Palatka planning board approves rezoning for 68 townhomes with PUD overlay, sets conditions

The City of Palatka Planning Board voted unanimously on Jan. 7 to approve a rezoning request to allow 68 townhome units on roughly 4.23 acres at the intersection of St. John’s Avenue and Ziegler Drive.

The proposal would change the parcel’s zoning from City of Palatka Single Family Residential (R‑1) to Multifamily Residential (R‑3) with a planned unit development (PUD) overlay; the board attached four conditions before approving the request.

Staff told the board the site is vacant and served by nearby municipal water and sewer. The application and the board’s consideration referenced the city zoning code sections that govern rezoning and planned unit developments, including the criteria the planning board must evaluate for recommendations to the commission.

Attorney J. Holmes, representing the applicant Palmetto Palatka Land Trust, described the project as intended to provide housing near the medical community and hospital and said the developer expects the units will serve traveling nurses and other health-care workers. "We're hopeful of putting in these units to serve a need ... in the form of nurses, traveling nurses, traveling doctors," Holmes said.

Engineer John Mahoney summarized expected traffic generation and offered the trip estimate used by the applicant: "When I looked that up today, it came up with 0.61 peak hour trips ... when you multiply that by 68 units, our development should generate 42 peak hour trips," Mahoney said.

Board members and staff discussed access, placement of parking, retention of trees and stormwater/retention areas. The applicant said the site plan proposes a garage plus an additional parking space per unit (two spaces per unit) but noted that adding the 20 percent of guest parking required by the code could be a challenge once stormwater areas are laid out.

The planning board’s approval carried four stated conditions: 1) all utilities must be located underground per City of Palatka Municipal Code section 94‑233(f); 2) vehicular parking associated with the development must comply with the City of Palatka off‑street parking and loading standards and provide one guest parking space per five units; 3) the applicant must submit a letter from a traffic engineer stating trip generation and trip direction; and 4) the project must demonstrate unified control of the development consistent with section 94‑234 of the municipal code.

Chase Barnes moved the motion and Andrew Burnett seconded. The board recorded a unanimous voice vote in favor.

The public record in the meeting shows the applicant and engineer present and responding to board questions; no written traffic study was required at the time of the vote, only the letter described above.