FORT PIERCE \u2013 The proposed Towns, Villages & Countryside Overlay development known as the Club at Indrio Creek finally got a majority recommendation of approval from the St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Commission on Aug. 20 after being tabled the previous month due to ongoing differences between staff and the applicant over code compliance issues.<\/p>\n
The presentations by both that evening, however, revealed they were still at odds over three of the 12 conditions of approval.<\/p>\n
Senior Planner Irene Szedlmayer reintroduced the item during the latest meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re familiar with the 126-acre site located south of Indrio Road between Emerson Avenue and Seminole Road,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is in the AG-1 Zoning District \u2013 which permits one dwelling unit per acre \u2013 in the Towns, Villages & Countryside Future Land Use Category and in the Urban Services Boundary. As you know, the Transferable Development Value Map is a very important document in the Towns, Villages & Countryside Overlay. It brought forward the residential densities on the land at that time, the majority of [which] has a base density of one dwelling unit per acre.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the TDVM, developers can request density bonus multipliers for open space dedicated as either countryside or restored habitat, which can significantly increase the number of proposed housing units. Szedlmayer noted that the previous total of 375 units had dropped to 365 in the interim due to renegotiations since the July 15 meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re proposing two civic building lots, two community recreation areas, a new east-west public street that will connect Seminole and Emerson [and] providing about 66 acres of open space,\u201d she explained. \u201cMost of that 66 acres does qualify as countryside, which means they are eligible for a 1.75 density multiplier. They are dedicating 2.9 acres of right of way for Emerson Avenue and are constructing a small segment of that road at the northern end, and they are constructing most of the spine road.\u201d<\/p>\n
After going through details of the preliminary development plan and changes occurring over the previous month, Szedlmayer listed several reasons she could not recommend approval. Those included issues with the project\u2019s internal street connectivity and block sizes; external street connectivity; street and alley design; eligibility for the countryside and restored habitat open space designations; and the fact that workforce housing had not been identified on the plan. She concluded with staff\u2019s conditions of approval.<\/p>\n
The applicant\u2019s contracted Landscape Architect Brad Currie came to the podium afterward and expressed dismay that staff still opposed so much of his preliminary development plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight I\u2019m representing the applicant\u2019s request to rezone approximately 127 acres in the TVC to planned town or village,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a very good meeting with staff yesterday. Believe it or not, I thought I was going to come to this meeting and say we only had three issues to go over. It seems like we\u2019re pretty far apart. Hopefully after my presentation, you can see that we are much closer than what staff\u2019s presentation just was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie referred to the TVC Overlay as \u201cthe most difficult zoning code\u201d he had worked with over his 26-year career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is interpreted different ways by different people,\u201d he continued. \u201cMost zoning applications like this are a negotiation, and I think the TVC is no different. It\u2019s a difficult code: In some cases staff is okay with us not meeting the complete intent; in other places, staff is forcing us to meet the intent of the code. So, it\u2019s kind of a give and take. I want to make sure everyone\u2019s aware that this property is clearly inside the Urban Services Area, and it\u2019s intended for development and what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie acknowledged that following the TDVM\u2019s density formulas was no easy task, as Szedlmayer nos disputed some of his countryside designations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur property has a split designation,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe northern property is 108 acres at two units per acre, and the southern property is one unit per acre. I sent an email this afternoon to Mr. [Kori] Benton and said that we need to discuss how we\u2019re going to handle the density because, every time I blink, the density changes. As you can imagine from staff\u2019s presentation, you move one square foot of countryside or restored habitat and it has an impact on the density.\u201d<\/p>\n
His primary complaint, however was on the condition requiring his client to pave a portion of Seminole Road and bring it up to county standards. Planning Manager Benton later confirmed that idea was briefly touched upon in a pre-application meeting last year, with Currie lamenting the fact it had not been mentioned again until last June.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kicker here is, we didn\u2019t get the comment about Seminole Road until two months ago,\u201d he fumed. \u201cThat\u2019s a multimillion-dollar deal-killer, and we were in the process for over a year when we got that comment. That is extremely unreasonable. I try to be reasonable, but no, I wouldn\u2019t be here tonight if I had known that Seminole Road was a requirement last May.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rest of the discussion centered around P&Z commissioner questions and staff and the applicant\u2019s responses. Most of the inquiries directed at Currie and the applicant\u2019s contracted Land Use Attorney Bob Raynes centered around their rejection of that requirement. The former pointed out that the primary access was on Emerson and only an emergency entrance was slated for Seminole, a chip-sealed roadway. The applicant must also build an east-west roadway to comply with TVC requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few of the conditions of approval that we would like changed,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe first one, of course, is the access and paving of Seminole. We simply can\u2019t do that. If that\u2019s going to be a requirement, we\u2019re not sure the project will move forward. We are in agreement to an emergency access to Seminole because that doesn\u2019t require us to improve the roadway. Secondly, we think the multiplier for the countryside between townhomes is something we should get benefit for; and we think we should get credit for the multiplier on the entire 35 feet of the perimeter buffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later on when Board Member William O\u2019Dell believed the development lacked internal roadway connections and attempted to convince Currie of the need to connect to Seminole, the latter called Traffic Engineer Shaun MacKenzie to the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis site does not connect to Seminole Road,\u201d MacKenzie said. \u201cThis site has five different entrances to a county collector roadway network that goes out onto Emerson Avenue. That\u2019s a collector arterial roadway, which ends at a traffic signalized intersection with Indrio Road, a very safe access point for all of the future residents. We certainly meet every criteria of the code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie in turn believed his client was being treated differently than those of three nearby development projects already approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at those three, none of them had to build the road that\u2019s on the TVC map throughout their entire property line,\u201d he insisted. \u201cWe are completely consistent with what\u2019s been previously approved by this Board and also by the Board of County Commissioners. So, what you\u2019re expecting us to do is the opposite: It\u2019s not consistent with what\u2019s been done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those pleas ultimately fell on the deaf ears of the P&Z Commission, whose majority voted 5-1 to recommend approval with all of staff\u2019s conditions of approval intact. Vice-Chairman Lawrence \u201cBeau\u201d Slay \u2013 who cast the lone dissenting vote \u2013 had earlier given Currie a brief compliment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hypotheticals going on,\u201d he said shortly before the vote. \u201cI applaud you for trying to make this work though.\u201d<\/p>\n
At press time, the Hometown News could not confirm the date of the County Commission hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The proposed Towns, Villages & Countryside Overlay development known as the Club at Indrio Creek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-385383","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\/385383","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=385383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}