JAMES WOOD
Staff Writer
After being in litigation between the City Council and the Planning Commission since the end of 2023, the decision to push the Remington Farms Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) forward to receive final action was made in a 4 – 1 vote on Thursday night, with the motion being spearheaded by Councilmember Henry Feldhaus.
A long discussion covered the previous concerns shared with the developer along with some new amendments to the PUD. Several public commenters also voiced their opinions on the development from residents in the surrounding area.
The 138 acre plan would contain 535 townhome units with another area being dedicated to a potential elementary school development, all along Hwy. 41A.
An unfavorable recommendation had come from the Planning Commission from their Feb. 26 meeting by a 3 – 2 vote, however according to Director of Planning and Community Development Thomas Batchelor, several changes had been made to the plan since then.
An amendment was made during this meeting that made several changes regarding the developer’s offer to address concerns regarding the highway and open spaces, including potential turn lanes and other improvements to the open green space in the development.
Feldhaus sought to push the plan forward, arguing that the developer had provided solutions to most of the problems discussed in the previous meetings, allegedly amounting to over $1 million in investment to surrounding infrastructure.
“This can has been kicked around for two and half years.” Feldhaus continued, “This developer has agreed to turn basically 41A into a three lane road to give everybody a turn lane down through there.”
“It’s time to fish or cut bait,” Feldhaus said.
The lone vote against the motion was from Councilmember Josh Blevins, who expressed concern that the plan was underdeveloped and left too many potential issues for residents in the surrounding neighborhoods and the city as a whole.
“There’s not millions of dollars going into the infrastructure, the offer went down from $1.4 million to $1 million,” Blevins said. “There is a million dollars going to sewer, nothing upfront to water.”
He continued to state that the road infrastructure improvements are not thorough enough, with the plan to add a turning lane potentially leading to excess traffic congestion.
“We’re going to take a road that’s a two 12 foot wide lane state highway with wide shoulders and cut the lane widths to 11 feet,” Blevins continued, “There will be no shoulders left on the roads.”
“It’s just a minimal solution,” Blevins said.
Councilmember Bobby Turnbow seconded Feldhaus’ motion to approve the first reading of the plan, in which it was passed after more discussion.
A public hearing will occur regarding the ordinance during the City Council’s next Regular Session on Apr. 9, and the second hearing of the plan will happen subsequently in the same meeting.