BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— The city’s planning and zoning committee approved a planned urban development for a 55-lot neighborhood near Paradise Point Drive and Sunrise Boulevard during a May 19 meeting.
Developer Jed Duckro showed his plans for his Country Meadows project to the city’s growth management committee in April. The panel did not vote on the development, deferring to the planning and zoning committee.
Duckro told the planning and zoning committee he sought approval of the PUD because it allows for a lot depth of 110 feet rather than the 135 feet required by the city’s residential zoning ordinance.
The committee also approved a 30-day variance from the city’s prohibition on burning yard waste within the municipality, allowing the developer to burn debris on site using an incinerator with an air curtain that prevents most of the operation’s smoke from escaping into the atmosphere.
However, the committee turned down a request for relief from the city’s tree ordinance, which requires a tree survey and mitigation for any trees removed from the property.
One of Duckro’s associates told planning and zoning committee members that the request to burn the debris onsite would benefit nearby residents and businesses because it would reduce the noise related to clearing the land, adding that the decibel levels created by a tub grinder would be much higher than the noise generated by the air curtain’s diesel engine.
He added that he recently completed three subdivisions in the Orlando suburb of Oviedo.
“The burn variance was requested on the first subdivision,” he said. “It was denied. (The debris) was ground and hauled, and (the burn variance) was unanimously approved on the second two.”
“Upon approval of the second two,” he continued, “we were questioned with regard to when we were going to start burning by the city officials and we were already done; no one knew it (had already) happened.”
Project engineer Mike Bell said that after applying for relief from the city’s tree ordinance, the developer had a limited tree survey completed for the 13-acre site and created a plan that would preserve 600 of the current 2,000 trees on the land.
Committee member Bruce Harvin asked what assurances the city would have that the 600 trees would be preserved.
Bell said that when the project is platted, a tree-save area will be designated on the plat. He added that tree barricades will mark the trees to be preserved during construction and that homeowners’ association documents will prescribe the preservation of the trees after construction.
The Country Meadows project is scheduled to go before the city council on June 6.
