requirement prevails. You don’t get to pick the friendlier standard.

Mayport Village: working waterfront protection

The second system is entirely different in character, and it has a story behind it.

Mayport Village is designated a Florida working waterfront under the State of Florida’s Waterfronts Florida Program, which provides communities planning assistance for waterfront revitalization. That designation is what unlocked a special zoning overlay built to protect the historic character of a working fishing waterfront.

The code establishes Mayport Village Working Waterfront Zoning Districts, and it goes further than most overlays: compliance with the Architectural Design Guides for Mayport Village is required, with its own architectural review and approval process, an appeals path, and a district acknowledgement requirement.

So if you’re building or renovating in the village proper, you’re not just meeting zoning standards. You’re going through design review against adopted guides, similar in spirit to the Certificate of Appropriateness process in Springfield, though under a different framework.

The Mayport Waterfront Partnership wrote and sponsored the establishment of the village overlay zone regulations, on the reasoning that the fishing village needed special protection.

Why the protection exists

This is the part that makes Mayport’s zoning make sense.

In 2008, the Jacksonville Port Authority bought an eight-acre parcel in Mayport Village intending to build a cruise ship terminal, and sought to rezone the tract through a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. A civic association and a group of residents sued, seeking an injunction to block the rezoning, raising pollution and traffic concerns among other claims.

The terminal never happened. But the commercial fishing industry that had anchored the village economy declined after the purchase, the land fell into disrepair, and shrimpers who had worked from there moved to other Northeast Florida harbors.

The recovery has been slow and is still underway. In 2018, JaxPort agreed to sell the property to the city for one dollar, with the city and port splitting revenue from a future sale or private development through 2038. The city later invested in a new dock. As of 2024, City Council was considering funding to help the nonprofit Mayport Waterfront Partnership hire professional staff and improve property, supporting a plan to redevelop roughly 6.72 acres of city-owned land into restaurants, retail, ecotourism, and educational attractions.

That’s the context behind the zoning. The village overlay isn’t decorative preservation. It’s the legal instrument a community used to keep its own character.

The shrimp boats are still the first thing most people picture when they hear Mayport. We put one on a sticker.

Quick win

If you’re buying or building anywhere near Mayport, figure out which of the two systems applies to you before anything else.

Measure it: are you within 200 feet of the Mayport Road right-of-way, in one of the listed commercial districts? Then the road overlay’s form rules apply and your roof design is constrained. Are you in the village proper? Then you’re looking at working waterfront districts and architectural review against the design guides.

Two very different processes. Call the Current Planning Division with your RE number and ask which subpart governs your parcel. It’s a two-minute question that changes your entire design approach.

The Mayport Village redevelopment has been active and changing, with funding decisions as recent as 2024. Confirm current zoning requirements and any redevelopment status with the City of Jacksonville before planning around them.