INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — County staff today outlined a potentially controversial change to county land use regulations that if approved will limit certain previously allowable activities in areas zoned for agriculture but used extensively for residential purposes. The proposal elicited an immediate negative reaction from two commissioners.
Commissioner Bob Solari said it might be bad for business. Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler said the commission should hear all the facts and get input from the public before jumping to any conclusions.
Wheeler said the proposal was not about blocking business activity but protecting the rights of homeowners.
“I have had a business,” he said, “and my home was more important to me than my business, even though I got my income from my business.”
At issue are three areas east of I-95 zoned AG-1. Those areas are intended in the county’s comprehensive plan for agriculture but can be used for low-density residential and a variety of other purposes such as packinghouses, correctional facilities, golf courses, sports stadiums, air strips, construction debris dumps, mining and industrial plants.
Over the years, a large number of ranchettes, homes on 5- or 10-acre tracks, have been developed around the original city of Fellsmere in North County; east of 74th Ave. between SR-60 and CR-510 in Central County; and east of 74th Ave. between SR-60 and Oslo Road in South County.
These areas tend to be bordered on one side by sections designated as urban service areas, which are planned for high-density residential and commercial development, and on the other by traditional agricultural lands.
The sprawling tracts have become a kind of border region between the two areas, not quite city and not quite open country, and staff is wants to create a regulatory buffer zone that takes their unique features and requirements into consideration.
Under the proposal, eight activities now allowed by special use permit in ranchette areas, such as spreading sewer sludge on fields as fertilizer or spreading rotten fruit on fields to put organic matter back into the soil would be prohibited.
Correctional institutions, off-road tracks, packinghouses and demolition debris sites are other uses that would be banned in the ranchette areas.
The proposal raises hot-button issues of individual homeowner rights vs. business and development prerogatives and, even though today’s action was preliminary, seven members of the public showed up to speak before the Commission, expressing support for prohibiting activities detrimental to ranchette living or objecting to limits on business activities.
Staff was seeking the Commission’s okay to get input from the county Agricultural Advisory Committee, conduct a public workshop and initiate a formal amendment of the land development regulations to implement a buffer zone.
Wheeler was emphatic in his support for moving ahead with the process, sharply criticizing what he called “knee-jerk” negative reactions based on uninformed personal opinion.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan also spoke in favor of moving ahead with the process, saying that public input from concerned stakeholders was helpful in revising landscaping regulations and in other matters in recent years.
The Commission eventually voted to instruct staff to move forward.
According to Commissioner Wesley Davis, the next step will be a staff presentation to the Agricultural Advisory Committee on Thursday.
“They will make a recommendation that will come back to us,” Davis said. A public workshop and hearing will follow before the Commission takes final action.
