SEBASTIAN – Forced through a court order, the Indian River County Commissioners approved a one-year extension to Ocean Concrete’s site plan application just outside the City of Sebastian.
Sebastian city leaders have objected to the proposed concrete plant and plan to send a letter to commissioners reaffirming their objection. They discussed sending the letter prior to Tuesday’s commission meeting, but opted to wait for a more appropriate time.
Tuesday’s meeting was to address an application extension, not the actual development. The Sebastian City Council chose to wait until Ocean Concrete’s site plan comes up for approval to send their letter.
“If we were to respond now, it’s probably not the right time,” Councilwoman Andrea Coy said at a recent council meeting.
Concerned Sebastian residents had attended the meeting with plans to ask the council to urge denial of the concrete facility.
“You have the support of the city council,” Councilman Don Wright told the audience, adding that there was no need at that time for extensive public input.
Ocean Concrete has plans to build a concrete batching facility on eight acres of land on Old Dixie Highway along the west side of the Florida East Coast Railroad line. The company first applied for the development’s site plan approval in 2005.
According to county officials, the first application expired in 2006 without Ocean Concrete addressing concerns planning officials had with the plan.
The company then applied again. But before it could move forward, the county changed its land development regulations, which prohibited concrete facilities to be located on property zoned for light industrial use.
Ocean Concrete then asked for a one-year extension on its application, which the county denied. The company appealed the decision to the Indian River County Circuit Court, which sided with Ocean Concrete.
The county appealed that decision to the Fourth District Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.
“Frankly, the county would make a mistake if it did not grant the extension,” County Attorney Alan Polackwich told commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.
Commissioners voted 3-2 to grant the extension, with both Commission Chair Peter O’Bryan and Commissioner Joe Flescher voting against it.
O’Bryan told commissioners that he disagreed with granting Ocean Concrete’s request for the extension.
“They haven’t shown me that they’re working to make this a successful application,” O’Bryan said.
Polackwich said O’Bryan’s comment was reasonable, but that the county has a history of granting application extensions. If the county were to deny the extension, it would essentially be treating this applicant differently from others.
With the one-year extension granted, county staff now expects Ocean Concrete to rework its application. In the meantime, Polackwich said he would work to determine if Ocean Concrete’s proposed site plan would be approvable under the old land development regulations – which the concrete company contends it should follow.
Polackwich said if the site plan would not be approvable under the old rules, then the issue over which rules should apply could be rendered moot.
