Aiken MPUD rezoning for multifamily and commercial
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The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, Sep 5, 2019
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The county’s minutes for Planning Commission, Sep 5, 2019
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What was said
Machine transcription of 47m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 54% of 193 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Shall we move on to Aiken P nine?
Alright.
Best planning and development. What you have is PD 19-1211, which is the Aiken Planned Unit Development. The proposed development is located on the north side of State Road 54 between Collier Parkway and West of Stafford Boulevard, which is two miles west of I-75 and the 54 interchange. Currently the property is asking to be rezoned from AC to MPUD.
Uh uh feature land use is res 3. Surrounding it is also res 3, uh some conservation, some ROR uses.
Again, the request is for uh rezoning from an AC agriculture to uh MPUD master planned unit development for the development of 280 multifamily residential units and 49,500 square foot of commercial entitlements. The property currently retains the original zoning from 1976 of AC agriculture.
Uh there's a master plan that's the biggest I could get it. Um I apologize for that. But you see uh It's about approximately twenty-five acres there. Um the applicant is seeking the corresponding comprehensive plan amendment, which I believe has been in front of this uh body, uh for change in the future land use from REST III to PD plan development. The applicant proposes the main access to the subject property at the intersection of State Road 54
and Oak Grove Boulevard, which is an existing signalized intersection.
Yeah.
Again, the site is approximately 25.3 acres of vacant and unimproved land. Of that, 19 acres is upland and 6.3 acres are wetlands. The applicant is proposing 14.7 dwelling units per developable acre for the 280 multifamily dwelling units. The proposed mixed unit development includes 49,500 square foot of commercial entitlements.
The surrounding zoning districts, existing land uses and future land uses are in this table. They were included in your packet. If you'd like me to go through each individual one, I could. It'd be a lot of reading though.
And the proposed uh development area is located in the South Market area and the urban service area. The request as presented is consistent with the Pasco County Land Development Code, Chapter 400, Subsection 402.2 Zoning Amendment, Master Plan Unit Development, and the applicable provisions of the comprehensive plan.
Uh the PDD has rec uh recommended approval. I'm sorry, recommended the planning commission find the resoning consistent with the comprehensive plan and recommends approval the Board of County Commissioners uh with the conditions as included in your packets. Again, as the the county attorney noted there were two changes that I will hand out the amended conditions uh to the clerk but we did recommend approval subject to those conditions.
The applicant is here. Thank you.
Mr Chair, Planning Commission members, there is a person in Newport Ritchie that wants to speak on this item, so we're going to remote it back onto Newport Ritchie.
Oh. Okay, you mean is the applicant or
temporarily put the map up there because I need to reference the map. Thank you, sorry. I'm sure I'm getting this right. Okay. Mr. Chairman Mari Hobby, Hobby and Hobby, PA 109 with Brest Street, Tampa, Florida have been sworn. Here today representing the Spanos Corporation and the applicant, the Aiken Trust. The subject property is located on State Road 54 at the intersection of Oak Grove, so it's at the intersection
of a collector and arterial roadway that's already signalized. Most of you undoubtedly know this intersection right here, not just because of the signal. This is where the big Furmin dealerships are, and there's a significant amount of residential and commercial. All throughout this area, going all the way back over to 75 in this area that includes the Brightwork MPUD that was approved a couple years ago, Cypress Creek Town Center, and on the
other side there's very little acreage other than the immediately adjacent C2 parcels, which are Just over in this area. They're two C2 parcels that are existing and have ROR. Very, very little that's undeveloped in this area. Um so this is what I would categorize almost as an NFL parcel. The subject property is located in the South Market area. And starting in 2008, the county had the Urban Land Institute
come in and do a study of the county as a whole. And as a result, we made a series of comprehensive plan changes that resulted in the creation of our urban service area, the market areas for the county, and what the South Market area
And I'm reading from Flu policy eight point one point two on the establish at the establishment South Market area, that it's envisioned as a urban gateway opportunity with intensification supported by transit opportunities. The area is to be con uh characterized by dense vertical non-residential development and sophisticated residential development with quality design intensity. density and density necessary to support transit opportunities. It then
goes on to say that the market area mission is to the creation of a high-density, compact, and mixed-use location that maximizes transportation opportunities, and that the areas to promote higher density compact development and encourage mixed-use communities that are live work. Well, what we're proposing today is spot on for what this area is supposed to be. to be doing in the comp plan. What this MPUD is and you all saw the PD a month ago that was now been
transmitted by the board unanimously up to the state as is very hard to see on here given the scale, but this is a commercial partial right here. and we have some commercial on the frontage and we worked very hard with county staff over a series of months. To compress the back partial, which is our multi-family partial that the Spanos Corporation will be building, while preserving a commercial partial up front to take advantage of the node that you see right
here with the signalized intersection, and to also build this interconnection out to our property line right here, which we are now obligated to do. We met so I from a comprehensive plan and consistency per uh perspective, I don't believe we could be more consistent. There are a few members of the neighboring Twin Lakes Subdivision Board and membership that want to speak today, but I wanted you to know that we've met with their board twice now, and we were of the understanding
as of last week that we were all on the same page. page about what we're doing and the reason reason why is this. And I'm gonna have Brian Surak, our our engineer, speak for just a minute and a second. I'll I'll be brief, but We went to great lengths. We realized there are about 10 or 12 houses that are adjacent to where the multifamily area will be back here. But we agreed to a 75-foot setback from our property boundary that effectively will create a 90 to 100-foot setback
from any home in here. Additionally, this whole area already has mature. oak trees on their side and we'll be b planting a large buffer on our end. And finally, as Brian will discuss in a minute, our site, because of its topography, will actually end up being about five and a half or five or so feet less than their side will be. The net effect of it is that with only a three-story multifamily project, it's really going to be a net of about a two and a half story
project and with a big setback and big buffering. Because we wanted to make sure that people weren't having concerns that people were having their neighborhood looked down into from a multifamily project. I'm very excited to be representing the Spanos Corporation. My client tells me that they intend on building the nicest multifamily community that's been built in Pasco County. It's a very substantial company that's built over a hundred thousand multifamily apartments. all Class A around the United States for over fifty
years. So I feel it's gonna be a quality project and there are quality people involved. With that said, I'm gonna ask Brian Surak to come in and just give you a little bit of a flavor of how the the setback and separation will look. Okay? Thank you.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. Uh Brian Surak. I'm with uh Clearview Land Design, thirty ten West Azile Street in Tampa, Florida.
So I guess we'll wait till we're going to be able to do that We can get a map up there.
Yeah.
That's that's good enough, I think.
Shift it down just a little bit. Nice. Okay. That should be good.
So
No, it doesn't do it here. Okay. So um in Plan Vie um uh north is straight up as you look at the plan. Um if i the image that's on the um the top right, the topography of the site slopes from slopes down from west to east. So there's a good twenty To 25 feet of fall between the existing, between the property line, the western property line, and the wetland that's in the center of the property. So
um And Denise, if you could shift that up just a little bit to show that section. Other way.
Yeah.
Do you want to see the bottom section?
Yeah, yeah, the bottom section.
So it so these these are big buildings, um uh well they're long buildings, they're not big, big, but they're so in order to get the grades to to work out we you need a flat level pad for the building itself. So what we're doing is along about fifteen feet inside our property line, we're gonna have a retaining wall that is about five feet tall. There will be a buffer on top of that.
Old fashioned. Yeah. So on top of all so on the property line itself will be a six foot fence, opaque fence. There will be trees in that buffer. Um every 30 to 60 feet there'll be a uh a large uh tree. And then we have a five-foot wall. When you actually get to the apartment building itself, the apartment building itself is roughly 90 feet away from the from the property line. That building is plus or minus seven feet below
the existing grade at the property line where we meet up with the existing homes on the west. Um so just to uh uh to kind of piggyback on what Clark said, um these are three-story buildings, which by the way are down from four-story. From one of our first meetings with the uh HOA, our client decided to go from four to three to try and alleviate some of their concerns. But from their perspective, it's gonna be more like a two and a half story because they're gonna be lower. And uh don't discount
the There is a six-foot opaque fence as well and their existing bumper.
We're happy to answer any questions. Otherwise I'll reserve the balance of our time to answer the residents' questions.
Not okay I have a quick question. I don't know how you get two and a half stories. I mean are there two floors or two and a half floors and
what what I was saying, uh Mr. Hansel. They're three story units, but because of the topography of the site topography of the site, the buildings will actually be about seven feet their base elevation, seven seven feet lower than the residents.
Mm. We're having to trim off on on that portion of the site seven feet.
My my mind doesn't quite calculate this to a certain degree. I see two stories or I see two balconies, one, two. So it's
that's the second
and third floor.
And
what?
That's the second and third floor. So there's a base elevation and a second and a third floor. Okay. I know it's it's a little bit confusing, especially with the retaining wall and all that. So that's gonna be three stories. It's a three story building, but it's set down seven feet below the grade of the neighbors. But they're three floors. Yes, sir. So I'm gonna cross
up of half and make it three there.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Okay. Like we had some people here that had questions.
Well are there any people here that had questions? If so, if you just step come forward and state your name and address and what your concerns are.
Mm-hmm.
Try to get them answered for you.
Hopefully so.
Okay, so
My name is John Pafka. I live at [address removed]. And to put this into perspective, I'm less than 400 feet from the northwest corner of where the apartments will be, across that C2 zoned lot. I live on Foggy Ridge Parkway. I never received a notice. That issue, however, I'll take up with the attorney for the Pasco County Board of Commissioners because they can't prove I got notice. The problem that I have with this is There was a newspaper article
that I recently stumbled across. It was published last December. Yeah, the Pasco times. The thing was titled in Pasco Apartment Go the question lingers, How many is too many? And what C.T. Bowen, the reporter, basically got into was He did a summarization of all the apartments that were planned for. The count came up to 2,589 as of last December. Now, just last week I read in the Laker Lutz News there was another article showing the County Commission had approved Oakley
Boulevard at Old Pasco Road, two miles north of my home. 48.8 acres. That's over 500 more apartments. The problem that I'm running into is now I'm looking at 3,000 apartments within a few miles of my home. This is the kind of growth that As a business major, I graduated from Cornell University with an agricultural degree in economics and marketing. I've been following the markets over the last few years because I recently retired. My problem is I saw the inversion
for the rates for the Treasury Department bills invert in August, not once but twice. I'm looking at the economic downturn that's coming. And if we end up with a presidential election in four or five short years. We've got a non-business president. Our economy is going to crash. And I want you all to remember what US nineteen looked like in 2009 and then 2010. Urban development became urban blight. And I don't want State Road 54, 56 to look
like that. This is in my neighborhood. And I try not to get too excited about it, but... Part of the other objection that I have has to do with the way this thing was publicized. Let me correct that, not publicized, because this is going through the zoning commission. There's been next to no public notification or participation. I'm looking at the Sunshine Laws, and they did an open government revision of that sometime into the 90s. Open government has purely been flouted in all of this going on. We
have met with the attorney and with the developer. And I know that they're locked into a scenario to where when you approve the zoning commission changes, they will then tell us what's finally going to happen. But this is going to be an after-the-fact with us having to say very little about it. They were talking about five stories. There's nothing to stop them that I can see. When they start talking about the drop down that you alluded to on the stories. they're going to be cutting off this property
and making it level. What's going to happen is when you take a look, the part that they didn't tell you about was a Florida Department of Transportation pond. That's going to drain State Road 54. If we get an event. Twenty inches of rain out of a hurricane that blows through like Charlie did. This is going to cause water to go places. And as they clarified just this mor this afternoon out in the ante room, This water's going to go someplace? Well, it's going to run into the conservatory area,
which is off to the northeast side of this. We have homes that are less than 200 feet north of that retention pond for FDOT. So the runoff of 54 is going to be concentrated with the runoff from this great big huge bowl that they're going to be creating by cutting down seven feet now. It was five feet last week and now it's seven feet. It's gonna run in and it's gonna have to go someplace and that water is gonna flood out. We have One of our residents that I recognize went to Newport Ritchie and he is on the remote and he would like to speak because
his is in this floodplain and he's going to get flooded up. There's no doubt in my mind. Whether it happens next year, next decade, I can't tell you. I can tell you the way this whole thing went down. It's distressing. The attorney that we met with thinks everything is fine and wonderful, and I'm thinking, not quite so much, because if you approve this and this thing goes through, my neighborhood is going to take a hit. I've already gotten an email from one resident that basically said, look, I'm going to go contact my realtor because I can't live like this. Basically,
unless you've got questions, I think I'm done venting. I do
have one question. I think the applicant needs to address the majority of your comments, but I don't understand your comment about Sunshine Law or open meeting requirements being violated. I I don't understand that comment. What what are you alleging has been violated?
How was this publicized that this long-term zoning change was coming at us like a freight train? That's all I'm saying.
It was published, the clerk has read proof of publication, it was published. You're here physically attending, talking about it. Because we want to find neighbors. We've made our New Port Richey available for somebody else to speak who showed up at the wrong location. How is that not open government? I guess I'm not annoying.
It's not open government because the original notice that was given to me was dated the twenty-third of July. The first meeting at the County Commissioner the first meeting here was the 8th. That's not 30 days.
So where where in the open meeting law or essential law does it say you have to have thirty days in advance notice? Well
see, that's why I say the intent of the open meeting and accountability of local government was not met.
Okay. There's nothing I can tell you, I'm a lawyer and you're not. Okay. Okay, so there's no legal requirement that you have thirty days advance notice of something. Which is why
I'm not sure.
You received notice, you're here, you're speaking, and that's what you're entitled to do. This is open government. You're at a public forum speaking.
Good.
So I don't think your statement about not meeting open government is correct. I think it did violate the intent. Sir, you're not a lawyer. Do not make representations that you're not qualified to make.
Well let me just also add to that that there are many times we get objections from people who didn't want you to move into that area in the first place. So it's always like not in my backyard. We get that a lot. So you move from somewhere to there. Now you're complaining because somebody else wants to move in. So
These are renters and they don't necessarily take care of the property the same way homeowners do. Well. There's
a lot of people that own property that don't take care of it too. You know. So Anyway, we've given you extra time, so
Who would we like to be next? State your name and address, please.
Mr. Chairman, my name is Karen Mason.
Karen, could you just pull that there you go?
Yeah. Thank you. I live at [address removed], located in Twin Lakes Subdivision. I am the current president of Twin Lakes, uh where we currently have uh 235 homes. I'm speaking today on behalf of myself only. Uh I'm speaking neither for or against the proposed zoning change and development mostly because what I would prefer to see happen will never happen. since my preference would be to leave the land as it is for my neighbors, including the wildlife that reside there, to continue to enjoy. I believe that the AG Spaniels Company will build a beautiful apartment community
if approved to do so. However, I respectfully request all of you to carefully consider the highest and best used of the land. Within a one mile radius of Twin Lakes community, there are 1,659 apartment units of one, two, and three bedrooms. That's one a one mile radius. And you don't need to travel much further. Mm-hmm. We are not even privy to the number of entitlements already approved for that area. We are building a very transient corridor, which I am which uh can be unpredictable in a different economy. Responsible leaders
such as yourself will surely consider what this would look like when deciding our future of our environment and our neighbours. That being said, my bigger fear would be if not Egispanos, then who or what? The thought of commercial or retail development for that parcel also brings to mind the acronym NIMBY, as you previously brought up. Going forward, I do feel uh confident to speak on behalf of the entire neighborhood when I say further concerns with the development of this parcel, uh development of any kind would be drainage
and traffic. Twin Lakes has already experienced two fatalities at the entrance of our subdivision. With the two parcels directly in front of us, those are already rezoned for commercial use, so a remedy for that would be imperative. Our community already experiences considerable flooding issues. This will only be compounded by the amount of asphalt and concrete about to be laid at our feet. We therefore insist that the County or Swift Mud take over the maintenance of at least four drainage ponds at the perimeter of these parcels. Our HOA cannot
be expected to shoulder the expense of this any longer. I have provided maps for each of you if you wish to see them. Uh I would also like to say that I do appreciate the time and effort made by AG Hispanos to include us in their their plans. They have been very cordial to us and we do appreciate that. And that's all. Thank you for your time. Thank you,
Karen. Thank you very much for coming.
Who would like to speak next? If you're gonna sp if you're gonna speak it's just as easy for you to come on up front and sit up here on the front row. That way you don't have to waste time walking up. Anyone else wanna speak? You do have a speaker in Newport Michigan to
take a
remote. Okay. If there's no one else here, then I'm gonna go to New Port Richey. Okay.
[address removed]. Yeah.
When buying that up.
Uh They're allowed by another institutional seventy-five feet. I'm also glad that The developer thinks it is a good idea to call the plan that says we want to incorporate mesh tracer. My problem is that we have too much traffic spread at the moment.
lovely folks who are planning on moving in there. I'm sure they think that those are the greatest apartments ever built. And I hope that they are.
Well say project.
extended further east to the property where the A1 side company is located. And uh planning commission Aaron decided that they should put a road in to replace the uh
Our path is there right now. And I think that's a good RDFR. I I really think we have enough traffic. I'm saying road 54 at the moment. It's only going to be six lanes. And um we can't seem to make up our mind what we're getting to uh getting traffic through Uh the US forty one interchange.
Really don't see any use.
I think that's about all the complaining folks.
Okay, thank you. Uh do you have any questions? Any questions from up here?
Okay.
That's okay, we won't make fun of you.
All right, thanks. Mr. Mr. Chairman Clark Hobby again I'll I'll try to be very brief. I am gonna ask Brian Surak to address the drainage issues because he knows that far better than I. Um we did notice everyone we were required to notice here. We noticed ever the association and everyone within five hundred feet per the code. Matter of fact, when we continued the hearings, we noticed them again and we'd been in contact informally with the association. association for many months now. As
I think you notice we brought the height down here. Remember that in the urban service area the county changed the code last year to remove all height restrictions. So we're voluntarily agreeing to a restriction that's far less than in a Euclidean district along 54. And again, we want to be good neighbors. As to whether there are enough multifamily units on 54 in this area, I trust the market and I trust my client who's been at this for 50 years and built
over a hundred thousand units. They're not going to build a 60 million Project or whatever it is, it's somewhere in that range unless they feel that the market will sustain it. We have a market study. I did not bring it today, but suffice to say, the multifamily units and the 54-56 corridor that have been built or under construction are coming online and they're finding their way into good market acceptance and there are no vacancy problems at all. along the corridor and
what it also shows is that we actually have a lower amount of multifamily along this area than most of our suburban cohorts throughout the southeast and in the Bay Area. We only have about eighteen to twenty percent of our residential units are multifamily and historically that range is between 25 and 30. So with that I'm gonna let Brian address the drainage and I'm happy to answer any other questions. Thank you.
Brian Surra, Clearview Land Design, I have been sworn. Um so there was a comment about drainage and about flooding um the neighbors downstream. Um I if it happens today, um I I'm not sure. I I'll take their word for it. But um what happens right now is the the site currently drains um into the large wetland that's on the northeast corner of the project. So our stormwater system um for this project will
be designed to collect all stormwater. from the development itself. It'll be treated and retained in ponds and then released back into that wetland at a rate that's at or below the current pre-development rate of flow. So we will not be creating any adverse drainage impacts downstream as a result of this project.
Okay. Clark, since traffic was raised as a concern, can you have Mr. Henry address that?
I can have Steve Henry, our transportation uh engineer, come up, but suffice to say our timing and phasing analysis so shows that the effect that this project has on the fifty-four corridor is extremely de minimis, but Steve can address it.
Um before you get to that arc um
My my client, uh I have Rick Wood with me from the AG Spanos Corporation, and Rick's been with the company for over thirty years and he assures me this will be the most expensive per unit project that will be built in Pasco County. So it's the higher end, it's It's a class A only project that they sell to either REITs real estate investment trusts or life insurance companies who will only hold Class A apartment buildings. They've never built anything but that.
Mr. Hobby. Yes sir. So they built the one over is it Bonterra?
Yeah. That's right. Very coolly similar or very very it's a different it's a different, more urban look, but it's of higher uh even higher quality. But if you've seen Bonterra, you know, as you go over over seventy five on the south side going towards fifty six, it's a very high end product that they build.
Uh good afternoon, Steve Henry, Linkson Associates 5023 West Laurel, Tampa 33607, and I have been sworn. So we did conduct the uh timing and phasing and access management analysis for the project. Um as indicated, number one, our access will be to the existing signal that is there today.
And the ability to access that and modify it to accommodate our access, and they're in support of that. We'd also have a right in, right out to the east of that. We did look at the at 54. Our impact on State Road 54 is about at maximum, it's 0.06% of the VC ratio. So we'd increase it by 0.06 is our impact on 54. So it's a negligible insignificant impact on the traffic on fifty four.
Okay. Okay.
So so in your professional opinion, the um reverse or the service road I'll call it that uh will will link the subdivision to the traffic lights and so in your professional opinion what do you think that does to
That would significantly help. Now right now we are only connecting it to our property line because as as indicated between our property line and their entrance road They don't control the property and we don't control that property, but we are providing that opportunity so when that property gets developed, they have access to a signal. And so they're concerned today about having to come out In and right now they have a directional median opening, a left in, right in, right out. Once this is built, once that commercial is built, they'll have
access to a signalized intersection to be able to make a left out at a signalized intersection.
What what's the street uh to the east that you talked about? You talked about uh is the road fifty-four you addressed. Well what's the
There's a the road that's east of that property line that you spoke about. Uh that's
the one we were lining with? with? The what?
Yes. That is that's uh Oak uh Oak Grove
Road Grove Road, right. And that's what uh two lane, three lane
It is it is a two lane uh with additional lanes at the at the signalized intersection. Right. So what what impact will this project have on that road or insignificant impact because the reality is that the people that are leaving there that road doesn't really go anywhere to the south and these are multifamily primarily multifamily uh and so they'll be going east and west on fifty four primarily.
Isn't there a school south
From
fifty-four in that direction?
Sure. Okay. But but th but we we are not creating the additional traffic to the school. Some of our some of our students will go to the school, but it would be the same number of students. School only has so many students. Right. So some of our students may go there, but we would not necessarily increase the traffic to the school.
You have on Oak Grove Road because the traffic
It would be an insigni it
would
be an insignificant imp we've looked at it, we we've analyzed it, we have put some traffic on there, but it's an insignificant amount of traffic on Oak Grove Road. We have we also have commercial, so some of the residents that live down there may visit our commercial, uh, but again the impact on that road would be insignificant.
Uh okay. I can't debate that with you because I I don't have any statistics but I don't concur with what you said. That's all I'm trying to say is because I think I've been in that road enough times that uh there's there is traffic down that road.
Don't deny the traffic. It's just were you asking what our impact would
be to that road?
I I
I don't calculate
school. That's what I'm asking my colleague to the right of me, to the left of you. What uh what do you have on that?
So I'm I'm working off the top of my head, which is dangerous. But um two hundred how many units? Two hundred and fifty, two hundred and eighty two eight units. Yeah. So typically apartments don't generate um as many students as single family detached homes, so so we're typically apartments are probably point one one for elementary, so that means for Two hundred and eighty apartments. We're talking about maybe thirty three
elementary and then we'd be talking about um twenty something high school and maybe eighteen, fifteen to eighteen. Middle school again, I'm working off my Now
you said
this is gonna be a
high-end development. So would you anticipate uh individuals who are mature, that is maybe they don't have children anymore, or is this gonna be a community that will have a number of children in there? I'll let the developer speak to his what
his what his mix of of
people will be.
I don't care who I it'd be my final question that we can. Um you You know, I I wrote some things down here and the question I have is, you know, there from what I heard the people there were only two or three that could that had issues with this and and that is I I do concur with the fact that there is significant Uh uh apartments that in that area. I live in that area so I know there's a many homes. I was gonna say ton of homes, but that's the inappropriate sp word to use. But there are a large number of homes and I I I'm I'm I'm basing my
wavering on you have done a study, there is a need for these homes and I hate to see 'cause one person said down the road, will there be a downturn in the economy or will all of a sudden have a ton of a lot of apartments that are not filled and therefore we would have a lot of empty apartments that would create a negativity for that part of the Pasco County, which is the central part. So that's my concern is that the living conditions for the folks that already live there don't want to see them negatively impacted. And
I want to be assured that which way ever I go I think it's based on some evidence of that fact.
Well I can only tell you based on the market studies that we've had done, which I didn't bring today and I apologize. And the experience of the Spanos company in building this type of product over time, they had not experienced low vacancy rates even in downturns of the economy. I mean Bonterra was built and was kind of Coming up out of the ground during our downturn, and it's been very successful from the get-go, stabilized in a short period of time, and then they sold it
to one of their financial partners because it was stabilized. So I think this is not going to be a project that ever has a chance of devolving into a lower class neighborhood. Per the Spanos company, they've not had that happen with. any of their their class A project over many years.
Well I'm I'm I'm sh you indicated that you had you you you read a report, saw a report where the apartment complexes in this area as a total I'm not worried about this specific project. I just don't want to all of a sudden say yes on this project and all of a sudden, you know, two years from now and I know you can't project down the road, but based on best evidence that you've been able to review. Right. You feel comfortable because you know this area
well. I I know that for a fact. I do not believe we're overbuilt or overplanned on multifamily units now. I hear some laymen around that have different opinions about that, but I think they're just that they're layman's opinions. We commissioned a uh a firm to do a market study and they showed that the penetration rates, even with the ones coming online, they're all leasing up, and I'll give you one. Example. I had heard somebody just on the buy and buy talking about one of the newer projects that's uh in North Point
that just was finished construction three six months ago. Uh it's right just north of Mettler, Toledo. You all probably saw it being constructed. I stopped in there the other day, and my client advises me that the leaseup rate on a typical uh apartment. Project is 12 to 18 months. And the on-site manager told me that they were already at 50% occupancy and 60% lease rate, and they were thrilled with the lease rates
and the occupants at the occupancy that they've seen. So the market is not telling us that there's a saturation of multifamily here.
So, Clark, is it accurate to say the increase in the school impact fee had no effect on the market from authenticity? No comment.
And Mr. Chairman? Yes. I mean, just for the record, so I didn't look it up, so I was pretty close. So about 33 elementary students, we do have capacity at Democrats. Oak's Elementary currently. About 15 middle school students and about 19 high school students. We are building the new Cypress Creek Middle School. um next door to the current Cypress Creek High School and so these students would be zoned for that middle and high school so we anticipate having capacity at those as well.
All right, thank
you. Also, I want to say I don't think it's accurate to say the county's ignoring the congestion on 54. There's an ongoing study called Vision 5456 that's and Steve Henry is on was on the task force at one point. Um and they're looking at at least three different alternatives to solve the congestion issues on 54. Um we did have a solution, which was an elevated express lane, but the Residents didn't like that idea. So we had to go back to the drawing board and we now created three alternatives that
DOT is currently evaluating for feasibility, and once they come back with their recommendations, we'll be doing more of public input on what is the best solution for 54. So it appeared there's a perception, particularly from the gentleman in Newport Ritchie, that the county just is approving all this development and ignoring the congestion. And I don't think that's an accurate assumption.
Right.
All right. Anything else
from the guys?
Um I I have just a couple of things that I'd like to say. You know there's been some comments about the types of developments that are being brought forward and certainly I'm a big believer of uh the capital markets and and um What's being built is is what is being demanded. And to try to do long range planning and zoning based on a pending downturn in the economy, well those are those are normal. Recessions
are normal. We go through them uh periodically, you know, about every six years we see some sort of recession as the average. So we're overdue for one. Uh there's one coming. Whether people want to admit to it or not, it it will it will come through and it's part of the normal business cycle. So um you know people who are doing long range projects are considering those types of things. Unfortunately for the folks that live adjacent to this, what's happening here is
that
The
direction that the county would like to see developments go in specifically having higher density on pieces of property is butting up against the w the older way that the county used to do things. And to use the analogy of a former uh planning director, it's the peanut butter approach where we put it on and we spread it real thin. Now we're trying to put higher density on pieces of
property so that the uh infrastructure and the commercial that goes there is supported uh much greater than it is in the old way that we've we've done things. So the comprehensive plan clearly states that this is what we should be doing. So I'm fully supportive of this project.
Okay. That the form of a motion?
I'll
move.
Before before you make a motion, just quick quick, the two changes to the conditions were in condition eight um there's a reference to certificate of occupancy as a deadline. It got changed to construction plan approval. Fairly minor change. The only substantive change was to condition twenty-eight. There's a sentence that was added at the end. Just so you know the Board of County Commissioners currently has a moratorium on self-storage mini warehouse and it applies
to parts of 54. So it's language that clarifies that that's not a permitted use unless that moratorium terminates. And if it does, um that there the any self-storage or mini warehouse would be subject to whatever design standards. are created in the future for that use. So those were the two changes. I just want to make sure if you made a motion and incorporated those two changes.
Yeah, so yeah, stage seven and ten, the last sentence of condition twenty eight deals with self storage of mini warehouse.
And it's the self-storage mini homes is not permitted for
permitted or special exception use in the MPD unless the moratorium on that expires. Um and in theory if it does expire it's gonna be because the county's created design standards for that use. And so that's that's what that's attempting to implement.
Am I
Clear as to what the language is?
And the applicants in agreement with it. Okay.
And I'll
move for approval.
Okay. Motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried?
Okay.
Okay.