West Viera Community Advisory Panel Meeting

West Viera Community Advisory Panel Meeting
June 23, 2005
Facilitator’s Summary

Introduction
The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. by Steve Johnson, President of The Viera Company. Mr. Johnson welcomed everyone and thanked panel members for giving their time and participating in the process. He introduced the facilitator, Analee Mayes.

The following Community Advisory Panel members were present:

Kristin Bakke
Joanna Bass
Alan Bekkenhuis
Kay Burk
Rob Dale
Tom Dillon
Jim Fletcher
Cynthia Ford
Kathy Harter
Debbie Helton
Vicki Ireland
Steve Janicki
Franck Kaiser
Lidia Lynch
Joe Mayer
Jennie Ninesling
Dean Pettit
Beverly Pinyerd
Ayn Samuelson
Laurilee Thompson
Bob Wille
Keith Winsten

Ground Rules
Ms. Mayes invited the group to establish ground rules for their meetings. They agreed on the following:

• Respect each other and others’ ideas
• Honor time limits
• Conduct meetings so that no person dominates
• Listen as allies
• Don’t interrupt
• Wait to be recognized before speaking

There was also discussion of the role of the panel. Ms. Mayes explained that the panel’s role is advisory. The ultimate responsibility for developing the West Viera plan rests with The Viera Company. She clarified that panel members would not be asked or expected to endorse or support any plan for West Viera.

Ms. Mayes called panel members’ attention to a list of their names and affiliations and asked the group to consider whether they would agree to publicly release the list, along with a description of the panel’s role and purpose. At the end of the meeting, panel members provided corrections to the list and agreed to its release, once corrected.

Overview
Carey Hayo, Senior Project Manager with the firm of Glatting Jackson, Viera’s planners, presented an overview of the planning considerations for the West Viera property, highlighting constraints and opportunities. She outlined the steps in the planning process:

• Gather data for the site
• Receive public input
• Create a master plan
• Conduct impact analysis
• Secure government approvals
• Initiate phased development

Ms. Hayo referred to a handout that described the history of Viera, current levels of development, land donations, etc. She also identified ten guiding planning principles developed by the planning team for West Viera. They are:

1. Create consolidated, connected open space systems which provide for conservation, mitigation, recreation and enhancement of regional environmental systems.
2. Create a financially successful community plan.
3. Cluster development in order to minimize infrastructure costs and to maximize diversity of housing types.
4. Create safe, pedestrian -friendly neighborhoods.
5. Create self-sufficient communities where daily needs can be met.
6. Provide for a fine-grained street network to avoid future traffic congestion within and outside of Viera.
7. Maximize opportunities for physical activity.
8. Emphasize a social network within the community.
9. Provide a family legacy.
10. Create a community that will enrich the quality of life for residents of Central Florida.

Potential Opportunities and Concerns Related to the Development of West Viera
Community Advisory Panel members brainstormed opportunities and concerns about West Viera development. Following the brainstorming exercise, the group identified major themes. The potential opportunities and concerns are presented below, organized by theme.
Family Friendly
• Opportunity: Plan for active open space for families, e.g., soccer, softball and baseball
• Opportunity: Keep teenagers in mind when planning for recreation
• Opportunity: Do something similar to Titusville’s Chain of Lakes park, with trails providing access to the conservation area, connected stormwater ponds, active recreation, and a blueway.
• Opportunity: Diverse mix of housing so whole family, all generations, can live in Viera. Housing types should include higher density single family housing, apartments, townhomes, condominiums, clustered housing, as well as retirement homes.
• Opportunity: Integrate schools with neighborhoods so kids can walk and bike to school
Wildlife Friendly
• Concern: Maintain sufficient wildlife habitat to support reproduction. Seeing wildlife – gopher tortoises, sandhill cranes, etc. – is one of the things residents enjoy about Viera
• Concern: Need to ensure wildlife connectivity and avoid fragmentation of habitat to maintain genetic diversity. Maintain an upland wildlife corridor for the north/south migratory pattern
• Concern: Too much turf, a monoculture that takes lots of water to maintain and doesn’t provide habitat for wildlife. Plan for more wildlife and less turf.
• Opportunity: Incorporate something similar to the St. Johns River Eco Heritage Trail with kiosks along the trail that show a map of the trail and provide interpretation. Greenways also serve as wildlife corridors.
Adequate infrastructure and Innovative Transportation
• Opportunity: Need coordinated budgeting and planning for managed growth, providing for schools, law enforcement, libraries, etc. and fostering collaborative relationships among agencies, planners and businesses.
• Concern: Adequate transportation infrastructure (a concern of residents outside Viera). Offer new and innovative modes of transportation, such as a trolley, people mover, or light rail, along with trails, to reduce traffic.
• Concern: Adequate infrastructure – schools, roads, water, law enforcement. Will it be a burden on residents of the County?
• Concern: How will infrastructure needs be funded?
Arts, culture and education readily available
• Opportunity: More arts and culture, especially for children (arts and culture for children are lacking in Brevard County and Viera)
Retains local flavor, attractive
• Opportunity: Disperse green space throughout the community. There is already a large area of environmental land set aside on the edge of Viera (River Lakes Conservation Area).
• (See also 2nd bullet under Community Gathering Places)
Mix of uses and housing types
• Concern: Protect residential neighborhoods by carefully locating commercial and industrial uses
• Opportunity: Build community commercial that is supported by the community, so people can do their shopping within the community and keep traffic off the roads. Provide bikeways and blueways for access to commercial areas.
• Opportunity: Provide for workforce housing, i.e., for young people starting out. Include a mix of housing types and mixed use, so people can live, work and play in Viera.
• Opportunity: Build a real town
• Concern: Retiring “boomers” will change the whole structure of the housing market. How will we provide for them?
• Opportunity: Large estate lots along the west edge of the property. The plan needs to be market driven and clustered housing does not appeal to everyone.
• Opportunity: Use vertical mixed use to meet the need for workforce housing. Single family homes aren’t affordable anymore.
Community gathering places
• Opportunity: Build clustered communities with a well-designed community center, similar to traditional towns. The town center should serve as a community gathering place with studio spaces, good design, water features and landscaping, after school activities, etc., integrated with local businesses.
• Opportunity: Brevard County needs a place to showcase what the County has to offer, a central gathering place for the entire County, e.g., a new fairgrounds. Fairgrounds could include an equestrian arena, which could be a revenue generator and have a positive economic impact.
• Opportunity: Need a Main Street, such as Mizener Park or City Place, an area that attracts enough people to be successful, e.g., hundreds of people walking around, dense metro center, creative housing types such as vertical mixed use (dwellings over commercial uses), a place people will come to with out a plan, just to be there, e.g., Downtown Disney.
• Opportunity: Need a space for indoor art shows, such as the fairgrounds idea (see 2nd bullet above).
• Opportunity: Include an amphitheater as part of fairgrounds, such as the Meriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland or Lake Eola Park in Orlando.
Jobs
• Opportunity: Employment for new residents. Work with the Economic Development Council to design a community that would attract major employers, to help diversify the local economy.
Other
• Concern: To be competitive, development has to appeal to the market. People don’t understand the traffic consequences of gated communities, and they resist interconnected streets. Likewise, people prefer manicured, green lawns and don’t realize what it means for water supply and wildlife.

Next Steps
The next meeting of the Community Advisory Panel will be August 4, 2005 at the Wingate Estates Clubhouse, starting at 5:30 pm. The third meeting will be September 8, 2005.

The Viera planning team will host an open house at Manatee Elementary School Tuesday, July 12, 2005 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be open to the general public. Community Advisory Panel members were encouraged to let people know about the meeting. Also, an ad for the open house will appear in the Viera Sun and Florida Today.