Stuart - Saturday April 8, 2023: In September 2022, the Martin County Board of County Commissioners adopted a text amendment creating a new future land use designation within the Comprehensive Plan, referred to as Rural Lifestyle. Ordinance 1185 is an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan that creates the Rural Lifestyle future land use designation.
The Rural Lifestyle designation in the Martin County Comprehensive Plan is intended to provide guidelines for developing self-contained rural communities with an emphasis on maintaining and enhancing open space and protecting land and water.
The text amendment was challenged, and an administrative hearing was held. The judge issued a Recommended Order based on evidence provided at the hearing and found that the petitioner failed to prove the challenged items with one exception – a proposed community store. In the Recommended Order the judge questioned whether the text amendment is in compliance with the Martin County Comprehensive Plan and Florida Statutes.
Martin County has reviewed the Recommended Order and has now filed exceptions to the Recommended Order. In the filing, the County outlines specific points supported by the Martin County Comprehensive Growth Management Plan regarding the inclusion of a community store.
Following the outlined legal process, the County cites case law and supporting analysis to show that the judge’s interpretation of the community store as a general “commercial use” disregarded policies in the Comprehensive Plan that expressly provide for incidental or accessory uses, as well as the plain language of the text amendment that provides for restrictions on who would be permitted to utilize the community store. The County concludes that the Administration Commission should issue a Final Order finding the community store component, and therefore the entire text amendment, in compliance.
Read the filing in its entirety at: www.martin.fl.us/rurallifestyle.