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Port Orange council adds density cap, approves first reading of rezoning for 56-acre Spruce Creek-area site
Summary
By a 5-0 vote on first reading, the Port Orange City Council approved a future land-use amendment with a property-specific policy capping gross density to 1 unit per acre and rezoned about 56.53 acres north of Charles Street to R-20 single-family; the applicant and council said the project will top out near 50 homes.
The Port Orange City Council on first reading approved a future land-use amendment and matching rezoning for roughly 56.53 acres north of Charles Street, adding a property-specific policy capping gross density at 1 unit per acre and approving R-20 single-family zoning that staff and the developer say will yield at most about 50 lots.
The change, approved 5-0, came after staff told the council the parcels have sufficient infrastructure capacity and no jurisdictional wetlands were identified in the environmental review. Planning staff recommended the land-use amendment and rezoning because the proposed R-20 district fits the city's rural transition objectives and allows clustering that helps meet roadway, sidewalks and stormwater requirements.
The applicant's attorney, Joey Posey, told the council the current request cuts the previously proposed density in about half and that the project team would stipulate to a policy cap. "We have no problem stipulating to that requirement," Posey said, adding the project's engineer concluded the R-20 standards and code minimums limit the feasible layout to about 50 lots.
Why it matters: the parcels had been the subject of an earlier, higher-density PUD request that the council and planning commission declined. Neighbors and some council members pressed staff and the city attorney to explain whether the new application was substantially different from the prior submittal and whether the council could consider it within 12 months of the earlier denial. Staff and the city attorney said the new application is a different zoning category (conventional R-20 versus a PUD) and reduced the maximum unit count by more than half, justifying the council's consideration.
A Spruce Creek-area resident told the council the basin study for Spruce Creek remains incomplete and urged the city to consider the forthcoming report before final actions; the city attorney said the developer's earlier planning-commission recusal question had been reviewed and a written statement indicated the previous employment relationship that prompted the recusal no longer existed.
Council action and next steps: the council withdrew an earlier motion to advance the FLU amendment and instead approved a revised motion to transmit the future land-use change with a new text policy (proposed policy 1.4.0.18) that limits gross density on the identified parcels to 1 unit per acre; the same meeting approved the R-20 rezoning on first reading 5-0. Because these were first-reading actions, the items will return for second reading and final adoption (and any required state-agency transmittals) at a later meeting.
What remains open: staff and councilors discussed drafting explicit, property-specific policy language to make the density cap enforceable; the applicant said it would cap the final subdivision at 50 lots, but councilmembers asked staff to include the policy language in the second-reading ordinance to make the limitation clear in the comprehensive plan text.
