ULDC committee moves to codify ‘rural Vista’ guidelines, adds buffer and sign items

The Unified Land Development Code Review Committee for the Town of Loxahatchee Groves voted to forward a draft memo that would help codify the town’s long-discussed “rural Vista” design guidelines and directed staff to add specific items on frontage buffer size and sign size/type for inclusion in the next draft.

Committee members said codifying the guidelines into the ULDC is necessary to give the town legal leverage to require deeper landscape buffers, break up large parking fields and require pedestrian-oriented building features. Committee member Jeff (staff) presented aerial examples and measurements to illustrate how different buffer depths change the appearance of commercial frontage.

Why it matters: Committee members said the document has been treated as informal guidance for years and that putting minimum dimensions and clearer language into the code would make it enforceable. That could affect how future commercial developments along major corridors are designed and how much landscaping must separate roadways from parking and buildings.

Jeff (staff) walked the committee through multiple site examples and measurements he said the committee had previously identified as meeting the “rural feel”: a site with about 66 feet of landscaping from the road before pavement; a medical office with roughly 48 feet; and another site with about 45 feet of frontage buffer. He contrasted those to several projects with about 24–25 feet of frontage buffer, which he and members said results in an immediate transition from roadway to paving.

Jeff noted the difference between residential and commercial setbacks: "When you look at our residential requirement, residential setbacks have to be at least 50 feet on the frontage. ... When you have a setback and you only require a 25 foot landscape buffer on a commercial piece of property, you go right into paving." He summarized the committee’s aim as giving the guidelines codified force: "we're trying to give this teeth and get it codified into the code." He later stressed: "without the buffer, the rural Vista guidelines don't work."

Committee discussion and decision: Members debated whether the guidelines should carry prescriptive dimensions in the guidelines document or whether dimensions belong in the ULDC code text, and they settled on advancing the memo while asking staff to add two specific direction items: (1) buffer size and design and (2) sign size/type. Staff said they will draft the revised language and return it for committee review.

Votes at a glance: The committee voted to forward the memo with the two new items added. The chair called for a motion to accept the memo with the 18th and 19th items added (the items described above). The motion passed (ayes recorded). The meeting record also shows routine votes earlier in the meeting approving the day’s agenda and approving minutes with corrections (both recorded 4–0).

Next steps: Staff (Jeff and Sammy) will prepare a revised draft that incorporates the buffer-size and sign-code direction and return it to the committee for review. Committee members set upcoming meetings and asked staff to circulate the revised draft about a week ahead of the next meeting so members can review changes.

Ending: The committee emphasized that adding specific buffer dimensions and clearer sign rules to the town code is intended to reduce subjectivity in future reviews and give the council and staff specific standards to enforce.