Community board debates wide-ranging land‑development code changes; calls for community-led master plan

The City of Stuart Community Redevelopment Board held an extended discussion of proposed Land Development Code text amendments the commission placed in a zoning‑in‑progress review, raising questions about impacts on small-property owners in East Stewart, parking, duplexes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and the process used to develop the changes.

Development staff introduced Ordinance No. 2539-2025 as a package of code cleanups and policy changes that staff said were requested by the City Commission during workshops. Development Director (staff identified in the record as Jody Coogler and Sherry Kooker at different points) summarized the most substantive changes as moves from the word “lot” to “parcel record,” grandfathering parcels of record that existed on Sept. 4, 2024; removing references to shared parking citywide; revising multifamily and mixed-use density and floor‑area calculations; modifying minimum parcel sizes in single-family districts; and tightening rules for ADUs and duplexes inside some urban overlays.

On the parcel/lot question, staff told the board that Martin County assigns a parcel identification number to every taxable parcel and that switching the code to use “parcel record” rather than “lot” was intended to protect existing properties while preventing the creation of new, smaller platted lots. Staff said the commission wanted to limit new small lots in a largely built‑out city and to ensure that properties that pay taxes and have parcel records would be “grandfathered.” Staff also said that any newly created parcel records after the effective date would need to meet new minimum size thresholds (the text under discussion referred to either 5,000 or 6,000 square feet and staff…