Things You Do Not Read About

Photo by Jonathan Gong on Unsplash

Earlier in February and March the Town Planning Board took up an annexation and initial zoning request for a 150 acre parcel of property adjacent to Compass Pointe. The Planning Board has no jurisdiction regarding annexation, but only the initial zoning request.

The Planning Board held two well attended meetings (February and March) regarding the project. Residents of the Compass Pointe community expressed sincere concerns related to the project and its impact.

Some Facts

• From the County’s Uniform Development Ordinance, the County requires 3,200 SF per dwelling unit for multifamily in the C-LD zoning category. The entire site was zoned that, so at 150.26 acres total site area under county C-LD, could have had 2,045 units.
• The original Multi-Family area requested was 95.95 acres. At 16 u/a that would have been 1,535 units.

Given the recommendation of Town staff and feedback from the community the Planning Board ultimately recommended the initial zoning of the property with one significant improvement than originally proposed — 12 +/- acres of the property along Alligator Creek be placed in Conservation District.

The Conservation District reduced the Multi-Family area by 12.02 acres and therefore reduced unit allowance by 193 units.

The Town Council in April on a vote of 4 to 1 approved the annexation and zoning with the Conservation District requirement. Following that vote the development agreement for the project was approved in May.

In the end, the development agreement adopted by the Town says the developers “desire to develop” approximately 900 multifamily units

As I wrote earlier about this project — it was not a matter of whether the property would be developed or not, but under what jurisdiction’s rules. It is my personal opinion the community would better served if the project was developed under Town of Leland rules.

While some will be disappointed that there will be development on the property, in the end the project is less dense that could have been built by-right under County zoning.

Town rules in my opinion better served the residents.

Views expressed are my own.