The Titusville City Council on July 8 voted to advertise a consolidated open‑space ordinance that reorganizes and clarifies the city’s existing requirements for parks, plazas, natural areas and stormwater features used as open space in new developments.

Brad Parish, planning staff, told the council the ordinance consolidates scattered references to “open space” in multiple chapters into a single article and defines categories (parks, plazas, natural areas, greenways, stormwater systems, etc.) and standards for each. He said the minimum open‑space thresholds for development options — for example, a planned development (PD) that must provide 35% open space — remain unchanged, but the ordinance tightens how certain features count toward that requirement. Parish said stormwater ponds and natural water bodies may be counted only up to 50% toward the minimum open space, and the ordinance requires developers to designate at least one active and one passive recreational component in their open space packages.

Parish explained staff had tried to avoid overly prescriptive lists of amenities but added minimum usability and dimension criteria to avoid “open spaces” that are nominal areas of drainage or parking islands. He also said the ordinance includes exemptions for certain infill situations and that previously approved ongoing projects would be grandfathered through their existing approvals.

Councilmembers asked whether features such as pickleball courts or basketball courts would be considered “active” amenities (the staff response was yes, active uses may include tennis/pickleball, stabilized surfaces, playgrounds and similar facilities). Members also requested lists of projects that would be grandfathered and asked staff to prepare visual examples for the public hearing. Council voted to advertise the ordinance and continue the item for public hearing and formal adoption at a later meeting.