Vero Beach residents who want to know the final details of the riverfront redevelopment plan they will be voting up or down in November should tune in at 10:30 a.m. Friday as the latest plan is discussed.
The discussion will be aired on Municipal Channel 13 and will be live streamed at www.covb.org. Those who cannot attend in person can submit comments and questions to the City Council before and during the meeting by going to the website www.covb.org and searching for “public comment.” A fill-in form is available on the Forms page.
The City Council voted last week to move forward with a Nov. 3 referendum on the conceptual plan, which if approved would give Vero officials the authority to lease portions of the power plant site protected under the city charter.
After more than a year of planning, a carefully crafted, 75-word ballot item will pose a simple and descriptive choice to voters, who will then vote yes or no, to approve or derail the proposal. What’s built must be substantially similar to the plan approved by council.
The final iteration of the riverfront Centennial Place plan is expected to be much less ambitious than what was called the “maximum development plan” that excited the Steering Committee early this year.
That vision called for three restaurants, shops and a massive hotel and convention center planner Andres Duany hoped might someday fill the shell of Vero’s Big Blue power plant.
Last fall when residents attended the first presentations on the riverfront vision – a place for people to gather, to dine, to shop, to recreate – no one could have imagined we’d be so focused on staying at least 6 feet apart or even avoiding people entirely.
The steering committee’s plan, in all its glory, just won’t fly in the age of COVID-19, consulting architect Duany told the City Council by speakerphone last week.
The amenities must adapt to the times or wait years until society truly gets back to normal.
Duany’s solution is to craft an alternative plan with more outdoor dining, and a scaled-down lodging alternative, possibly cabins.
The new plan is being produced as part of the package deal the city signed with Duany’s Miami-based urban planning firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), a partnership with Duany’s wife and fellow urban planner, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
“The total fee for DPZ is $156,000. The amount has not changed since the approval of the contract in October 2019. The additional work for the ‘post-COVID’ Scenario is being done by the consultant for no additional cost,” Vero’s Planning Director Jason Jeffries said.
Even with the more realistic plan, Duany told the council last week that his hopes of breaking ground very soon on the development have faded. Instead, the site would be cleared of miscellaneous equipment, the buildings mothballed, and the parcel secured by fencing to keep out vandals and loiterers.
Whatever the city ends up deciding to do, Duany said, it won’t be for two or three years.
The riverfront sewer plant is set to be dismantled in 2024 or 2025, so if there’s any silver lining, it’s that, once the economy has recovered and it’s time to build something, the city will be able to deal with the entire 34 acres as a whole, without the aesthetics and aroma of a sewer plant to work around. The two-acre parcel west of Indian River Boulevard, known as the Old Postal Annex, will be listed for sale as surplus city property.
