Despite revised plans from KB Home, the Lake County Board of County Commissioners rejected a settlement that would have allowed the production homebuilder to move forward with a proposed 40-acre subdivision in unincorporated Clermont.
Located at the corner of Log House Road and Priebe Road near County Road 561, Crescent Pines is proposed as a 79-home subdivision.
After the project’s initial rezoning application was denied during the Nov. 4 county board meeting, KB Home filed a Request for Relief from the development order, and Lake County responded with a plea to initiate a case with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, or DOAH.
An initial hearing was held on Feb.18, and the case was placed in abeyance by Administrative Law Judge Suzanne Van Wyk last month, with both parties set to give an update by April 10.
With commissioners voting 3-2 to deny a proposed settlement agreement with KB Home last week, the court is now working with both parties to set dates for a preliminary hearing next month.
As the applicant on the project, KB Home is seeking to rezone the approximately 40-acre project site from Urban Residential to Planned Unit Development, or PUD, zoning. According to the project’s concept plan, each lot within Crescent Pines would be at least 75 feet wide.
Though Urban Residential zoning allows single-family homes, according to county officials, the project was brought before the county’s Planning & Zoning board because Lake County’s Comprehensive Plan requires rezoning for any proposed development in the Urban Land Use category with more than 50 lots. Under current zoning, KB Home can develop no more than 49 lots.
The Lake County Planning & Zoning Board voted unanimously to move the project forward last October, before subsequent denial by county commissioners.
“I’m leaning towards a lower density because of the impacts in the traffic in the area and because of the storm water and flooding concerns,” Lake County Commission Chair Leslie Campione said during the project’s denial in November.
After filing the Land Use Dispute against Lake County, KB Home worked on a settlement agreement in an attempt to receive county approval without further legal action.
Per the terms of the agreement, KB Home would redesign its PUD by increasing the pond sizes to accommodate larger rainfall events, reducing the number of lots to 79 and providing buffers adjacent to all existing residential lots. In addition, KB Home offered to extend the sidewalk along Log House Road west to Cedar Forest Circle and east toward Lakeshore Drive, provided sufficient right-of-way exists.
“I think the process allowed for this dialogue to occur and to make adjustments to what was originally proposed that we feel is a better plan,” Attorney Jonathan Huels with Lowndes, representing KB Home, said during last week’s county commission meeting. “We think it’s more cohesive with the community, and we think we’ve addressed, to a reasonable degree, the comments that have been received at that initial meeting.”
Still, the changes made for the development agreement were insufficient for approval from county commissioners.
Commissioner Sean Parks offered the project’s location next to a county solid waste facility and inconsistencies with land development regulations as justification for his vote to deny the agreement.
“We also have to consider the compatibility of surrounding uses, adequacy of public facilities, transportation safety and public interest,” he said. “I don’t think it meets all of those criteria at that basis of review. The site directly abuts the county land-designated public services facility and infrastructure associated with the county solid waste drop-off operations.”
Campione shared concerns about potential drainage due to the adjacent solid waste facility and increased traffic due to the proposed project density.
“You add more traffic, you have more safety conflicts, so that’s certainly a concern,” she said. “Sometimes, when we’re faced with a situation, we’re trying to come up with some sort of a compromise where we get something in return that maybe makes the situation better. Unfortunately, in this case, I don’t see a pathway where we actually improve a situation that already exists by doing something in order to reach a compromise.”
Denial of the settlement agreement moves the legal dispute toward a preliminary hearing with the DOAH in May.
A final hearing in the case is tentatively scheduled for June, subject to court availability, with the exact date to be determined.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
