Despite Council ‘No’ – Developer Plans Affordable Housing in Niceville

In Brief:

•👥 Who: Niceville City Council, Developer Paul Sjoberg, local residents like Linda Reagans and Mark Wise

•🏠 What: Whether or not to allow more dense, middle-tier housing in the area near Niceville High School.

You could have left Tuesday’s Niceville City Council Meeting thinking a large group of neighbors’ voices defeated a local developer’s project to bring six units of middle-tier housing to Niceville on Powell Drive.

After all, the Niceville City Council voted down the proposal 2-3 after more than 30 minutes of hearing residents harangue the project for its potential to disrupt the character of their neighborhood and increase the number of car accidents and traffic overall.

You’d be wrong, though.

The council voted down the request to change the land at 725 Powell Drive from single-family home residential to mixed-use, meaning it can be used for more intense residential purposes, like an apartment complex and commercial retail.

But ten minutes later, the same council voted to approve a change to the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) ‘s zoning rules to allow this same property’ use for an apartment complex. The vote was unanimous and no one from the community opposed the council’s move.

The vote means the developer, Mid Bay News contributor to the Paul N Saul Show Paul Sjoberg, can build the apartment block, provided it meets a couple of restrictions that the decision to increase density does not overrule.

Has this story made a difference for you? Consider making a monthly supporting donation to Mid Bay News so that we can continue to create meaningful local journalism for our community.

Using the land

Sjoberg told the council he wanted to build six one-bedroom apartments within walking distance of local schools and the city complex to provide middle-tier housing to early-career public service professionals who work in Niceville, like police officers, firefighters, nurses, and teachers. He noted that the parcel of land he owned was designated in the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) as ‘mixed use.’ A FLUM map is a planning documentCused by a city to indicate to developers what the city believes is the highest and best use of a property in the future. You can see the City of Niceville’s FLUM Map here.

“I just want to make sure that my interests are made clear: I could make far more money [building] townhouses, a duplex, or a triplex on this property with the current zoning that [the land] has, but that will not solve our middle-housing problem. We need housing in this community where people can walk to work, save money, and eventually move into a single-family home if they want to,” Sjoberg said, “We don’t have a plethora of apartments. The ones that are getting built are labeled luxury apartments, which cost just as much as the three-bedroom, two-bath house.”

But Sjoberg’s apartment block will still have to meet some planning and zoning requirements unless he chooses to go before the city council again for a variance or change in his zoning. “So the Council’s vote to approve the legislative changes to CRA lands did not entirely “overrule” the earlier decision to deny the rezoning request,” Deputy City Manager Kristen Shell told Mid Bay News in an email. For one, the building will have to be shorter than 35 feet tall – an R-1 zoning requirement. The building will also have to have greater setback requirements.

But the CRA overlay change does mean he will have the ability to build multifamily housing on the property of up to 25 units per acre – or roughly 6.25 units on the quarter-acre lot in question.

Keeping the Rabble Out

The residents who live near the Powell property believe an apartment block on the property would harm them.

Linda Reagans, one of the Niceville residents who own property near 725 Powell, told the City Council she opposed the zoning change because she worried that unsavory elements would infiltrate Niceville. “That’s just not an intersection that we need to put low-rental apartments at,” Reagans said, “I know it upsets people to say low rental because they don’t like that word, but it’s supposed to be low rent, so it’s going to be people with lower income. I’m just not sure if that’s exactly the income we need to have by our schools.”

Other immediate area residents argued that the project would increase traffic by twelve cars (two for each apartment unit) on a stretch of road that the Florida Department of Transportation claims has roughly 8,000 average daily trips. Mark Wise, another Niceville resident, told the council that he and his family met with Sjoberg to discuss the planned development. While their discussion ended with the two groups at loggerheads, he said his family and Sjoberg left the conversation with mutual respect for one another – even if they disagreed.

“I want to state for the record that I like the CRA. I like growth and development, and I like what Mr. Sjoberg is doing,” Wise said, “His vision for affordable housing and attainable housing is a great concept. Love the concept. The issue that our family takes is this location.” Wise noted that the confluence of larger roads onto Partin Drive in the area made for a risky traffic proposition for walkers, bikers, and drivers. “If you drive down Powell Drive, ask yourself, Is this consistent with what’s here in real life on that block? Every parcel is a single-family home or a duplex,” Wise added.