By DOTTY NIST
The Walton County Planning Commission dealt with legislative and quasi-judicial items at its March 12 regular meeting at the South Walton Annex, with much of the meeting devoted to the Forest View Village Planned Unit Development (PUD), a multifamily development planned for the eastern end of U.S. 98, immediately west of Serenoa Road.
According to a staff report provided at the meeting, Forest View PUD had been approved in 2005 for 468 single-family units, 64, multifamily units, and 160,000 square feet of commercial development on a project site of 91.72 acres, and the site was also amended in a development order approved in 2006. Construction of the project did not take place following those previous approvals.
Approximately 48.48 acres of the original project site was acquired by the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) for a the South Walton Sports Complex and to the Walton County School Board for a school site.
The Forest View PUD proposal before the planning commission on March 12 was for an amendment to the project site plan to remove the parcels sold to the county and school board and reduce the overall scope of the PUD. The applicant for the proposal was stated to be Fountain Investments, L.L.C., which is a company owned by M.C. Davis.
The new proposal called for 288 multifamily apartments units, 180,000 square feet of general commercial space, and a hotel with 127 units on a 43.24-acre site with the future land use of General Commercial.
Mac Carpenter of Walton County Planning and Development Services explained that the request was for conceptual approval, with detailed plans to be submitted for approval later.
Representing the applicant, engineer David Smith presented a list of requests for deviations or modifications of previously-approved deviations from Walton County Land Development Code requirements for the property. These provided for a reduction in landscaping for parking lot interior planting areas, reduction in off-street parking for multifamily residential and office, an increase in allowable distance between joint-use and off site facilities and parking, the use of unpaved parking, and an increase in access points, among other requests. Also requested was that technical phases of the project undergo minor development review by county staff (in effect, the Walton County Technical Review Committee and the Design Review Board) rather than approval by the planning commission and BCC being required.
Smith maintained that allowing a reduction from 10 percent to five percent for landscaping in parking lot interior parking areas would allow flexibility to put parking closer to buildings. The four additional access points requested, he explained, would go along a boulevard within the development.
In public comment, Garner Chandler urged for all future phases of the PUD to be reviewed as major developments.
The planning commission concurred, voting down the request for minor development review of future phases in place of planning commission and BCC review.
Also voted down was the request to reduce landscaping from 10 percent to 5 percent in parking lot interior parking areas.
The board members agreed to other deviation requests with modification to some requests. Approved in a split vote was a request to reduce off street parking from 1.5 spaces to one space for one-bedroom multifamily. Also approved were modest reductions in the number of parking spaces required for office and shopping center uses and an increase of allowable distance between joint use and off site facilities and parking.
Board members agreed to recommend the use, along with paved parking, of unpaved parking, as long as the parking was stabilized. There was also a recommendation for approval of the new access points along the internal boulevard.
The conceptual proposal as a whole received a recommendation for conditional approval, subject to staff report conditions and the requirement for all portions under the purview of the Design Review Board undergo review by that board.
Also generating discussion at the meeting was the proposed Lula Cone Peterson Small-Scale Amendment. The request was for an amendment to the Walton County Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map to change 2.52 acres from Conservation Residential 2:1 to Low Density Residential. The subject property is located on the south side of Louva Lane at the Deno Drive intersection in Santa Rosa Beach.
Approval of the amendment would increase the maximum number of residential units allowed on the parcel from five to 10.
A previous request to reclassify the property as Infill was denied by the BCC, and at that time there was BCC discussion that a change to Low Density Residential would be considered.
Public comment on the proposal included objections from Louva Lane resident Steve McCloskey. “This is an environmentally-constrained area,” he told the board members. McCloskey spoke of his concerns that pressures on the area, including those related to parking and beach accesses, would be exacerbated by increasing density along the upland beach area.
While areas designated as Conservation Residential are disappearing, McCloskey noted, there are other areas so designated in the vicinity of this property. “Please reject this,” he urged the planning commission members.
The board members voted to recommend approval.
Among other recommendations for approval were the Transit Stop Sign Ordinance, which provides for ground and building signs to mark stops for public or privately-provided transit, although Carpenter noted that there is currently no transit plan for 2015.
Other recommendations for approval included: the Hidden Palms Subdivision, a 20-lot single-family subdivision proposed for 2.5 acres on the south side of Hatchew Road, 300 feet west of South Holiday Road; and the Reeder Small-Scale Amendment, a request to change .55 acres at the end of Surf Song Road off Ellis Drive in Miramar Beach from Residential Preservation to Neighborhood Infill.
The proposed abandonment of the north half of Charles Street, which is located adjacent to a parcel owned by the applicant, Gary Johnson, received a recommendation of denial.
Items on the agenda continued to the April 9 planning commissioner meeting were the Winston Townhomes Large-Scale Amendment, the Winston Townhomes, and the Miller and Comer Abandonment. The Midgrove Center PUD was tabled and is to be readvertised prior to being heard at a future date.
Walton County Planning Commission decisions are provided as recommendations to the BCC, which is charged with final decisions on the proposals in public session.
