Commissioners deny Meadow Run request for permanent gate to Layton Farms Road

The Martin County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-0 on Oct. 7 to deny a revised final site plan that would have added a permanent rear-entry gate at the cul-de-sac of Southwest Briar Brook Way to provide access from Meadow Run at Foxgrove to Southwest Layton Farms Avenue.

The denial preserves the subdivision’s approved access provisions and removes a proposal that residents, neighboring landowners and county staff said would increase traffic and safety risks along a narrow, unstriped rural road used heavily by families attending the Palm City Soccer Farm.

Brian Elam, principal planner for Growth Management, told the board the Meadow Run application proposed a gated entry to allow residents and contractors to reach Layton Farms Avenue directly; staff’s formal review found the revised final site plan complied with county regulations but recommended the board decide on the access change. “The master site plan for the Foxgrove Subdivision was approved on June 8, 2004,” Elam said, noting the original approval established access and lot standards that the proposed gate would modify.

Opposition to the gate came from nearby property owners and users of Layton Farms Avenue. Jesse Fulton, representing Jacob Community Center LLC, said Meadow Run had previously installed an unpermitted south gate and used it for daily traffic despite a prior master plan limitation naming the subdivision’s primary access as Southwest Citrus Boulevard. “Meadow Run continues to use the South Gate illegally, exposing neighboring landowners, employees, and families … to ongoing risk,” Fulton said, describing narrow travel lanes, deep roadside ditches and heavy construction traffic.

Parents and user groups echoed those concerns. Nino Corey said hundreds of families drop children at the soccer facility and that the road was too narrow and unsafe for increased construction and delivery traffic; she also described a personal incident in which a family dog was struck earlier this year when the gate had been opened. Elliot Mata, vice president of the soccer club, said the facility draws parents and children from early morning until late evening and that additional traffic would raise the risk of collisions.

County staff explained alternatives and constraints. Growth Management Director Paul Schilling and county engineers said an emergency-access gate exists at the subdivision’s northern end but that location is a 20-foot emergency easement designed only for emergency vehicles, not guest or general access. County engineering staff said making that northern easement a full public access would require a 60-foot right-of-way, turn-arounds and likely lot reconfigurations because the subdivision lots were platted as five-acre agricultural ranchettes.

The matter had also been the subject of code-enforcement action and a special-magistrate hearing earlier this year. Fulton and others said the magistrate’s limited allowance for construction traffic had been followed by continued noncompliance; staff said the magistrate’s order allowed temporary construction access only until the board ruled on the site-plan change. The county attorney confirmed litigation related to the code-enforcement order is pending.

Commissioner [first reference: Commissioner Hetherington] moved to deny the revised final site plan; Commissioner [first reference: Commissioner Hurd] seconded. After discussion weighing neighborhood safety, existing plat restrictions and engineering constraints, the board voted to deny the request, restoring the site-plan condition that limits access to the subdivision’s designated entrance.

The denial does not prevent Meadow Run lot owners from seeking other remedies — for example, pursuing an amended entrance design at the approved Citrus Boulevard access — but it ends the subdivision’s effort to make Layton Farms Avenue a regular ingress/egress point. The magistrate’s temporary allowance for construction traffic will expire following the board’s decision; county staff said they will enforce the final site plan and code requirements going forward.