Sanford OKs Gateway Commerce Park PD after engineers and staff negotiate cross‑access condition

The Sanford City Commission on June 8 approved a package of land‑use changes that establishes the Gateway Commerce Park planned development on roughly 18.5 acres along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, accepting an applicant’s pledge to work with staff on connectivity even as engineers warned a required stormwater pond constrains cross‑access drives.

City staff and the planning and zoning commission recommended adoption of ordinance 4858, which rezones several parcels to PD to allow two warehouse buildings totaling about 236,000 square feet and related infrastructure. Staff told commissioners the project meets comprehensive‑plan requirements for the Westside Industry & Commerce designation but flagged a compliance point: the comp plan and development policies expect "cross access easements and joint use of driveways" between parcels when joint infrastructure is used. PNZ added a condition that the applicant work with staff to provide interconnectivity.

Brandon Sanuri, the project’s civil engineer, and the developer’s representative emphasized the project’s economic case: the team described a $43 million private investment with an estimate of "north of 300 permanent jobs" upon build‑out and stabilization, and said the project will construct roughly 2,000 linear feet of new roadway and some stormwater infrastructure the county will use.

The applicant and engineers said those public‑benefit improvements created a technical constraint. They told commissioners the site must dedicate about 0.5 acres for a county stormwater pond and associated outflow; that pond sits between the two proposed buildings and, the team said, leaves insufficient room to provide the kind of internal drive that the cross‑access language envisions. "We had to design a 0.5‑acre pond," the applicant told the commission. "When we lost those .5 acres, we lost a lot of flexibility in how we design our stormwater ponds."

Staff and some commissioners pressed the legal and policy question: does the comp plan requirement allow flexibility for industrial parcels with truck‑oriented circulation and drainage needs? Planning staff replied that the PNZ condition as adopted requires the applicant to "work with staff to the best of their ability to create interconnectivity within the development," and that the commission could accept the applicant’s commitment while requiring documentation that staff examined feasible alternatives.

As a compromise, commissioners discussed allowing nonvehicular connectivity (sidewalks) or requiring the applicant to demonstrate in engineering submittals whether drive‑through cross access is feasible without compromising stormwater discharge. Commissioners stressed that any final development order should specify what "work with staff" means in measurable terms at the engineering review stage.

The commission voted unanimously to adopt the ordinances establishing the annexation, comprehensive‑plan amendment (first readings) and the PD (second reading where required), with the record reflecting the PNZ‑recommended condition that the applicant collaborate with staff on interconnectivity. The staff report and discussion will be part of the development‑order and subsequent engineering reviews before building permits are issued.

Outlook: Staff will require engineering documentation during development‑order and permitting stages to show whether cross‑access easements or equivalent measures (pedestrian connections, joint‑use easements or other mitigations) are feasible. If they are not technically viable, the commission’s condition preserves the staff review pathway and a written record that alternatives were considered.

Quote: "It was imperative to create that road network for the city," the applicant said, adding the dedicated pond "made the site extremely tight on drainage and therefore that interconnectivity could kill this project."