INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River County Board of Commissioners agreed Tuesday to change 562 acres along State Road 60 and 98th Avenue from agricultural zoning to allow for use as an industrial park or research center.
Owners currently do not have plans to develop the property just west of I-95 near the outlet mall, but they wanted to have the new zoning in place ahead of time. Commissioner voted 5-0 to grant the change in hopes that it could attract interested parties looking for land for a variety of industrial projects, including a high-tech research facility.
To accommodate the change commissioners had to expand the urban services area by 562 acres. Owners of the three parcels of land, the Corrigan family, Scott Lambeth and B.F. Bailey, wanted to amend the urban services area ahead of the Nov. 2 election, where passage of Proposition 4 could make such a change to the Comprehensive Plan subject to voter approval.
The original request had been for four pacels of land at 674 acres of adjacent property, but Donald Beaty of Lake Wales backed out of the deal saying he wanted it zoned just for commercial use.
Under current guidelines the newly-zoned property would be limited to 4.2 million square feet of development until I-95 is slated by the state for widening. That work is not scheduled until 2022.
Commission Chairman Peter O’Bryan said having the land available is the first step in attracting a potential developer.
“Part of the process when a site consultant is looking around if you don’t have a parcel available they don’t look,” he said. “Now we will have a site and when they call we can say yes we have 562 acres available.”
Helene Caseltine, economic development director of the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce told commissioners this will help her in promoting the county as open for businesses to set up operations.
“This really gets us in the game and sends out a strong message to site consultants we we are trying to attract to get their clients to come to Indian River County,” she said. “This really puts us on the map.”
Brian Carman of the Indian River Neighborhood Association also spoke in favor of the change.