MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – A growing Brevard County community hasn’t built a new apartment complex in decades, and it might stay like that near Courtenay Parkway and State Road 528 if some neighbors fed up with traffic get their way.
The proposal of 222 units in eight buildings would be one of Merritt Island’s first new apartment projects in 35 years, but locals already have concerns about the current state of traffic around Courtenay and Pioneer Road.
Ben Adams told your Merritt Island Community Correspondent, James Sparvero, why he said neighbors don’t want to trade woods and wetlands for an apartment complex.
“We don’t want it,” the resident of the Raintree by the Lake neighborhood said. “We don’t want all these people, and I know that sounds bad, but this area’s not built to be overcrowded.”
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Last week, before Brevard County’s planning and zoning board, the developer, RangeWater Real Estate, said to compromise with neighbors like Adams, the apartment buildings would only be three stories tall, and the apartments would be 100 feet away from the neighborhood.
That way, there would still be trees in neighbors’ backyards.
“To accommodate and to be the best neighbor that we can possibly be,” said Michael Oliver, RangeWater’s director of development in Florida.
RangeWater also wants to extend the right turning lane from Pioneer onto Courtenay to help with traffic, and it said it will preserve about an acre of wetlands.
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“We’ll bring new apartments,” the developer’s attorney, Kim Rezanka said. “They’ll be new opportunities for people to move into the area, to work in this area.”
The final say comes down to a county commission meeting on Feb. 5.
If rezoning is approved, the apartments could be built within the next two years.
Stick with News 6 and ClickOrlando.com for updates on the commission’s decision.
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