FORT PIERCE \u2013 The majority of the St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Commission recommended the Board of County Commissioners approve an amendment to the commercial component of the planned Bedner Farms development near I-95 and Indrio Road after nearly getting bogged down by the requirements of the Towns, Villages & Countryside Land Use.<\/p>\n
Senior Planner Irene Szedlmayer provided P&Z commissioners a comprehensive overview of the request on March 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis public hearing is on the Madden Commercial Bedner Farms request to amend the official zoning and a preliminary regulating plan,\u201d she said. \u201cThe site is at the northeast corner of Indrio Road and I-95. It was rezoned to Planned Retail Workplace in April of 2024 along with an approved preliminary development plan. The approved plan allows for up to 420,000 square feet of commercial [uses] in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Szedlmayer reminded the Board that the TVC form-based code was crafted to encourage a walkable live\/work lifestyle in which both businesses and residences were planned close to urban-style streets with parking primarily located to the rear of the buildings.<\/p>\n
The owners of the 47-acre parcel are now asking for modifications to the approved regulating plan, which are allowed under TVC Code after both P&Z and County Commission approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn first glance, what they\u2019re asking for looks similar,\u201d she acknowledged. \u201cThe difference is the lots. The previously approved application anticipated the more traditional downtown small lots. In what\u2019s proposed now, we have one highway service lot in the southeast corner; a warehouse\/retail lot on the northwest side; a warehouse\/retail lot in the north-central part; and then a new lot type, outparcel, along the south. The warehouse retail building isn\u2019t required to be brought up to the front property line, but parking is still encouraged in the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Szedlmayer admitted the applicant\u2019s proposed changes to place sidewalks on only one side of most internal streets, reduce the height of her recommended 10-foot wall along along Spanish Lakes Boulevard \u2013 also referred to as Koblegard Road \u2013 and other changes led to her inclusion of 10 conditions of approval. She read through all of them before turning the floor over to the applicant\u2019s contracted Land Planner Brad Currie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant has agreed to a couple, but mostly the applicant does not agree with staff\u2019s recommended conditions,\u201d she concluded. \u201cIn the Towns, Villages & Countryside, the emphasis is on walkability. Staff is suggesting that all internal roadways have sidewalks on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie then provided his own presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here tonight because we are trying to deviate from the code when it comes to lot and street types,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we originally planned this project, we didn\u2019t really any users for this property. Since that time, we do have users and have been able to lay out a detailed site plan. We had to pick up a little bit more space, so we decided to reduce the buffer in the front and maintain that buffer in the back where the residential is. We still maintain that 12-foot multiuse path.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie also responded to all of Szedlmayer\u2019s recommended conditions, particularly referring to her request for more sidewalks, additional landscaping on the north side of the outparcels and opaque buffering along Indrio and Koblegard roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would be willing to keep Avenue 1 and 5 with sidewalks on both sides and then remove the requirement for sidewalks on both sides of the street from Avenue 2, Avenue 4 and Avenue 5,\u201d he said. \u201cStaff asked for additional landscaping, but we already have two six-foot areas of landscaping, one on the north side and one on the south within that accessway. Staff would like to have a third six-foot area, [but] every foot that we have going north to south is very, very important to us. We don\u2019t have the space. Another condition says more opaque screening of the outparcel lots from Indrio Road, but being able to see the facility as you drive down the road is pretty important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairman Ryan Binner was the first to pose clarification questions afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand you can suggest alternatives as long as it keeps the character of the TVC,\u201d he said. \u201cWould you agree that cutting 50 percent of the sidewalks would not keep the intent of the TVC that wants sidewalks on both sides?\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Currie admitted he didn\u2019t have a perfect answer for that question.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live right across the street from an elementary school that doesn\u2019t have sidewalks,\u201d he replied. \u201cI would love to have sidewalks, but I think in a commercial shopping center like this, having them on one side of the street is plenty and would be my recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the conversation turned to additional buffering, Currie claimed staff was really asking too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re adjacent to a right of way, a residential project, you\u2019re supposed to have a 15-foot buffer between where your house is and where the right of way is,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat staff just stated is they want me to apply to that plus they want me to do the TVC [requirements]. In reality, I would need 42 feet of landscaping if it was a strict interpretation of the code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the subsequent Board debate centered on the sidewalks, which Vice-Chairman Lawrence \u201cBeau\u201d Slay referred to on more than one instance as \u201cretarded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018For me, I hate TVC,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you think about it, it\u2019s a retail parking lot. So, we\u2019re going to build sidewalks through the middle of these things to cross a road that\u2019s not really a road? If you look at Publix at Sabal Palm Plaza, there\u2019s no sidewalks leading from Publix out to the main road. It\u2019s a parking lot, and you walk through the parking lot. This is five outparcels and another building, and we\u2019ve turned it into The Avenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Board Member Joshua Bradley wondered whether the project was even ready to go to the Board of County Commissioners, but Vice-Chairman Slay balked at further delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main project has already been approved, [so] we\u2019re talking about this one section,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s throw this back to the BOCC with recommendations from the staff. The BOCC and the staff and Mr. Currie can all go at it. It\u2019s nothing we\u2019re going to solve here.\u201d<\/p>\n
After further discussion, the P&Z Commission voted 5-1 for approval, with Board Member Bradley dissenting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The majority of the St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Commission recommended the Board of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-221109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}