Proposed Pea Ridge subdivision still raising concerns

MILTON — Santa Rosa County's Zoning Board may have thought the discussions and confusion concerning the new Pea Ridge subdivision and Keyser Lane had been settled, but they were wrong.

At the recent zoning board meeting, residents of Keyser Lane approached the board about concerns over what they believed was a request to include a connectivity requirement to Keyser Lane, which would have put more traffic through the small street.

However, zoning board chairman Jim White said he wanted to clear up any confusion before the discussion began about the topic.

"Immediately, I thought they were asking for connect to Keyser Lane," White said. "But let me clarify the applicant is requesting to not have connectivity to Keyser."

White said they were hearing a request for an alternative plan for accessing the proposed subdivision

Ranae Stewart, a real estate broker and resident of Keyser Lane, presented the board with an alternative request she said would help everyone — over 300 additional acres she purchased to donate to the county to provide them the option to create a new road for accessibility for the subdivision.

"This is most certainly a unique situation," Stewart said. "The county commissioners and the attorney representing the owner of the land reassured the neighborhood residents that Keyser Lane would not be used for accessibility. I am just trying to honor that promise."

Stewart said that when the original meeting to discuss the rezoning of 169 acres of land for the subdivision occurred in August of last year, she had not purchased these additional acres and could not offer this alternative for consideration. While she appreciated the intent of the Land Development Code, she said it sometimes doesn't' work in harmony with the community.

"The LDC cannot address every possibility that might ever exist in the real world," she said.

Stewart said her proposal would provide a better outcome than putting an interconnecting road for the new subdivision on Keyser Lane. She said the new subdivisions would have multiple accesses of their own to the new road, which feeds major north and south to roads including Highway 90 and Hamilton Bridge Road and would have a signaled intersection at Santa Villa.

Don Richards, a member of the zoning board, said he liked the idea and was glad to hear the issue about connecting to Keyser Lane was not being revisited.

"I was going to ask why are we trying to put more traffic on Keyser when they cant handle it," Richards said.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Proposed Pea Ridge subdivision still raising concerns