Local Planning Agency backs Ignite Academy move to Keystone Road site despite neighbor objections

The Pinellas County Local Planning Agency on Oct. 8 recommended approval of companion land-use and zoning amendments to let Ignite Academy relocate to 2271 Keystone Road in East Lake Tarpon.

Scott Swearingen, Long Range Planner for Pinellas County, told the board the 5.23-acre site is currently Residential Rural and Residential Agricultural and that the applicant seeks a future land use change to Institutional and rezoning to Limited Institutional. Swearingen said the property is not in the coastal storm or high-hazard area and that staff’s high-level trip-generation estimate for an institutional designation is roughly 570 additional daily vehicle trips; staff nevertheless recommended approval as consistent with the county comprehensive plan.

Brian Ungst, the applicant’s attorney, said Ignite Academy is a small Christian K–8 school already operating nearby with about 135 students and 75 families. Ungst said the school has no buses, that concept plans show ample on-site parking and drop-off capacity, and that development would bring the parcel into modern stormwater compliance. “This use is already permitted given the current land use and zoning,” Ungst said, noting the applicant was following staff guidance to pursue a land-use amendment because the parcel is 0.23 acres larger than the five-acre threshold for an administrative path.

Neighbors urged the board to reject the change. Linda Van Dam, who said she lives immediately east of the site, displayed photos and a petition she said included 63 neighbors and argued the proposed 40,000-square-foot building would be too close to existing homes. “My privacy is completely shot,” Van Dam said, citing repeated concerns about parents’ cars lining Keystone Road, children’s noise, playground lights, and safety where ingress and egress would cross the Pinellas Trail.

Board members pressed staff and the applicant on traffic calculations, setback and buffering requirements and the difference between the type-2 (board of adjustment) special-exception path and the rezoning/site-plan path. Staff and the applicant said many of the detailed compatibility matters — buffering, final access arrangements and traffic mitigation — are addressed during site-plan review or a type-2 process if rezoning were denied.

On voice vote the Local Planning Agency approved FLU25.08 and ZON25.07; the board’s recommendation will be transmitted to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, which is scheduled to hear the items Nov. 18, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. The recommendation does not approve a site plan; any development will require subsequent site-plan review and required traffic and stormwater studies.

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