Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—The city council on June 6 delayed its vote on a 14-acre proposed development at the intersection of Paradise Point Drive and Sunrise Boulevard.
The council was scheduled to vote on the Country Meadows planned urban development application and tree variance request during the June 6 meeting. However, it delayed the votes to June 20 because the city engineer was not present for the Monday night discussion.
The developer is proposing to leave 801 trees on the property which is 287 trees short of what the city’s tree ordinance requires. The developer is also proposing to make a $10,000 contribution to Keystone Heights’s street scape fund to mitigate the shortage.
Representatives for the developer argued that their tree proposal results in tree density for the project that goes beyond that in neighboring Sunrise Park and that of two other recent city developments: Taco Bell and Dunkin.
In other news from the June 6 Keystone Heights City Council meeting:
Rising fuel costs slow airport traffic
Airport chair David Kirkland told the city council that activity at the facility during May decreased due to rising fuel costs.
“Our AV gas 100 low lead is six dollars a gallon and climbing faster than jet fuel,” he said. “Just like we’re seeing in our auto fuel as well.”
Kirkland added that his board will be awarding a million-dollar contract to rehabilitate taxiway lanes. The project is funded by the FAA, Florida Department of Transportation and Space Port Florida.
Council approves plan for cemetery
The plan for the city-owned cemetery calls for a geographical, computer inventory of all graves, the addition of split-rail fencing, dividing the cemetery into areas named after plants, upgrades to signage and wayfinding and improvements to a sandy road on the facility’s western border, at the Bradford County line.
During a May 12 workshop, landscape architect Elizabeth Manley recommended improvements to the cemetery’s event circle which features the veteran’s memorial pathway. She recommended plants for the circle that are in bloom during Veteran’s Day, which is the time of a major event held at the cemetery.
Chad Rischar of the city’s engineering firm DRMP told council members during the workshop that some of the recommendations are the result of him watching attendees at cemetery events. “There are some wayfinding issues out there because it is not intuitive as to what to do once you turn in,” he said, “especially if you’ve never been to that place before.”
