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residential, recreational, conservation, industrial land uses and their densities. and commercial and The goals, objectives and policies are the most important parts of the Comprehensive Plan. Policies are statements in the plan which identify the action which the county will take in order to direct the community's development. As courses of action committed to by the county, policies provide the basis for all county land development related decisions --including plan amendment decisions. While all Comprehensive Plan policies are important, some have more applicability than others in reviewing plan amendment requests. Of particular applicability are several specific comprehensive plan policies. A review of this requested change reveals major inconsistencies with these policies. - Future Land Use Policy 13.3 The most important policy to consider in evaluating a plan amendment request for consistency with the county's Comprehensive Plan is Future Land Use Element Policy 13.3. This policy requires that one of three criteria be met in order to approve a land use amendment request. These criteria are: • a mistake in the approved plan; • an oversight in the approved plan; or • a substantial change in circumstances affecting the subject property. It is staff's position that this land use amendment request does not meet any of the three criteria as stated above. When the current Comprehensive Plan was approved on February 13, 1990, the plan assigned commercial uses to commercial nodes. These nodes were designated various sizes to reflect commercial demand and were established in certain areas to incorporate lands deemed suitable for commercial development. The subject property was considered for inclusion in the node at that time. When the comprehensive plan was adopted, the subject property was not included in the node for the following reasons: • There was already sufficient land designated commercial to accommodate projected demand; • Given the size and shape of the subject property, residential development was determined to be feasible; and • Including the subject property in the node would produce a strip commercial development pattern. For these reasons, staff's position is that there was no mistake nor oversight in the Comprehensive Plan. Oftentimes, the rationale given by applicants to justify a land use change for property fronting U.S. #1 and other arterial roads is that residential development of such a parcel is unfeasible. Applicants typically use this reasoning to argue that designation of such property as residential constitutes a mistake in the approved plan. Historically, however, residential development has been feasible along the east side of U.S. #1, and it still is. In fact, single- and multiple -family development exist in numerous places along U.S. #1 in Indian River County. Changing past policy and amending the plan for this request would affect other residential parcels abutting U.S. #1. In fact, it would affect other residential parcels that have frontage along any major road. Circumstances are not substantially different for most of these parcels, and their residential designations do not constitute mistakes in the approved plan. 59 MAY 5 1993 eooK �9 FaGr 0