2010-252A (17) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

volume, and the difficulty of entering and exiting the arterial roadway compounded highway safety problems, often requiring expensive traffic control improvements. In Indian River County, strip commercial development already exists in some areas. One such area is along US Highway 1 south of the Vero Beach city limits. In the future, strip development has the potential to emerge along SR 60 and along US Highway 1 in other portions of the county. Going forward, the county's comprehensive plan and future land use map should address that problem by directing commercial and industrial activity into designated nodes and mixed use areas. Along SR 60, comprehensive plan policies have successfully prevented strip commercial development by limiting new commercial development to the existing SR 60/581 Avenue and the SR 604-95 nodes. By requiring a minimum 1 1/2 mile separation between nodes, the county's land use policies have also prevented the convergence of those two nodes along SR 60. That 1 1/2 mile node separation requirement also allows residential uses to develop in the areas between commercial nodes, thereby ensuring that a residential market exists near commercial nodes. By requiring residential uses between the commercial nodes along SR 60, the Future Land Use Map also promotes the development of housing near retail employment centers. In the future, the county's node separation requirement should be retained. Currently, access management regulations require interconnections between adjacent commercial establishments that front arterial roads. Interconnections not only limit curb cuts along arterials, but also improve traffic circulation by providing alternative routes for short trips between nearby establishments. Those regulations have been successful along SR 60 as well as in other areas with new commercial development and should be maintained. As a result of commercial development during previous decades, strip development is already present along US Highway 1 in the south county. Consequently, the potential for more strip development is actually greater along US Highway 1. In the north and central county areas, a strip development pattern does not presently exist because much of the commercially designated land is undeveloped. While less commercial land is developed along US Highway 1 in those areas, the potential for strip development exists because of the significant amount of undeveloped commercial land. Unlike SR 60, where commercial nodes have distinct boundaries, commercial land use designations exist along one or both sides of US Highway 1 in a continuous pattern through the north and central county areas. To limit the potential emergence of strip commercial development as more commercial development occurs in the north and central county areas, the county's policy should be to integrate residential uses into commercial areas through mixed-use development. In commercial areas, the county's land development regulations already permit mixed-use development as a matter of right. Future Land Use Element 97