INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — County residents will likely be seeing more retail development at the intersection of Indian River Boulevard and 53rd Street after the Indian River County Board of Commissioner today approved a staff request to seek a change in the county’s comprehensive land use plan.
The 5-0 approval came in response to a request from Grand Harbor for a land use swap between two 8.3-acre parcels it owns on Indian River Boulevard.
In the proposed change, which with Commission action has been forwarded to the state for review, a parcel at the intersection of Indian River Boulevard and 53rd Street a block east of the new Publix shopping center will be redesignated from residential to commercial use.
Balancing that, a second parcel a quarter-mile south at the intersection of Indian River Boulevard and Grand Harbor Boulevard will be redesignated from commercial to residential.
Fifty-third Street was recently widened and upgraded to a four-lane arterial boulevard from 58th Avenue, which connects with the Indian River Mall, to Indian River Boulevard, making the new commercial parcel easier for people to access.
A representative of Grand Harbor and its developer GH Vero Beach Development LLC said outside the meeting that no details of the commercial development on 53rd are available, but retail seems like the obvious use.
If state and regional authorities approve the land use change, which is a virtual certainty, the matter will come back before the County Commission for final approval. At that time, if the Commission still supports the plan, it will also approve a corresponding zoning change.
