The Keystone Heights Planning and Zoning Board approved a request by a couple seeking to reduce the setback on a proposed detached garage. The panel also approved a zoning variance by acceptance for a parcel north of the city’s Family Dollar store.
Vince and Pam McCloud asked the board to approve a use-by-exception to reduce the required setback for a detached garage at their 575 South Lawrence Blvd. home.
Vince McCloud told the board that his home is next to Keystone Beach Park, with his driveway on the curve on South Lawrence Blvd. that redirects northbound traffic from eastward to northward.
He said that without reducing the five-foot setback from the park, the garage would force him to alter the semi-circular drive on his property.
“It is essential that we maintain that roundabout or semi-circular drive, and without the setback, it would really affect the radius of that turn in order for people to safely get in and out of the drive,” he said. “As you know, that corner there is very dangerous at times. I don’t know how long you’ve been here, but we have incidents there quite often (with) that 20-mile-an-hour sign nobody adheres to.”
The board unanimously approved the McClouds’ request.
The second item on the agenda came from Dr. George Restea and his agent, MeLissa Pellerito.
Neither Restea nor Pellerito attended the meeting.
City Clerk Stephanie Silva told the board that Restea’s residential-zoned parcel extends from North Lawrence Boulevard, adjacent to the north side of the Family Dollar property, to Lake Brooklyn behind the Ride and Shine Car Wash on Cargo Way.
Silva added that Restea is seeking to rezone the section of the parcel closest to North Lawrence Boulevard to commercial while leaving the section closest to the lake residential.
The board unanimously approved the request.
