SEBASTIAN — Sitting as the Board of Adjustment, the Sebastian City Council Sept. 10 voted 4-1 to grant a variance allowing SandCrest LLC, to proceed with plans to construct a 71-unit residential planned unit development (PUD-R) on 12.77 acres southwest of the intersection of Main Street and Powerline Road.
Community Development Manager Jan King told the Board that in 2005 the City approved a site plan and preliminary plat for a 95-unit, 2-story townhouse development on the subject site, but no construction took place and, after several extensions, the permits expired.
The new plan reduces the number of units from 95 to 71, and changes the structures from 2-story townhomes to 1-story single-family dwellings. King explained that the variance is required before the project can move forward because the minimum size for a PUD-R is 25 acres, twice the acreage of the subject property.
Staff advised the applicant to request the variance “before incurring the expense of fully engineered development plans, should the Board deny the request.”
King told the Board staff was recommending the variance be granted, noting that the SandCrest project “can be considered an infill project, because the contiguous land is already developed.”
SandCrest’s agent Chuck Mechling presented a brief overview of the conceptual plans and told the Board the development is specifically aimed at Boomers.
He said similar developments in California are proving popular, with an estimated 10,000 Boomers turning 65 every day for the next 10 years.
“They don’t want so much space and don’t want to be mowing big lawns,” he said.
The free-standing units will come in three styles, from Passage Island Builder’s Coastal Collection. They will be, Mechling said, “maintenance free,” with smaller yards and Florida plantings requiring minimal fertilizer, thus having a “smaller ecological footprint.”
Each unit will have a 2-car, side-entrance garage, big front and back porch, and high-end interior, with a “luxurious master suite,” and such Boomer-friendly amenities as roomy showers and taller toilets.
Sand Crest will have a clubhouse and a pool, and ingress and egress will be on Powerline Road, so as not to increase traffic flow along already busy Main Street.
Board members Jerome Adams and Richard Gillmor expressed concern that granting the variance could set a precedent for future developers.
Two objections sent in by absent residents also voiced that concern.
City Attorney Robert Ginsburg said he didn’t view it as precedent-setting.
Vice-Mayor Jim Hill said the very purpose of the Board of Adjustment was to hear such requests and act on them on a case-by-case basis, not a broad ranging, precedent-setting decision. Mechling said he has already spoken with several of the concerned residents and plans to communicate with anyone who has any comments or concerns.
“We still have a long way to go,” he said.
Adams reiterated his dislike of granting variances and was the dissenting vote when the Board approved the request 4-1.