Council to discuss new BURST land use classification
The Cape Coral City Council’s second-to-last meeting of 2022 will be held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall, with one of the proposed ordinances being a new land use classification, with a pretty cool acronym.
The Burnt Store Road District (BURST) will be up for a vote, and it is certainly something that has been a long time coming.
In 2016, the city commissioned a study to determine a vision for the Northwest Cape which resulted in council adoption of a vision plan for the Seven Islands site and the Northwest Cape.
Three years later, the city amended the future land use for the Seven Islands to Mixed Use, created a Land Use Sub-District for the site, and a specific zoning district for the Seven Islands (MX7).
These initiatives recognized that the Burnt Store Road Corridor and surrounding areas will play a major part in future growth of this part of the city.
The properties along Burnt Store Road are different from much of the pre-platted nature the city has, particularly north of Van Buren Parkway, as they are not platted and more than five acres in size.
Utility expansion creates new development opportunities, particularly for non-residential or commercial development. Recent events and the rapid growth of the city illustrates the need for the BURST classification.
The proposed Hudson Creek development on the east side of Burnt Store Road is seeking approval for 3,500 dwelling units and 270,000 square feet of non-residential uses. A utility agreement for the extension of water, sewer and irrigation there is under review.
Permitted uses for the BURST include retail, office, office/warehouse, light manufacturing, institutional, multi-family residential, single-family residential attached uses (3+ units), larger scale commercial retail and government uses such as parks and public facilities.
New residential uses permitted in the BURST may only be developed within a mixed-use building. New single-family detached residences, single-family semi-detached residences, duplexes and all other stand-alone residential uses, including storage, are prohibited.
If adopted, this would be the first of four processes, to be followed by a Future Land Use Map Amendment, establishment of a zoning district and rezoning.
In other business, in a discussion that was set aside during last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, council will discuss the revisions of Chapter 2 and Chapter 19 regarding fees imposed at time of payment regarding Utility Capital Expansion Fees and water and sewer utilities.
On the consent agenda will be numerous resolutions regarding traffic enforcement.
The city is expected to approve several subgrants from the Florida Department of Transportation Traffic Safety. They will be for the education and enforcement of issues such as distracted driving, speed and aggressive driving, drug recognition and impaired driving. The total in grants is $160,000.
The city is also expected to approve an additional $88,917.08 to fund the solid waste pilot program for the 2022 fiscal year. The original funding was $147,000.
A consent agenda item is automatically passed unless an item is pulled for discussion and eventually rejected.
City Hall is at 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com