PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 The Planning & Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval July 7 of the third amendment to the Legacy Park North at Southern Grove Master Planned Unit Development, allowing Costco to include outdoor storage as part of its planned 170,000-square-foot warehouse store in the Southern Grove mixed-use commercial area.<\/p>\n
Deputy Planning & Zoning Director Bridget Kean introduced the company\u2019s request that evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the third amendment to the Legacy Park North at Southern Grove MPUD,\u201d she said. \u201cLegacy Park North MPUD is the zoning district for 355 acres of property between Marshall Parkway and Hegener Drive, west of I-95 and east of Village Parkway. The applicant is Costco Wholesale Corporation, and the property owners are Costco Wholesale Corporation, the Port St. Lucie Governmental Finance Corporation and the Tradition Entertainment District II LLC. The PUD is divided into two areas: a business park area off of Sansone Boulevard and a mixed commercial area off Southwest Village Parkway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kean emphasized that the amendment was primarily needed for the 23 acres currently subject to a purchase and sale agreement between the GFC and Costco Wholesale Corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis amendment is really just to add a new use to the mixed commercial area,\u201d she explained. \u201cThat use is to address the member-based wholesale warehouse retail store that\u2019s 100,000 square feet or greater and then the various uses that would be located in the store, as well as the ability for some outside storage. There\u2019s also going to be tire-changing and repair within the facility. Additional changes are to add a maximum 40-foot allowable mounting height for outdoor lighting fixtures [and] a minor change to the requirements for parking standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the latter, Kean pointed out that Costco prefers slightly wider and longer parking stalls than those mandated by city code.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city\u2019s standard [is] a 9.5 width and a depth of 18 feet,\u201d she added. \u201cThey prefer a 10-feet wide parking stall and 20-foot depth. The amendment does add an additional retail use to the MPUD for a membership-based box retail warehouse club to allow for specific uses that distinguish it from traditional retail. We\u2019ve reviewed this for consistency with the city code, as well as for consistency with the Southern Grove Development of Regional Impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board Member Peter Previte immediately asked for clarification since he knew the city had already approved similar uses for both BJ\u2019s Wholesale Club and Sam\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you talk a little bit about why this is specific to the MPUD?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
In her response, Kean assured him that other areas of the city have already dealt with the same issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same thing for the Lowe\u2019s out in Southern Grove, [and] it\u2019s for the areas where you have Home Depot in a Commercial General Zoning,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt\u2019s always been kind of a problem because they have uses like outdoor storage that technically isn\u2019t permitted by code. Everything\u2019s supposed to be indoors, so there were changes to where the BJ\u2019s is going. That is a use in a PUD that provides for a BJ\u2019s, Lowe\u2019s in Southern Grove has specific language in that MPUD to accommodate what Lowe\u2019s has, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing the same thing for the proposed Costco. Again, it\u2019s not always consistent with code, so we try to address that with the PUDs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board Member Previte also wanted more info on the Costco request for slightly larger parking stalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accommodation there is because that would have less spaces than what we might require?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t change the amount of parking,\u201d Kean said as she deferred further explanation to Costco Corp.\u2019s contracted Land Planner Brad Wester who then came to the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Bridget mentioned, this request for more parking space is vital to the continuity of the business for Costco itself,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not asking for any waivers, deviations or what-not from the code itself. If you\u2019ve ever been to a Costco, you know that the spaces are very accommodating for wider swing for the doors to get your packages in and out. It takes up more room, but roughly the sweet spot is 900 spaces for Costco, and we\u2019re sitting right around that with this overall site plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wester immediately proceeded to Costco\u2019s request to increase the light pole height in the mixed commercial area from 25 to 40 feet before any Board member had a chance to inquire about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCostco has a very specific standard for lighting safety,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhen you reduce the height of the pole, you inherently need more poles. Increasing it up to 40 feet allows for less poles on the property. We have shown that we meet and exceed the lighting standard at the property edge all the way around, specifically along the edge closest to the Del Webb [residential] community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previte concluded with a question that was on the minds of many Port St. Lucie residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when this was approved, there was a projection of 365 days,\u201d he said in reference to the estimated construction time on the new store. \u201cDo you have any idea of when it might be?\u201d<\/p>\n
In response Wester reminded him of the parallel approval course Costco is seeking with both the city and the Tradition community.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, if the PUD amendment is approved, the Tradition review comes through and the light plan and replat and everything else is approved, this will be shovel ready,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe\u2019re working very quickly to get this off the ground. As you know, Costco does this very, very well and very, very quickly. Our first and second reading of City Council are in July. We have an on-going call with staff to vet all of our site-planning and zoning needs through the Teams medium. I wish I could give you a date, but it will be clearly 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Board Member Joe Rosen requested confirmation on the lighting plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes the city have any concerns with the higher lighting affecting nearby residential?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s their standard lighting,\u201d Kean replied. \u201cWe already have requirements that the light has to be shielded and can only focus down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosen subsequently turned his attention to the landscaping.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce done, are they required to maintain that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Kean answered. \u201cAny commercial development is required to maintain their landscaping.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Planning & Zoning Board then voted unanimously to approve the amendment. At press time, the Port St. Lucie City Council was scheduled to hold the first reading on the same request during its July 13 afternoon meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 The Planning & Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval July 7 of the third amendment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-338474","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\/338474","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=338474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}