Lennar Homes LLC has revived plans for a major residential development between U.S. 1 and the Indian River Lagoon just south of the Indian River County line.
Lennar Homes wants to build 655 houses on a 281-acre site owned by Coconut Cove REO LLC of Boca Raton, one of dozens of corporations led by Barry M. Smith.
Lennar Homes has scaled back the density of previous plans for the property, which called for 950 residences, including 20 eight-story condominium buildings with a total of 640 units.
“We’ve removed all of those condominium towers,” Tyler Woolsey, of the Urban Design Studio land planning firm, Fort Lauderdale, told St. Lucie County commissioners on March 1.
Lennar Homes’ new plans call for the construction of 349 single-family houses and 306 townhouses, plus the addition of dog parks, playgrounds, a community garden and other amenities.
St. Lucie County commissioners voted unanimously to approve the adjustment to the final site plan for the Seagrove Planned Unit Development.
“I think it’s a beautiful development,” said St. Lucie County Commission Chairman Sean Mitchell. “I think it’s some place people will want to come and live.”
The project was previously known as the Coconut Cove PUD, which received commission approval on July 12, 2005.
The project became vested with development entitlements upon pulling a permit on May 30, 2007 for an access bridge traversing Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, county records show.
The developer built the access bridge, but it was never put into service, county records show. The project came to a halt after the real estate market crashed in 2008.
Coconut Cove REO LLC bought the property for $13,436,200 on May 14, 2018 from a subsidiary, Coconut Cove LLC, county property records show. Coconut Cove LLC had purchased the land on Jan. 21, 2004.
FECR officials rejected a proposal to relocate a secondary railroad crossing because of the impending improvement of the FECR tracks for Brightline’s high-speed passenger trains, county records show.
The secondary at-grade railroad crossing will be kept for emergency vehicle access, county records show.
Lennar Homes’ new plan increases the amount of open space in the new subdivision to 176 acres, or nearly 63 percent, from 98 acres, or 35 percent, county records show.
The new plan maintains all wetlands, including those in narrow strips between Old Dixie Highway and the FECR right-of-way. The site has 73.64 acre of wetlands.
The subdivision is expected to add 5,557 daily motor vehicle trips to the local road network, including 497 during the evening rush hour, county records show.
The additional trips will worsen traffic backups at the intersection of Turnpike Feeder Road and U.S. 1, but still have much less of an impact on congestion than the previous plan, county records show.
Senior Planner Jodi Nentwick-Kugler and the county’s Planning & Development Services Department recommended reconstructing the intersection of Turnpike Feeder Road and U.S. 1 to handle the additional traffic.