FORT PIERCE \u2013 The St. Lucie County Commission majority voted Oct. 20 to approve the rezoning of a 126.3 acres parcel in the Towns, Villages & Countryside Overlay District after a lengthy public hearing that was actually continued from a mid-September meeting so staff could hash our unreconciled differences with the applicant.<\/p>\n
The proposal for the 375-unit project between Emerson Avenue and Seminole Road first faced the St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Board on July 16. Senior Planner Irene Szedlmayer reintroduced the item during the latest meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the public hearing on The Club at Indrio Creek\u2019s proposed rezoning to Planned Town or Village and its preliminary regulating plan,\u201d she said. \u201cThe property is 126.3 acres in the Agricultural 1 Zoning District, which allows development currently at one dwelling unit per acre. It\u2019s in the Towns, Villages & Countryside Future Land Use and in the Urban Service Boundary. The subject property is split. Most of the area has one dwelling unit per acre as a base density, [but] a part has one dwelling unit per acre.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the September portion of the continued hearing, Szedlmayer had resisted recommending the rezoning, citing a handful of areas in which she believed the project was not in compliance with the complicated TVC Code. Those included internal and external roadway connections, block length and the repaving of Seminole Road, the latter of which was opposed by some community members and at least one commissioner. Two commissioners, James Clasby and Erin Lowry opposed even continuing the applicant\u2019s request, insisting the project was incompatible with the surrounding areas. Szedlmayer, however, was no longer in opposition after meeting with applicant\u2019s representatives over the previous 30 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff has recommended conditions of approval, and they have been refined based on the updated plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
District 3 Commissioner Erin Lowry admitted she still opposed constructing 240 townhomes and 122 single-family dwellings on the property while acknowledging the efforts of the applicant\u2019s contracted Land Planner Brad Currie to placate her concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe TVC was developed over 20 years ago, and the vision of the Board then was different than it is now,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, these 50-foot lots is not rural St. Lucie County, and I\u2019ve said it over and over again. It\u2019s not any disrespect to anybody on your team. You\u2019re a fantastic land planner [and] a great educator, Brad, but I just feel like we\u2019re opening a Pandora\u2019s Box to having to continue to approve things that aren\u2019t necessarily the vision of this Board. I appreciate all the work, and hopefully we can get to a place where it\u2019s something we can approve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice-Chairman Larry Leet shared some of Commissioner Lowry\u2019s density concerns but did not share her opposition to the proposed development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with the plan itself,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThe TVC in my opinion is a little bit complicated and muddled in most peoples\u2019 minds because it forces the developer to put civic centers in a subdivision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, we\u2019ve got one in the middle of a 126-acre development \u2013 that makes absolutely no sense. I\u2019d love to see developments with larger lots. However, when you start getting into the larger spillways, flow ways, greenways and everything else, you\u2019re pretty much forced to condense everything. I would be willing to approve it as-is.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Commissioner Clasby has opposed the development from the onset and was not swayed by Szedlmayer\u2019s change of heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, we\u2019re trying to put a zoning district that was intended for a much larger piece of land on a smaller piece of land,\u201d he said. \u201cTo do that, we have to give all sorts of waivers. I don\u2019t think this zoning district is compatible with this piece of property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currie then came to the podium to ask Szedlmayer a direct question.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we meet the minimum lot size requirements to be rezoned to a planned development in the TVC?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
After Szedlmayer answered in the affirmative, the applicant\u2019s contracted Land Use Attorney Bob Raines also queried Szedlmayer about the request<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for a [density] waiver,\u201d he said. \u201cWe meet the 25-acre calculation, correct?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s correct,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the record, we\u2019re not asking for a waiver and we believe we\u2019ve met that requirement,\u201d Raines continued. :We have done everything we can to address every question and issue that\u2019s been raised. To address as many issues as we have, I think it\u2019s really important that we be recognized. We\u2019ve really worked hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clasby pulled no punches in response.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for nothing, but my washing machine works very hard too, and it gets no thanks,\u201d he retorted. \u201cIn my opinion, I think I\u2019ve heard several of those items raised by several of us up here as concerns. I wouldn\u2019t be comfortable moving this project forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Cathy Townsend immediately sought the opinion of Interim County Administrator Mayte Santamaria.<\/p>\n
\u201cMayte, do you think this project meets the code?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cProviding the information presented tonight and the analysis provided, it appears to meet the code,\u201d Santamaria responded.<\/p>\n
Planning & Development Services Director Ben Balser concurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that staff\u2019s recommendation of approval is backed by compliance with the land development code and comprehensive plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Those comments pleased Commissioner Townsend.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, Kori and Ben, Mayte and Irene are all in agreement that this meets the land development code,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much more we could ask. When they come back with their plan, we can have some more conversations, but I\u2019m willing to move this forward tonight the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Clasby continued to prolong the debate and peppered staff with more questions about the waivers and ultimately suggested the Commission had the authority to reject them and thereby make the application incompliant. When Currie\u2019s subsequent offer to meet the requirements of the code without the waivers if need-be failed to sway Clasby, the Board voted 3-2 for approval, with Clasby and Lowry dissenting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The St. Lucie County Commission majority voted Oct. 20 to approve the rezoning of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-443066","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443066","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=443066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}