FORT PIERCE \u2013 City commissioners will hire an outside land use attorney to determine if Fort Pierce has any grounds to challenge the proposed Causeway Cove development on South Hutchinson Island.<\/p>\n
City planning officials have said Palm Beach developer Ashton DePeyster\u2019s proposal does not have to meet Fort Pierce\u2019s existing zoning and land use rules if it meets the \u201caffordable housing\u201d requirements of the state\u2019s new Live Local law.<\/p>\n
Plans for the five-building, high-rise project promise that at least 40 percent of its housing will be considered \u201caffordable\u201d for the next 30 years.<\/p>\n
A motion by District 2 Commissioner Michael Broderick placed a $30,000 cap on city legal costs to determine if state law allows local zoning and land use rules to be bypassed for Causeway Cove.<\/p>\n
The project at the entrance onto South Hutchinson Island would allow 12-17 story high-rises, well above the four-story limit in the city\u2019s South Beach zoning overlay.<\/p>\n
Broderick, who lives on and represents South Beach, called for the independent legal review, saying more than 250 citizens attended a meeting last week where the overwhelming majority were opposed to Causeway Cove and its ability to ignore the South Beach zoning overlay.<\/p>\n
Broderick made the motion for an outside land use attorney to be retained to do an independent review of City Planning Director Kev Freeman\u2019s opinion that DePeyster\u2019s project meets Live Local\u2019s conditions without having to adhere to local zoning rules.<\/p>\n
District 1 Commissioner Curtis Johnson Jr. said the city cannot sign a \u201cblank check\u201d for an outside legal review, prompting Broderick to attach a $30,000 limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur citizens are telling us to do something,\u201d said Mayor Linda Hudson. \u201cPeople are feeling threatened and scared for the future and for their property.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission voted 4-1 to approve Broderick\u2019s motion, with District 1 Commissioner Arnold Gaines voting no.<\/p>\n
Gaines, himself an attorney, warned other members to \u201cbe careful about throwing out hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broderick\u2019s motion came after several speakers from Monday\u2019s audience argued against the Cove project.<\/p>\n
Jim Moyer, of Stuart, who represented an Indian River Lagoon preservation group, urged commissioners to \u201cdo what you can to preserve what you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other speakers said they are \u201cnot opposed to growth,\u201d but they claimed the scale of Causeway Cove\u2019s plan for residential units, a hotel, retail and restaurants is too large and \u201cdoes not preserve the \u2018Florida feel.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
No deadline was set Monday for hiring the outside counsel or the submission of their findings.<\/p>\n
Johnson said citizens should be contacting their state representatives and senators, saying the<\/p>\n
Legislature, not the city, is responsible for Live Local\u2019s provisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 City commissioners will hire an outside land use attorney to determine if Fort Pierce has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-400059","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\/400059","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=400059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}