Gil Smart: Stalled Martin County projects start to move
And now it's time to play everybody's favorite game: "What the blankety-blank is going on over there?"
You know how you drive around Martin County and see construction projects that seem to have ground to a halt for no apparent reason, and you think, "What the blankety-blank is going on over there?" That's what I'm talking about. There are more than a few prominent projects that seem to be going nowhere fast, creating eyesores — or worse — in the meantime.
Two of them are in northern Martin County. But it looks like both are in the process of getting off the dime.
Last year construction began on the Jensen Beach Tech Center at the foot of the Jensen Beach causeway and the roundabout at Indian River Drive. It's a wonderfully scenic location — or it was, until work on the project ceased last year. Now it looks abandoned with concrete pilings and rebar reaching for the sky and orange construction netting closing off access to the walkway on the northern side of the bridge.
"How long do we have to look at that terrible eyesore?" wondered Carolyn Bigler of Jensen Beach in a recent letter to the editor.
Answer: Maybe not much longer.
According to Nikki van Vonno, Martin County's growth management director, the owner of the site — listed on the building permit as the Benjamin Sharfi 2002 Trust — wanted to make some changes including adjusting the tenant mix, redesigning the structural plans and reconfiguring some architectural features, like adding balconies. This required the county to sign off on the changes.
County officials and the applicant have been going back and forth, but last week most of the issues were resolved, and van Vonno said the county could OK the revised building permit this week.
Meanwhile, I stopped out Tuesday to take a look — and there were workers on site. Construction, it appears, is resuming.
For the record, Sharfi, of Sewall's Point, is the founder, CEO and president of General Micro Systems Inc., a tech firm which serves (among others) the military/aerospace, medical and oil/gas/mining industries. I left a message with the firm's local office, hoping to speak with him about the project, as virtually nothing about it has been reported. I hadn't heard back by my deadline, but if I do later, I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, just a few miles away, another project — this one very controversial — finally appears to be making some progress.
Once upon a time the 53-acre site situated on the St. Lucie River in Rio was owned by Hollywood movie star (and Jensen Beach resident) Frances Langford. It was home to a Polynesian-themed paradise, lush with native and exotic vegetation, cottages and a tiki hut. But after Langford died in 2005, her estate sold the property for development.
That was offensive enough to local sensibilities. Then, in order to build 60 homes on the property, developer Meritage Homes absolutely leveled the site, save for 11 acres along the perimeter. It was down to the dust and sand; you could see the brown dirt scar from the Roosevelt Bridge.
Long-time residents howled about the "rape" of the historic, sentimental property, but county officials said the clear-cutting violated no ordinances. The county did, however, cite the developer for hauling dirt off site without approval, and for failing to properly treat the soil in order to prevent dust from blowing around, and to keep the soil from eroding into the river.
A few months later, Langford Landing looks a little more like residential development and less like a strip mine.
The brown scar is mostly gone; the developer has planted greenery where once there was only dust. Meritage Homes also has been working "diligently" on soil stabilization efforts, van Vonno said.
There still are some concerns; in a March 6 letter county officials noted that a permanent irrigation system needs to be completed, and the developer still needs to certify that the problems with the upland erosion control/stabilization plan have been fixed. Because of the outstanding issues, the county has been levying a $500-per-day fine since Feb. 16; as of the date of the March 6 letter, those fines totaled $9,000.
Brent Anderson, vice president of investor relations for Meritage Homes, declined to comment on the development process and problems, but he did note the company has begun construction of a model home on the site. And indeed, driving past the site Monday, I saw two homes under construction.
The site, on the whole, still seems a bit of a shambles, certainly nothing close to what it once was. But let's just say things are moving.
Though whether you think they're moving in the "right" direction might have a lot to do with whether you consider development of the site to have been wrong in the first place.
Gil Smart is a columnist for Treasure Coast Newspapers and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.