- April 16, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Palm Coast's City Council has delayed a vote on a proposed Seagate community called Ryan’s Landing, citing safety concerns about the placement of its main entrance road across from a school bus stop.
The development would bring 95 age-restricted single-family homes to a triangular plot of vacant land in the city’s R Section.
"I'm not going to sign off on something that could get one of our school kids killed. That entrance needs to be moved."
— ED DANKO, city councilman
The City Council voted to delay a second-reading vote on a rezoning that would allow the development to move forward.
In its first-reading vote on May 17, the council had approved the proposal unanimously. The proposal had also earned the city planning board’s approval in a 6-1 vote on April 20.
But at the June 7 meeting, City Councilman Ed Danko said the entrance's placement near the bus stop wasn't acceptable.
"The safety of our school children are paramount. I won't bend on that," Danko said to Jay Livingston, an attorney representing the developer, during the meeting.
"That school bus stop is directly across from that gate," Danko said. "If there's an accident in the middle of that road, it could it could hurt or kill some of the students."
He added, "I'm not going to sign off on something that could get one of our school kids killed. That entrance needs to be moved."
"And where will we move it, then?" Livingston said.
"I don't know; that's not my problem," Danko replied. "You guys are the developers. Pick another spot. ... We need to get that done, and then revisit this."
Ray Tyner, the city's deputy chief development officer, said that if the council approved the rezoning, city staff and school district staff could still work together to revise the subdivision's master plan to accommodate the bus stop before the council votes on the development's final plat. Danko said he wouldn't be willing to approve the rezoning until the issue is resolved.
"I'm pro-development. I love Seagate; they build great stuff," he said. "But I'm not going to look back one day and have a bus accident with some cars and some kids hurt and know that I could have prevented it."
Mayor David Alfin countered that the school district controls bus stop locations, and can move them.
"Personally, I feel that the school district should be responsible for the safety of their bus stops," Alfin said, "because they choose where they are, and they actually schedule and assign the drivers to stop where they do."
Danko also thought that the development's number of entrances — one regular entrance, plus an emergency exit — was insufficient.
Councilman John Fanelli said he'd also prefer that the development have two full entrances.
"I do see a benefit to the residents, inside and outside of that community, for safety and for other reasons, congestion, to have two exits and entries into and out of the development," Fanelli said.
Livingston said the developer doesn't object to improving the secondary entrance.
Danko proposed delaying a vote on the rezoning until the city could find out if the proposed entrance road could be shifted away from the bus stop. The council voted 3-2 in favor of the delay, with Alfin and Councilman Nick Klufas dissenting.
The development originally came before the council for rezoning because the developer's current proposal for 95 homes on the property is an increase from its initial plans to build 64 homes plus a 5-acre park.
In exchange for cutting the on-site park, the developer has agreed to grant the city government a 5-acre vacant parcel that the developer owns next to the city’s existing Seminole Woods Neighborhood Park, which the city wants to expand. Although the land has been zoned as a master planned development since 2009, those changes to the development plan require a rezoning.
Council members, during earlier discussions on the Ryan’s Landing proposal, had also recommended that the developer include a buffer wall or fence and the developer’s proposed 55+ age restriction to the development’s Master Planned Development Agreement.
The developer did so.
The houses will have a minimum of 1,500 feet, Livingston said. That's an increase from a 1,200 foot minimum in the earlier proposed version of the master planned development agreement.
Although the development wouldn't have its own park, it would have a community center, two dog walk areas, a walking path and benches around a central lake.
