Palm Bay, FL -- The Planning and Zoning Board spent nearly two hours Wednesday night on a single question that now hangs over every large development in the city: can Palm Bay deliver police, fire, and school capacity alongside the homes it keeps approving? The board sent Lennar’s Everlands West to City Council with a recommendation of approval, but only after a fractured vote that exposed exactly how much the rules of the game have shifted since council’s 5-0 denial of Lotus Palm at the March Regular Council Meeting.
The board approved Everlands West 4-1 on the second attempt. Board member McNally was the sole nay.
The First Vote Failed
Board member McNally opened the deliberation with a motion to deny PD25-00003 for four stated reasons: inadequate police services, inadequate fire services, an incomplete traffic study, and unresolved elementary school capacity.
“It does not meet the adequacy of police and fire services,” McNally said at 02:05:00. “Also, the incomplete traffic study and also as well as it was noted in the staff report and the information that it did not meet, at least for elementary, did not meet the adequacy of capacity that is being forecasted.”
McNally pressed on the concurrency question after staff clarified how school capacity is calculated. Debbie Flynn, Assistant Growth Management Director, explained that when adjacent concurrency service areas are considered, sufficient capacity exists. She identified the adjacent schools as Jupiter, Lockmar, Meadowlane, and Roy Allen.
McNally’s response at 02:08:04 cut to the core of the problem: “How is that concurrency, maybe this isn’t the right question for the staff, but how does that concurrency happen? Roy Allen is over 30 minutes away in West Melbourne area. Lockmar is deep into the bed of Palm Bay down multiple two-way roads.”
Chair Karafa stepped in to clarify what staff could not: “For these surrounding schools, though your point is well taken, their boundary lines will change in order to make capacity at the schools that are closer to the development. It’s not necessarily that kids would be bused straight from this development to those schools.” (02:09:01)
McNally accepted the clarification and agreed to drop the school condition. “That’s fair. Then you can remove that condition, just stick with the services and the traffic.” (02:09:29)
The motion to deny failed 3-2. McNally and Warner voted to deny. Catalano, Norris, and Chair Karafa voted nay, keeping the project alive.
The Second Vote: Catalano Steps Up
New board member Catalano, attending his first P&Z meeting, made the motion to approve with conditions. Chair Karafa passed the gavel to Vice Chair Warner and seconded.
The conditions carried over from the denial motion: completion of traffic signal warrant studies at key intersections prior to second reading at City Council, and concurrency requirements for police and fire to be addressed in the development agreement at the Final Development Plan stage.
McNally voted against the approval and explained why. “With the consistent growth in Palm Bay and the consistent growth in that specific area, understanding it is supposed to be for growth, it does not mean that it is growing at a rate that’s going to help the city of Palm Bay,” McNally said at 02:17:00. “Palm Bay doesn’t necessarily have a phase plan to kind of build it out.”
He acknowledged the board’s limited role. “Now we’re just a recommendating body to the city council, so they’ll end up saying their piece, but considering all the factors of Palm Bay, considering what we’ve already spoken about, I believe it’s only right for us to push on the applicant that this information needs to be more solidified now.” (02:17:56)
Chair Karafa voted for approval, noting that the St. John’s Heritage Parkway corridor was built specifically for this growth. “This and its phase development is built for that kind of growth,” Karafa said at 02:11:48. “I live right off Malabar. I live this. But this is where we want our growth.”
The motion passed 4-1. McNally was the sole nay.
What Everlands West Actually Is
Everlands West is the final phase of a development vision dating to 2004. The project covers 1,198 acres at the northwest corner of Pace Drive and St. John’s Heritage Parkway. Lennar, through its Milrose Properties entity, is requesting a Future Land Use amendment to Neighborhood Center and a Planned Unit Development rezoning.
The numbers:
2,360 residential units (1,600 single-family, 760 multifamily)
145,000 square feet of neighborhood-scale commercial
355 projected elementary students at buildout (Discovery Elementary lacks current capacity)
$15.1 million in roadway impact fees projected
$19 million+ in water and sewer infrastructure already invested by Lennar
$11.5 million per year in tax revenue at buildout, including $4 million to the city
Phasing runs from 2026 through 2037. The project requires two City Council readings before a preliminary development plan is finalized.
Lennar’s attorney Kim Rezanka presented for applicant Milrose Properties at the hearing’s start, noting the company’s existing footprint in Palm Bay. Lennar has paid $23.8 million in impact fees across its existing Palm Bay projects and projects a combined $36.4 million once Everlands West is complete. Infrastructure investments, including the water main and force main extensions along the SJHP corridor, bring the total water and sewer commitment to over $19 million.
The Lotus Palm Precedent
The shadow of council’s 5-0 Lotus Palm denial hung over the entire evening. Bill Battin, a frequent public commenter who has tracked Palm Bay’s infrastructure gaps for years, was the first to name it directly.
“The city of Palm Bay just shot down Lotus Palm’s development at the last council meeting, which is right connected to Emerald Lakes,” Battin said at 01:38:22. “So if they’re setting that criteria now, it just brings the fear of what this development might bring into the city of Palm Bay.”
Battin’s concern was procedural as much as substantive. “The development agreement does not come until after you make the approval,” he said at 01:38:55. “So you make the approval first, and then they come up with the development agreement within the city. And it’s kind of hard to go back once you’ve already approved it.”
He framed impact fees as structurally inadequate on their own: “The investment and growth in the city never equals what it costs the city and the residents to maintain it or to build it.” (01:40:31)
The Numbers Behind the Concern
Palm Bay’s public safety gaps are not speculative. They are on the record.
The city currently has 206 sworn police officers against a benchmark of 340. That is a 40 percent shortfall. On the fire side, response times along the St. John’s Heritage Parkway corridor are running 7.5 to 8 minutes against a 4-minute goal for first-response fire suppression.
Emerson Drive, which serves the Everlands area, is already running at 43 percent over its design capacity at projected buildout. Signal warrant studies at key intersections are pending and were made a condition of the Everlands West approval before it reaches second reading at Council.
Traffic from the public was not optimistic. Justin Sitzman, a former northwest Palm Bay resident, described watching his commute go from 20-25 minutes to over an hour before he gave up and started riding his bike. “Once you get to that point of saturation, then the impact on people’s driving, people’s commuting to and from work, it just hits the -- it goes asymptotic,” Sitzman said at 01:41:58.
The LOS Amendment: Not Tonight
The board was also scheduled to vote on CP26-00001, a staff-initiated amendment to the Comprehensive Plan that would codify Level of Service standards for police and fire into the capital improvement element. It did not happen.
Althea Jefferson, Growth Management Director, acknowledged the amendment had inconsistencies. A police consultant study commissioned approximately six weeks ago is expected to take 12 weeks to complete. The board heard from Rezanka a second time on this item, this time against it.
“When you do a comp plan amendment, you must have data and analysis,” Rezanka said at 02:38:14. “You can’t do it on a recommended standard that no one in this county abides by anyway. You don’t know if they’re meeting them now. You don’t know if there’s a four-minute response time.”
She asked the board to table the amendment until the data exists. “I would ask that you do table it until you have one.” (02:38:42)
Board member Norris initially made a motion to table pending the study results. Attorney Tanya Early recommended the board instead continue the matter to the next meeting, allowing staff to present additional information and education before any vote. Norris withdrew his motion. The board voted unanimously to continue CP26-00001 to the next P&Z meeting.
Jefferson did not concede the underlying point. “This was needed decades ago,” she said at 02:52:33. “My intent was to put the city in a position where at least we had something in our comprehensive plan regarding these levels of service.”
The Special Assessment in the Background
Deputy City Manager Jason DeLorenzo is actively developing a non-ad valorem special assessment for southern Palm Bay, targeting the new development corridor along the St. John’s Heritage Parkway. The assessment would cover fire services for projects like Ashton Park, Lotus, and Emerald Lakes in that corridor.
Rezanka mentioned it at 02:40:30: “I know Mr. DeLorenzo is working on that for all those new developments, Ashton Park, Lotus, Emerald, that are to the south.”
A separate non-ad valorem assessment for police has not been addressed. Battin flagged it at 01:37:34: “They haven’t even addressed the non-ad valorem assessment for police.”
Who Was in the Room
Board members present: Chair Karafa, Warner, McNally, Norris, and Catalano (first meeting). Board member Filiberto was excused. The Palm Bayer has previously reported on Filiberto’s conflict of interest in connection with the Adelon development. Board member Higgins was also excused. The school board appointee seat remains vacant.
This was Catalano’s first meeting. He made the motion that sent Everlands West forward.
What Happens Next
Everlands West goes to City Council for two readings. The development agreement, including how concurrency requirements for police and fire will be met phase by phase, will not be finalized until the Final Development Plan stage, which comes after Council approves the preliminary plan.
CP26-00001, the LOS amendment, returns to the P&Z Board at the next meeting. Staff is expected to provide an educational presentation before any vote. The police consultant study is not expected to be complete by then.
Council denied Lotus Palm 5-0 in March, citing public safety concurrency. The same council will now decide Everlands West. The conditions the P&Z Board attached are conditions on paper. Whether Council treats them as hard stops or suggestions is the next question.
Sources
April 1, 2026 Palm Bay Planning and Zoning Board meeting, verbatim transcript (2026-04-01-PZ-meeting-mapped.txt)
Everlands West application materials: PD25-00003 / CP26-00003 (Milrose Properties / Lennar Homes)
LOS Amendment: CP26-00001 (Staff-initiated)
Palm Bay Staff Directory, January 2026
VIP Roster, The Palm Bayer source directory
