ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL — A St. Johns County zoning meeting briefly became a Madagascar vanilla documentary last week before the Planning and Zoning Agency unanimously approved a special use permit for a rum distillery near State Road 207 and Deerpark Boulevard.

The item, listed as SUPMAJ 2026-02 Deerpark Garden, requested permission to allow a microbrewery use in Commercial General zoning. The applicant explained that the full project is larger than the distillery alone, with plans for a restaurant, gardens, and a roughly 9,600-square-foot distillery facility with a tasting room.

That is where the meeting stopped being a zoning hearing and started drifting toward Food Network with a land-use packet.

Travis, one of the project representatives, explained that Madi Rum traces back to Madagascar vanilla beans, a family hospitality background, ecology, conservation, and the idea of turning the property into a place where visitors can learn the story behind the main ingredient. He described vanilla as an orchid, walked through its global history, and said the property would include a vanilla greenhouse or conservatory featuring different vanilla species.

In other words, the board came for a special use permit and left knowing more about vanilla than most people learn before ordering dessert.

The applicant said the project is expected to become a tourism destination, but argued the location makes sense because it is not downtown and would avoid adding more pressure to already strained downtown infrastructure. The representative said the project could create 5 to 10 jobs to start, with tours depending on future traffic.

Traffic did come up, because this is St. Johns County and traffic now enters every room before the applicant does. When asked about anticipated restaurant traffic, the applicant said they hoped it would be “robust,” but also said no traffic study had been completed yet. They argued the nearby roadways appeared to have capacity and described the SR 207 area as probably underutilized.

Board members also asked about alcohol consumption, licensing, whether the distillery would be leased to another entity, signage, and the distinction between a brewery and distillery. The applicant clarified that tasting would happen inside the distillery building, with the restaurant handled separately under its own licensing path.

After discussion and no public comment, the agency approved the request unanimously, adding a condition allowing one transfer of the special use permit.

At publishing time, SR 207 remained mostly normal, though one zoning transcript now contains more vanilla lore than several bakeries.