Orange County — Board of Zoning Adjustment

SE-19-11-121 — City of Cocoa Utilities (Katherine Ennis)

Request: "Special Exception and Variances in the A-2 zoning district as follows: 1) Amendment to an existing Special Exception to allow expansion of an existing water treatment facility to include a training building, water tanks, and associated site improvements. 2) Variance to allow a front (west) setback of 25 ft. in lieu of 35 ft. for the existing maintenance building. 3) Variance to allow a front (west) setback of 18 ft. in lieu of 35 ft. for a new training building. 4) Variance to allow a proposed structure housing High Service Pump Station No. 2 with a height of 36 ft. in lieu of 35 ft. 5) Variance to allow a total of 70 parking spaces in lieu of 75 spaces.

Decision: Approved

Hearing: Staff explained that the request would consolidate all of it's land holdings under one Special Exception for easier processing of future applications. In addition, the improvements will allow the City to provide redundancy in key equipment to ensure continuous operations in the event of equipment failure, and to increase flows for periods of heavy usage. Staff noted that the need for all of the parking was based on square footage of floor area, much of which is not habitable due to equipment or automation, and some of which, such as the proposed training building will be used intermittently. The variance for the High Service Pump building is a function of the equipment, which can not be modified to better fit within the required height restrictions. The applicant stated that the largest shift is actually 25 people, so 70 spaces will be more than enough to accommodate all employees, and that there is not a lot of visitation to the plant. They stated that the CAD had been completed, and was ready to submit to EPD. The redundancy that the new improvements will provide will ensure that service is never disrupted. Regarding use of the training building, it will seldom if ever be used by any other group than the staff of the plant, which must regularly be updated on the latest in safety, chemistry, procedures, etc. One resident appeared to speak regarding this application. They stated that they were neither in favor or opposed, they just wanted to put certain issues on the record. The stated that there has been a vibrations of late, and that truck traffic has increased between the plant and the property used to dry some of the materials generated by the plant. They stated that, in general, the City has been a good neighbor, and that they will get with them to discuss these items, and they were not opposed to this application. The applicant stated that they will personally meet with the neighbor to discuss these issues. There being no one else to speak in favor