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• On the west side of and abutting the north portion of the Kirrie tract is the Fey parcel. Designated residential on the County's Land Use Plan Map, the Fey property is currently zoned ROSE -4. In the future, there could be additional residential development on that property. While buffering is one way to address potential industrial/residential incompatibilities, land use siting is generally the more effective mechanism. By limiting industrial uses to compact areas, usually adjacent to railroad tracks or major roadways, the industrial/residential interface can be limited. In fact, the industrial property along Gibson Street meets those locational criteria. Except for the Knights of Columbus property which the City of Sebastian recently redesignated from institutional to industrial, all of the industrial property in that area is along the railroad tracks and separated from residential uses by Gibson Street. Another land use issue that must be considered in assessing the Kirrie proposal is airport noise Currently the City of Sebastian is in the final stages of completing its airport master plan. That plan will involve closing runway 13-31, and using runways 9-27 and 4-22. As modeled, traffic patterns for runways 9-27 and 4-22 indicate that Kirrie property overflights will not occur. City of Sebastian airport staff, however, think otherwise. Because the Sebastian airport is not tower controlled, traffic patterns are not as compact as modeled. Consequently, there may be overflights and noise impacts on the Kirrie property from runway 4-22 flights. Given prevailing winds, though, the more heavily used runway will be 9-27, and aircraft flights from that runway will not affect the Kirrie tract. In the future, the number of airport operations at Sebastian may increase sufficiently to warrant construction of a control tower. With a control tower, traffic patterns for 4-22 flights will be more compact and not impact the Kirrie property. Even if some overflight activity occurs on the Kirrie tract, the County's airport zoning ordinance, which has also been adopted by the City of Sebastian, penults residential uses in noise impact zones when structures are designed to meet certain noise level reduction cnteria. These criteria are generally met with standard residential construction techniques. A final land use issue to consider is whether industrial uses on the Kirrie tract would be better than residential uses in terms of scrub jay impact. While concerns have been raised that residential uses will result in cats invading the conservation area and preying on scrub jays, no incidents of that type have been recorded in the County despite occupied scrub jay property being located in close proximity to developed residential areas. One example of this is the Pelican Island School site which is occupied by jays and surrounded by residences yet has expenenced no reported cat impacts. In fact, scrub jays could be in more danger with industrial uses on the Kirrie tract. That danger is associated with the heavy tnick traffic expected from 15 acres of industrial uses. With Gibson Street and the County swap strip road severing the NSCA property, the truck traffic on these roads could provide a mortality risk for scrub jays. FEBRUARY 5, 2002 -67- BK •