Nassau County DRC reviews Chester Road nursery and 62,100-square-foot office pre-application

Nassau County Development Review Committee members reviewed a pre-application for the Chester Road Nursery and Office Complex during the committee’s Jan. 14, 2025 meeting, providing technical feedback on zoning, stormwater, utilities and circulation ahead of formal conditional-use and site-plan filings.

The applicant, represented by Nick Gillette of Gillette and Associates, described a two-part project: a wholesale plant nursery with a retention/irrigation pond and a single 62,100-square-foot office building intended to serve landscape companies. The applicant said the nursery would be built as a first phase and the office as a separate component.

Planning staff noted the site is within the Heron Isles Planned Unit Development (PUD) and has a medium-density future land use designation. Elizabeth Back of the Planning Department directed the applicant to the applicable Land Development Code (LDC) sections for plant nurseries and office uses, including LDC 28.16 for conditional-use standards and the PUD ordinance for setback and dimensional requirements. She advised that maximum lot coverage limits—65% for commercial professional office (CPO) uses and 50% for neighborhood commercial (CN) areas—would apply to the respective project components, and she requested architectural elevations or renderings at the time of the formal site-submittal review.

Development services staff emphasized transportation and stormwater requirements. Caleb Hurst said the planned Pages Dairy Road extension adjacent to the site must be built to county roadway standards and that county standards require a 6-foot sidewalk along the extension and a pedestrian connection into the phase 1 site. He also described stormwater submittal requirements, including engineering calculations, a geotechnical report, and a stormwater infrastructure maintenance plan under Article 10 of the county standards.

Environmental Health staff confirmed the applicant could use a private well for nursery irrigation, while the office component should tie to public water and sewer. Cathy Vanzant of Environmental Health asked the applicant to ensure required setbacks for wells and septic systems are met.

Fire staff cautioned that required fire flow and hydrant locations will depend on building construction and site layout. Amanda Bauman, representing Fire, said if driveway length to the building exceeded 150 feet, an on-site turnaround or an emergency-only connection to Chester Road would be required to accommodate apparatus access.

Committee members also flagged wetlands protections and perimeter landscape requirements. Back noted jurisdictional wetlands on the site would require a 25-foot upland buffer and pointed to perimeter landscape strip standards in LDC section 37.05. She advised the applicant to coordinate tree spacing and plant clustering with the planner during the conditional-use review to reconcile nursery stock with perimeter landscape requirements.

No formal committee vote was taken; staff provided technical comments and noted comprehensive, written comments would follow once a full plan set is submitted. County staff reminded the applicant that Development Review Committee (DRC) approval and other required permits must be obtained prior to commencement of construction.

Looking ahead, the applicant plans to proceed with a conditional-use application in parallel with an at-risk site-plan application and will address the technical comments—wetlands buffers, perimeter landscaping, sidewalk connection, stormwater engineering, utilities and fire access—in subsequent filings.