Prioritized Issues List

The focus of the P&Z Board for its July 5^th meeting was review of the priority items that were suggested by the Board and approved by Council as issues to address. 

• Setbacks for commercial general Section 34-631(5)B*, there was agreement by the Board with Staff that setbacks of five feet above the first two stories applied whether or not adjacent to a residential area.  

• Preservation of Topographical Features – our comprehensive plan and our land development regulations require preservation of the natural characteristics of the land such as “slope, elevation, and drainage patterns.”

Previous decisions by Staff and Town Council have allowed removal of the secondary dune system, or building retaining walls and changing the natural land characteristics by bringing in fill so that a particular view is obtained for the building structure. Our secondary dune is protected by our comprehensive plan and our zoning codes, the discussion was centered around how to best preserve topographical features. The suggestion by some members of the Board is to prevent the addition of fill and the use of retaining walls to change the existing topographical features to raise a build grade above what is required for flood protection. This question will go to the Town Council. 

• Maximum Heights for Fences or Walls our current code, Section 34-905*, allows a maximum height of 4 feet in a front yard to the residence and 6 feet on side yards and 6 feet in rear yards with some exceptions for a front yard pool or property backing up to U.S. 1. 

A project at 520 Lyra Circle was approved with a series of retaining walls and a fence / railing totaling 15’ on the side yard and 15’5” in the back yard to raise the building height of a pool & deck to its second story build height overlooking their neighbor’s property, and raising the back yard in relation to the property owner who fronts U.S. 1. It was approved by Staff and by the previous P&Z Board with my vote as the lone descent. 

Staff explained that although our code has a maximum height for one wall, there is no prohibition of doubling that height if you have two walls, or tripling the height if you have three retaining walls, to raise the height of your building so long as you meet the engineering standards to prevent runoff and other structural damage to your neighboring property. The staff’s explanation was that if our Code is silent on a matter, then it is allowed. My personal opinion is that our code is NOT silent. The code, states “maximum” height for walls or fences, which would include more than one wall, because the plural is used in the code language, so the code is not silent on the issue of more than one wall.

The Board discussion thread included implementing the plain language of Section 34-905 and adhering the maximum wall heights already in our Code, instead of allowing a series of walls to thwart the maximum height requirements to no regulation of heights of walls when it is a series of retaining walls and fences as in 520 Lyra Circle. Our most experienced Board member mentioned historical instances where increased fence or wall height required a variance approval from Council. Staff argued that not all building projects would work without raising our current maximum heights for retaining walls, which is the definition of when a variance is looked for. Staff proposed following Palm Beach's example with specific regulations for higher maximum heights of retaining walls. Another question for our Town Council. 

Keep Juno Beach Juno Beach – State overreach Big Government

Many have described this legislative session in Tallahassee as one of the worst for county and municipal government home rule and especially for local government’s ability to make local land development decisions for their community needs.

• Temporary Freeze of LDRs - Land Development Regulations were frozen as of the date of Hurricane Ian’s land fall September 28, 2022 until October 2024. Senate Bill 250* that was passed into law, prohibits changes to Juno Beach’s land development requirements, found in our zoning code or building requirements, or to our comprehensive plan that are more restrictive or that require more procedure for land development regulation approvals compared to what existed September 28, 2022, which was the landfall date for Hurricane Ian. The law applies to any County or Municipality that is all or part within 100 miles of landfall for Hurricane Ian (Ft Myers) or Nicole (South Jenson Beach), including Juno Beach.

• Architectural Design take over by Tallahassee – SB 1604* Prohibits review by local governments of design elements for single- and two-family homes unless one of the exceptions apply such as being in a historic district, regulations implemented for flood protection, wildlife protection, or in a planned unit development, or a master planned community or Architectural Review Board (ARB) created before January 1, 2020. Design elements are defined in the law as house color, siding material, roof material, window, door, garage placement, and interior room configuration. 

Juno Beach’s ARB was not created by the cut-off date in the legislation, so this law takes away the ARB’s “design element” review as SB 1604 defines it. The Juno Beach ARB prior to this law reviewed for criteria in Section 34-116(3) b.(1)-(7)*. SB 1604 potentially removes this first item, which is the architectural style elements, unless an exception applies. The ARB reviews of single and two family homes that remain in place are for “harmony” of the structure and the other criteria of Section 34-116 (3) b.(2)-(7), such as for balance, well-proportioned in keeping with style and compatible design for garage and accessory structures, structures over 40’ in height to appear more vertical than horizontal, mechanical structures, and for community appearance standards. 

Planning and Zoning Board members and their Council person who appointed them are: Chair - Diana Davis (Cooke), Vice Chair - Jim Ferguson (Wheeler), Michael Stern (Cotronakis), Laurie Shear (Halpern), Nancy Wolfe (Hosta), and Jane LaClanche (Council alternate).

* Click on bolded italic text for web link to document referenced. .