Commission approves Soft Pine subdivision setback exception and replat; public raises concerns about later homeowner variance costs

Port St. Joe — The commission approved the planning board recommendation to allow a special exception for side-yard setbacks and to proceed with subdivisions (referred to in the meeting as Salt Pines/Soft Pine and Rich Family Plaza replat proposals). The motion carried without opposition after staff explained the platting and setbacks shown on recorded plats. At the meeting, a resident questioned what the reduced side-yard setback means for future homeowners and whether individual homeowners would later need to apply for exceptions to build additions. The resident, identified at the podium as Jim Sickles, asked, “If it is approved here, the individuals that purchased the homes, do they still have to follow the LDR for their insets, or can they refer to this document for their insets?” A staff member answered that homeowners would have to apply for a special exception and pay the fee (stated in the meeting as $300) if they later wanted a deviation from the recorded plat setbacks. Ray Greer (staff member) and other planning staff explained that the lots will be platted with front-yard, side-yard, and rear-yard setbacks shown on the recorded plat and that homes in the subdivisions must be built inside those platted setbacks. Greer told the commission that the Salt Pines/Soft Pine filings reduce the separation between units relative to previously approved townhome plans, and he said the current plan increases separation to “a total of 10 foot separation, 5 on each side,” and reduces density relative to an earlier townhouse approval. The commission also reviewed a previously approved replat of Rich Family Plaza that changed 11 lots into 13 lots with 7-foot setbacks; staff explained that the plat controls the setback requirements and that homeowners must build within the platted setbacks. Public commenters and one commissioner raised the practical concern that individual homeowners, when they later want to add an on-site addition, may have to apply for a case-by-case exception and pay the fee despite the subdivision-level approvals. A staff response was that unless the ordinance is changed, deviations would require case-by-case exception applications and fees. The motions to approve planning board recommendations for the Salt Pines/Soft Pine subdivision and for the Rich Family Plaza replat carried by voice vote and were recorded as passing with unanimous or near-unanimous support (no recorded no votes in the transcript).