Newberry Approves 128-Acre Newberry Plaza, Tackles Paving Project

NEWBERRY – A request for a large-scale Future Land Use Map Amendment to change 128 +/- acres from Agriculture to Planned Development was considered and approved on first reading by the Newberry City Commission at their April 24 meeting. The property is located at the southeast corner of State Road 26/West Newberry Road and Southwest 242^nd Street. The proposed project specifies 150,000 square feet of commercial use and 350 dwelling units.

The project, known as Newberry Plaza, was brought before the Commission by CHW Professional Consultants on behalf of Glenn Thomas Arpin, Senior, Jennifer Gray, Johanna Yarborough, Mary Jane Schofield James, Michael Gray and Robyn E. Bond, owners.

This item was heard by the Planning and Zoning Board on April 3 along with a request that conditions be included for the rezoning application as it contains the development order. Those conditions require that the developer shall determine the financial feasibility of adaptive reuse of the historic house on the property or the developer should separate the land and house from development for inclusion to and/or access from an adjacent property.

Also, prior to the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy for the 151^st home, the developer should have the infrastructure in place for the planned commercial properties.

Newberry Principal Planner Jean-Paul Perez reminded Commissioners that as this request is a large-scale amendment, approval of the amendment on first reading should also include direction for staff to forward the application to the state for review.

In a quasi-judicial public hearing, the Commission considered a request on the same 128 acres to rezone the property from Agricultural (A) to Planned Development (PD) for Newberry Plaza.

Although the rezoning application was approved by the Commission, approval is contingent upon state approval of the large-scale amendment to the Future Land Use Map.

In other business, Newberry is looking at its inventory of unpaved, rural roads. Recently, there has been an up-tick in conversation about paving a 2.6-mile segment of Southwest 30^th Avenue between U.S. Highway 27/41 and Southwest 202^nd Street, although paving this segment of Southwest 30^th Avenue is not in the City’s work queue for this fiscal year. Staff has considered the necessary steps and solicited a proposal to get the project started and has become aware that Southwest 30^th Avenue is a road that the City maintains via “prescriptive rights,” which complicates the City’s ability to improve it.

The City does not have sufficient land rights to improve the road and also make it wider, which would be necessary to accommodate stormwater. City staff believes that the road needs to be a minimum of 60 feet wide to pave it and transition it into a collector street, which it is intended to be.

The City solicited a proposal for the Phase 1 work to survey the road and prepare deeds to convey the property from the adjacent landowners to the City. The work totals $125,600, or 2.8 percent of the estimated total construction cost of $5.3 million, which includes planning, survey, land acquisition, design, permitting, stormwater and road construction at $385 per linear foot.

City Manager Mike New said the project is anticipated to take 1 to 1½ years to survey, obtain land rights, plan, permit and design and an additional 9 – 12 months to construct. New said that obtaining land rights can be protracted if the adjacent property owners object and hold out, requiring the City to undergo a condemnation process. City staff indicated there is no intent at this time to compensate residents for land that is used for the project.

“Staff has unallocated $120,000 ARPA funds that could be utilized for this work,” said New, “but Commission direction/approval is required.”

The Commission approved moving forward with the project using ARPA funds.

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