right now, except for the ones that are right on A1A; and this will be doubling that to put eight,
doubling the traffic, whether it is foot traffic or regular traffic. He went on to say as far as the
sewer, he does not know about all that; across the board, the whole neighborhood is pretty
much against this; they have gotten emails and signatures; they have a concern that those
properties that Mr. Steele was talking about to the west, has since been cleaned up quite a bit;
there are still Australian Pines there but the place itself has been cleaned up for the most part;
the County came in and enforced that; to the east there is a single-family home and then
another empty lot; next to that there is another single-family home with a really older woman in
it and she has a nurse there all the time, and he does not know how long she is going to make
it; and the concern is once this goes, if it does, those others are going to be doing the same
thing, and it turns into this condo row instead of a neighborhood.
Stephanie Kierstead stated she lives just about two blocks west of the property being
discussed; her concern is that it is going to change the neighborhood quite a bit; she has grown
up on Riverside Drive her whole entire life; lived there for over 20 years; nowhere else in that
unincorporated area, that she knows of, has a condo on a side street that has more than eight
units; the condo directly across from it has four units; and that is changing the structure of the
neighborhood. She continued by saying there is also the fact that when people rush, those
were his words not hers, in to buy a property, unfortunately, they come across problems that
they did not know they had, such as the property to the west that has now been cleaned up and
taken care of; it is now getting ready to be sold; the properties to the east are all single-family
homes; there is nothing in that area that could suggest it could handle at least eight units; and
this is talking about eight to 15, it is said that he could not do 15 on that structure now, but she
asked what is to say that in the future, as this precedent changes, that things will not change.
She added the concern is the fact that it is a neighborhood, it is not just a small neighborhood,
it is also a community; when changing the structure to where it is having these possible condos
being developed, now it is going to end up into a condo row and a condo HOA and things like
that; she understands the need for moving forward and building, but not in her neighborhood
and not in a smaller neighborhood, or community that has been like this for years and years; it
is increasing the traffic, the foot traffic to the access on the beach, which has already been
narrowed by the other condo that is now being built; it is like a .57 acre lot; talking about eight
units, how is that going to go except straight up, then it is straight up next to single-family
homes, and a four-unit across the street; it just does not seem plausible; the fact that it is going
to affect the water, sewage, and other aspects within the community; there are children walking
back and forth, when there is a larger population that is starting to move forward; and that is
the community's concern. She noted it is just not feasible for this area; she would like someone
to tell her about another area around there that has something like an eight-unit building that is
on a side street.
Thomas Green stated he would echo everything that the other two speakers just said; he would
add to Mr. Steele’s point that bringing much needed growth to the area, that there is already a
new hotel going in next to the Crown Plaza; there is also a hotel going in next to the Jungle
Market, so there is a lot of growth there; with that growth comes added traffic; it is a
neighborhood of kids; and he also has a hard time believing that the developer of Stuart
Terrace, back in the 60’s ever intended the east side of the neighborhood to be multi-family
condos. He went on to say he does not think it is fair that Mr. Steele should punish the
neighborhood for what seems to be buyer’s remorse, that he bought something, he was not
sure what he was buying, and now he is trying to sell it at the expense of the people who still
live in the neighborhood.
Mr. Steele stated he respects all of the people’s comments; unfortunately, this has been in the
Future Land Use Plan for two decades; if they wanted to do something about changing the
Future Land Use Plan, he asked why they have not done it; he noted he is not being
disparaging to anybody that is on that road, he wants to live on that road at some point in time,