- October 7, 2024
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Bunnell residents came out in force to express their concerns to the Bunnell City Commission about a massive 2,700-acre development being considered by the city.
"Most of us are angry that we were blindsided," Bunnell resident Peter Vega said. "This is going to destroy that area. An area that we love."
At its May 13 meeting, the City Commission approved the first steps in the development approval process. After being approved by the city's planning board and with the first of two approval votes from the commission, the development application is now being reviewed by multiple state departments. If it receives approval there, the application will return to the city commission for the second vote.
On May 28, the commission's meeting was packed with residents concerned about the approval. Mayor Catherine Robinson told the crowd that nothing was decided with the previous meeting's vote.
"Our vote last week, or two weeks ago, was to simply to approve to send it to the state for comments and discussion," she said. "This is a long term process."
If approved, the development will be called the Reserve at Haw Creek, and is located between State Road 100 West and State Road 11.The first commission votes are to approve a zoning change on the 2,700 acres to allow for development. If it receives both votes, the application would still need to go through further plan design approval before it can break ground.
According to the city meeting documents, the Reserve will have, among other land uses: 1,437 acres of single family-low density, another 95 acres of single family-medium density, 212 acres of multifamily use, 44 acres of commercial and 216 acres of industrial land.
The applicant is also applying to be a planned unit development and will have certain responsibilities to its impacts on the city’s infrastructures, like sewer, water, traffic and schools.
Bunnell residents were concerned about how such a large development would change the city. Resident Barbara Maloney said that residents she spoke to had no idea this was being considered.
"It felt like they are — the majority of the people I spoke to were totally unaware of it until it came out the paper in the news," she said.
Most of the residents urged the commission to exercise caution while considering the application. Chelsea Herbert, a resident with a development and construction related business, said while she was not advocating against the development, she had multiple concerns in the application: the lack of conservation land on the site, lack of tax diversity in that only a small amount of the land is planned for commercial development, and the concern of a bottleneck effect on S.R. 11 among her specific concerns.
"We only get one shot at this," she said, "and we will inevitably shape the future of our community for our children."
Robinson told the residents that there will be more public meetings once the application returns from the state agencies. The commission will review all of the residents' concerns as well as all the information that comes out of the state agencies, she said.
The commission wants residents to be a part of the process, Robinson said.
"Yes, growth is a double edged sword," she said. "But we have to have some growth, we need the growth for sustainability. We just need to control the growth and make it smart growth."
