The Marion County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a set of waiver requests Oct. 21 from Black Label Marine for redevelopment of parcels along County Road 44 and Highway 475.

Staff recommended conditional approval of a request to reduce or substitute required landscape/wall buffers because the site adjoins a large, undisturbed DRA (designated resource area) and will preserve trees in a 75‑foot no‑touch buffer on the east side. The DRC had denied the waiver because the proposal would substitute trees on another property outside the applicant’s control; the applicant provided a letter from the adjacent property owner supporting use of existing trees and agreed to add a note on the approved plans that any future development into the 75‑foot buffer would require construction of the code‑required wall.

The board also approved two additional waivers for driveway spacing and cross‑access, after the county engineer testified that the corridor contains many historical driveways and there was no documented pattern of crashes or complaints. Commissioners asked planning staff to annotate the site plans and to add a file flag that would require the wall and full buffers if the preserved buffer area were later developed or if future site plans trigger code thresholds.

Applicants said cross‑access was impractical for security and circulation for the boat and marine sales operation; county engineers and code staff agreed to a plan note requiring successors to comply with buffer and access rules if land use changes or if future development occurs in the preserved buffer area.

Board members said the annotation and an owner‑signed note recorded in the project file would be required to ensure the county can locate and enforce the condition if future construction occurs.