Charlotte Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a planned development concept plan extension at a public hearing Tuesday for an 80-acre property at 12421 Burnt Store Road, within the boundary of the Burnt Store Area Plan area.
The original concept plan was adopted on Oct. 25, 2016, when the board approved an amendment to the zoning atlas from Residential Estate 1, or RE-1, to Planned Development. The associated concept plan allowed a mixed residential development up to 219 dwelling units, including 137 single-family units and 41 duplex lots.
Per the new code updated in 2021, the applicant requested an extension of the plan approved seven years ago, which expired on Oct. 26, 2017. Since its original approval, there has been no final detail site plan submitted and no density has been transferred to the site.
The applicant, JPC Burnt Store Preserve LLC, authorized Big W Law Firm attorney Robert H. Berntsson to file the extension request on its behalf.
“This is another one of those that kind of got swept up in the [planned development] having a termination when it was approved,” Berntsson said. “We weren’t aware of its termination, so we never extended it through the various emergency declarations, and it was deemed expired. We’re just asking to reinstate it so we can move forward with development.”
The new code has a provision with three options for cases like these, either present a final detail site plan in substantial compliance with the approved but expired concept plan, apply for a concept plan extension or amend the planned development to change it.
“We put those in to be able to address those [planned developments] that expired prior to the code being changed,” Planning and Zoning Official Shaun Cullinan said.
The new planned development code caused extensions in other areas within the boundary of the Burnt Store Area Plan, such as the concept plan extension of a 338-acre property at 26901 and 27001 Zemel Road approved by commissioners in April.
“You’ve seen a number of [planned developments],” Cullinan said. “Not just Burnt Store Road, but other areas that have come in because market conditions have changed, whatever might be changing, and they’ve changed their [planned development]. These folks chose to elect to do the consequent extension application.”
Charlotte County resident Tim Richie opposed the extension, expressing concerns about overdevelopment and the implications that come along with it.
Commissioner Joseph Tiseo addressed comments made during the public input portion. “I don’t want people out there to think that we blindly approve these things,” he said. “There are tens of thousands of undeveloped lots here in Charlotte County that we have to deal with and manage and we do that through this process, planned developments and other processes. I would just say please read the staff reports and look at the due diligence that goes into these approvals.”
The property retains a base density of eight units and will require a total of 211 units of transfer density to achieve the approved 219 dwelling units. The concept plan will remain in perpetuity until a final detailed site plan is submitted and approved by the county.
