The City of Vero Beach Three Corners Steering Committee is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Thursday to begin finalizing a master concept plan for redeveloping Vero’s riverfront utility sites, which will be presented to city voters next year.
In this initial meeting, five newly appointed members will join the panel, and the whole group will get a refresher on Florida’s “Sunshine” laws on open meetings and open public records. Mayor Tony Young will brief the committee on its mission and goals – its central purpose being to recommend the best concept plan to the city council for consideration. Finally, the committee will look at its “next steps” to be tackled at future meetings.
Deciding how much of the city’s $21 million in residual profits from the Vero electric sale to spend on infrastructure at the new riverfront development will not be on the committee’s plate. The city council has tasked itself – not the steering committee – with handling financial decisions regarding the riverfront development.
One of the reasons the five council members removed themselves from the steering committee and appointed five local residents in their stead was to clarify the council’s review and implementation duties as distinct from the steering committee’s duties.
Planning Director Jason Jeffries said he will present the latest post-pandemic plan, which he calls Plan E, to the committee on Thursday, and bring members up to speed on everything that’s transpired over the past year since the city hired architect Andres Duany and his award-winning, Miami-based DPZ firm to shepherd the planning and public input process for the city’s 37 acres of prime riverfront.
The original timeline called for the city council to approve a final plan this summer and place a corresponding referendum on the November ballot, giving voters veto power over the plan, but the pandemic interfered.
Before COVID-19 lockdowns in March, the city had a concept that was dubbed “The Standing Ovation Plan,” but it was considered too ambitious to put forth in a pandemic economy. Duany produced more than one scaled-back plan.
The original, high-density plan centered around a major hotel complex utilizing the Big Blue power plant, plus three restaurants, gathering places and event, musical and arts venues – but Duany suggested that plan banked too much togetherness for a socially distanced population.
There was no solid consensus on any of the alternative plans, and a contingent of the city council still wants to make the Standing Ovation Plan happen, so time ran out to get the matter on the November ballot. Now the goal is to put the plan to a vote in 2021, possibly in a special election of city voters just on this issue.
Serving on the Three Corners Steering Committee are Chairwoman Vicky Gould, Mark Tripson, Linda Moore, Mike Johannsen, former mayor Harry Howle, Dr. Richard Baker, Sydney O’Haire, Chloe Rose Schwartz, Ben Earman, Christine Pokorney-Sickterman and Jeff Stassi, with city council candidate John Cotugno as an alternate. Vice Mayor Laura Moss, once she takes her seat on the Indian River Board of County Commissioners, will be a non-voting member and liaison to the county.
All Three Corners plans designed by Duany and the steering committee documents are posted on the city’s website www.covb.org under Departments, Planning and Development. The committee meetings are broadcast on the city’s Channel 13 and live streamed on the city website.