FORT PIERCE \u2013 The City Commission here unanimously approved a major site plan amendment May 4 for a 69-acre parcel on the east side of Kings Highway between White Avenue and Peters Road to permit the construction of a mammoth Amazon cold storage facility projected to create more than 700 local jobs.<\/p>\n
Assistant Planning Director Chris Suneson introduced the request that day by Amazon\u2019s contracting engineer Jeff Iravani.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant Scannell Properties #553 is requesting a major site plan amendment to construct a 1.1 million-square-foot refrigerated warehouse and office building on 69.19 acres located at 2300 S. Kings Highway,\u201d he said. \u201cAccording to applicant-supplied documents, the project is anticipated to create 745 permanent jobs. The subject parcel is currently vacant and bounded by South Kings Highway on the west, White Road on the north and Peters Road on the east. The project location is on 69.19 acres of a larger 107.69-acre tract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suneson reminded commissioners that a previous Board had approved the initial site plan in the fall of 2021 for two buildings totaling 485,000 square feet of office and warehouse distribution space. Since that time, the applicant decided to subdivide the larger 107-acre parcel into three lots with right of way dedication along White Road. Amazon plans to develop its operations in two phases while a third unnamed entity will develop the remainder of that property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe zoning for the property is CP-1,\u201d Suneson continued in reference to Planned Neighborhood Commercial Zoning. \u201cWarehouse and freight are allowed by right in the zoning district, [while] office is an accessory use. About 35.6 percent of the site will be comprised of building; parking and paving will encompass another 34.9 percent. Surrounding the site are three large lakes, as well as bio-rention areas that count as open space, representing 29.4 percent of the property. Sidewalks will be constructed on the west and the north and connect into existing sidewalk along the east and Peters Road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The assistant planning director admitted that the internal traffic circulation around the huge facility had confused both him and others in the past due to its complexity.<\/p>\n
\u201cPassenger vehicles will enter in a segregated drive with east- and westbound traffic separated between Lakes 1 and 2,\u201d he explained. \u201cAs part of that, there will be a dedicated right-turn lane that services the drive so that free-flow traffic can go in there. It\u2019s important to note that this is a right-in\/right-out movement, whereby left-turn movements are essentially blocked because of the median in Kings Highway. The other major traffic flow will be semi-trucks. They enter at the southern driveway and then circulate counterclockwise around the site and exit onto White Road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suneson also emphasized improvements already made and\/or planned for that road, which may include a traffic signal in the future at its intersection with Kings Highway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe applicant is required to monitor that traffic to ensure that, when traffic counts are triggered, the improvements are actually constructed,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThe Technical Review Committee has reviewed the proposed major site plan amendment with regards to consistency with established ordinances and requirements of the city code and comprehensive plan. All departments have supported the major site plan, [and] it was heard and approved by the Planning Board April 13. Staff recommends approval with conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Curtis Johnson Jr. was the first Board member to express concerns about the amount of external 18-wheeler traffic destined for the site in the future and worried that southbound Kings Highway trucks would be required to make U-turns to access the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere you show them entering the northern part of this facility, how are the going to get across that northern lane?\u201d he asked. \u201cAre they going to come all the way up to Orange and make a U-turn? We\u2019ve got a fire station being built out here and more stuff coming. I just want to make sure we\u2019re thinking about this to kind of anticipate and do what we can here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iravani then came to the podium to alleviate those fears, depicting a Kings Highway median cut on the overhead already constructed by the Department of Transportation that Johnson had not seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraffic going north are going to go into a right-turn lane already approved by DOT,\u201d he said. \u201cTraffic coming from the north [will] have a left-turn lane, which is already built by DOT. So the truck\u2019s going to get into the dedicated storage lane, get out of through traffic and make a left turn. So, there will be no U-turn by semi-tractor on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iravani emphasized that all truck traffic will leave via White Road, which will have its own median cut for southbound traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a full access,\u201d he explained. \u201cOnce the traffic is warranted and we\u2019re approved by DOT, we\u2019re going to put signals in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The employee exit from the property will not have a median cut, however, so those heading southbound will have to make U-turns at White Road. Warehouse shift schedules will not interfere with normal rush hour traffic, Iravani insisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe estimated number of employees for Phase 2 \u2013 if it happens \u2013 would be 500, so overall we could bring about 1,200 jobs,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWe estimate about 200 construction jobs on any given day. Assuming we start very soon, the first certificate of occupancy is expected in September of 2027 and a final CO expected in March of 2028. The estimated value of the construction for this is $240 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Linda Hudson was satisfied.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is kind of what we had in mind for King Highway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
With his fears now allayed, Commissioner Johnson made a motion for approval, which was seconded by Commissioner Michael Broderick and passed unanimously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The City Commission here unanimously approved a major site plan amendment May 4 for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-265266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265266","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=265266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}