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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 11 1989 Annexation area in the worksAugust 11, 1989 (USPS 1506) Annexatimr y REVARD MT AIWIWrvF)r 0 ?ctions 24 pages 25 cents ea in the works City limits would double with additional 9,000 acres sections 24 pages 25 cents ■ ■ Itir ea in the works jars -mile area that could be annexed by the city City limits would double with additional 9,000 acres By George Ricker The Sebastian Planning and Zon- ing Commission wants the City Council to consider annexing thou- sands of acres of land bordered by the Sebastian River on the east, inter- state 95 on the west, CR 512 on the south and the Brevard/Indian River County line on the north. According to City Planner Peter Jones, the area takes in about 15 square miles, or about 9,600, acres. Vice Chairman Jim Wadsworth's suggestion, at the zoning board's Aug. 3 meeting, triggered a lengthy discussion, which ended with the board voting 6-1 to recommend the City Council appoint a committee to consider annexing the property. Saying she wanted more time to study the proposal, Commissioner Shirley Kilkelly cast the lone dis- senting vote. Wadsworth said the Ciiy Council should appoint the committee to examine the feasibility of annexing the property and to contact the af- fected property owners to see if they are willing to become part of the city. All of the land in question is owned by about 10 people, he staled, and he had received indications the largest landowner would.raise no objection to the idea, if his taxes were not raised because of it. If the city would agree to grant a moratorium on any taxes until either the land use *on the property is changed or it is sold, Wadsworth said he doubted there would be a problem. That shouldn't create any diffi- culty for the city, he noted, because no city services would be required until the land began to be developed. Wadsworth first raised the subject as a way to deal with the troublesome airport issue. If the city could incor- porate that land into its boundaries, he reasoned, perhaps the airport could be relocated through aproperty trade, swap or some other mecha- nism. However, Jones suggested the question of moving, the airport and the possible annexation of the land west of the Sebastian River were two separate issues and should be dealt with as such. Jones said the commission should not include the idea of moving the airport in its recommendation on the subject of annexation. As project coordinator for a plan- ning study, being undertaken by the city as part of Sebastian's standstill agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, Jones said he could assure the commissioners the option of moving the airport would be one of many options to be considered. "I think the idea of annexation is a good one," he said, "but it might get hung up in discussion over the air- port." Jones told the commission he in- tended to see that all of the options involving the airport were given a thorough review, but felt any discus- sion of the options now would be premature. "I want to'keep the process clear 'and objective. This may muddy the water," he explained. City Engineer/Public Works Di- rector David Fisher, said he also thought the annexation proposal was good, on the surface. "But we would be almost doubling the size of the city," he noted. That raised concerns in his mind, Fisher suggested, that the city could be creating a problem for itself with leap -frogging development. See Annexation Page 3-A Annexation (from 1-A) "We will need to insure the infra- structure is in place," he cautioned. "There should be a mechanism estab- lished to assure we don't overextend our reach." Fisher said his chief concern was that the area be developed in an or- derly way. Stan Krulikowski, chairman of the zoning board, said herecalled reading projections that some day the Sebas- tian area would be the hub of activity in the county. "This would guarantee it," he added. Jones reminded the commission a number of agencies would be in- volved in the review of such a pro- posal. "We don't need to just be con- cerned about the owners," he sug- gested. "We would also need to be clear on how the city would provide services to the area. We would need a plan of development." He advised the commission the issue of urban sprawl is a major con- cern. "There will be tough questions," he said, "and we need to have the an- swers. " Wadsworth said he understood the concerns being raised. "But, we need to do something. When will there be a better time to do it than now? We can do this with relative ease today, compared to five years from now," he observed. Jones said he agreed, but, he re- peated, it is necessary to plan to ad- dress the tough questions. "My intent tonight is to get the ball rolling," Wadsworth said. Kilkelly said she would prefer to wait about making a recommendation to the City Council until she had the opportunity to review Wadsworth's idea to see how it fit into the frame- work of the city's comprehensive land use plan. "I think you will be disappointed with the comprehensive plan," Commissioner Ed Gilcher observed. Gilcher said he had looked for the same sort of thing in the comprehen- sive plan and found it was not ad- dressed there. "The plan is not visionary in that regard," he stated. "We need to get out of the bounds of the plan in order to get this under consideration." Wadsworth recalled he had listened to members of the City Council and officials of the city complaining about having to turn people away because of a lack of land area for industrial devel- opment. "The city needs the tax base," he said. "Our job is to look into the fu- ture." By creating a large industrial area west of town, and stepping down the zoning as the land came closer to the present city limits, Wadsworth said the city could develop a bettertax base and still preserve its residential at- mosphere. Sebastian's comprehensive land use plan indicates two large areas and some smaller sites earmarked for in- dustrial development. The largest of these is 136 acres at the airport. However, in view of the moratorium on airport development, which has been in place for several years and seems likely to remain in place until the new planning study is completed, it is unlikely industrial development will occur there in the near future. Another sizeable tract is located at the intersection of Davis Street and the Florida East Coast Railway line. A third parcel has just become available with the recent annexation of 21.5 acres of property into the city. 'Toning on that property has been changed from mixed -use county zor ing to industrial city zoning. The Ian is located south of CR 512 and boi dered on the east by Old Dixie Higt way. Although not included in the late,, published version of the comprehen sive land use plan, it is expected th. property will be added to the pla3 before it goes to the Florida Depart ment of Community Affairs in Tal lahassee on Sept. 1. The amendmen' of the land use plan already has been approved by the City Council. The zoning board agreed to recom� mend the City Council appoint a committee of four people to investi- gate the feasibility of annexing the property, as Wadsworth had sug- gested. Committee members will be drawn from the planning and zoning commission, city staff and the City Council, subject to a review by the city attorney to insure the makeup of the committee will not violate the provi- sions of Florida's Government -in - the -Sunshine Law. Wadsworth said he was specifically excluding Roseland from considera- tion because he felt there would be too much resistance to the idea among the residents of the area.