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Palm Bay, FL -- The Palm Bay City Council meets Thursday, March 19 at 6:00 PM at City Hall for its regular meeting. Four interlinked votes on the Lotis Palm Bay development dominate the public hearings portion of the agenda, but the night also includes a contested church settlement, three ordinances reorganizing city departments, and a 112,500 small business agreement that is already 75,000 short on funding for the coming fiscal year.
The Lotis items were continued from the November 6, 2025 council meeting, when developer James Gielda, Chief Entitlements Officer of The Lotis Group, requested a delay citing staff changeovers and document review delays. City Manager Matthew Morton used that session to put infrastructure concerns on the record. Thursday’s meeting is the rescheduled vote.
Lotis Palm Bay: Four Items, 353 Acres, One Unresolved Development Agreement
The Lotis Palm Bay project proposes 1,372 residential units on 353.47 acres north of Micco Road SE, east of Interstate 95, adjacent to the St. Johns Heritage Parkway corridor. The applicant of record is Peat Holding, LLC, a Lake Worth-based land-holding entity. The developer and operator is The Lotis Group, a Boca Raton firm. The unit mix breaks down to 687 detached single-family homes, 156 attached single-family townhomes, and 529 multifamily rental units, along with more than 100,000 square feet of commercial space including a daycare facility.
Council will hear four separate but linked items on this project, all continued from November 6, 2025:
Resolution 2025-27 grants approval of the Preliminary Development Plan (PDP), which establishes the framework for the Parkway Mixed Use (PMU) zoning on the 353-acre parcel. The current zoning is Rural Residential (RR). Staff recommends approval; the Planning and Zoning Board passed it 6-1 in August 2025, with board member Norris dissenting over concerns about high-density development on rural land and wildlife corridor fragmentation.
Ordinance 2025-30 approves the Final Development Plan (FDP), the detailed buildout blueprint. Staff and the P&Z Board both recommend approval with a condition: before any preliminary plat can be approved, the developer and Brevard Public Schools must execute a binding proportionate share mitigation agreement to address school capacity. Brevard Public Schools issued a School Capacity Availability Determination Letter (SCADL) projecting 459 new students from the development. Sunrise Elementary is already at 101% capacity and is projected to reach 117% by 2027. Southwest Middle School also lacks sufficient capacity. The mitigation agreement would shift students to Port Malabar Elementary and Stone Magnet Middle School.
Ordinance 2025-15 establishes the Lotis Palm Bay Community Development District (CDD), a special-purpose local government that will finance, build, and maintain the development’s internal infrastructure, stormwater ponds, local roads, and landscaping. The city bears no direct financial obligation; the CDD operates through assessments on property owners within its boundaries. Staff recommends adoption.
Consideration of a Development Agreement is the fourth and most complicated item. This Master Development Agreement and its companion Transportation Facilities Impact Fee Credit Agreement would lock in the development’s infrastructure commitments for 30 years. The core trade: the developer funds construction of the St. Johns Heritage Parkway extension from I-95 to Micco Road as a two-lane road in Phases 1 and 2, expanding to four lanes in Phases 3 and 4. In exchange, the city credits the developer dollar-for-dollar against transportation impact fees, up to an estimated $7,616,941.40.
On this item only, staff provided no recommendation.
That gap matters. City Manager Matthew Morton was explicit at the November 6 hearing about the infrastructure picture. Station 9 in the southeast quadrant operates out of a temporary modular facility on a two-year, $2 million lease. Morton stated the city would be “at least 20 firefighters short on the day it opens.” That was before counting any impact from Lotis. He also stated that impact fees from the development “won’t even cover that temporary fire station cost to go vertical, let alone staff it.”
The fire coverage gap is tied to the city’s 3% ad valorem revenue cap, which voters approved in 2016 and rejected repealing in 2022. For FY2026, the cap rate dropped below the rollback rate for the first time in its history. Impact fees fund capital construction; they cannot fund firefighter salaries. The cap constrains the operational revenue to staff new stations. The city cannot build its way out of the firefighter gap with developer fees alone.
The Lotis site has no water or wastewater service currently. The developer must construct off-site water and sewer force mains from Babcock Street along the SJHP extension, build four on-site lift stations, and fund a South Booster Station. The city’s recently expanded Bayside Lakes treatment plants will ultimately serve the area. The developer’s own traffic engineers concluded that Micco Road must be widened to four lanes. There is no funded construction timeline for that widening.
Documented public opposition in the meeting record cites Micco Road traffic, school overcrowding, utility strain, and the fragmentation of wildlife corridors between Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands parcels bordering the site on both the east and west.
The SJHP extension is a separate segment from the existing SJHP corridor widening project between Malabar Road and Emerson Drive. That widening is in design phase, funded by a $1.5 million state appropriation. Construction funding for the existing corridor has not been secured. The Lotis extension would not resolve capacity on the segment that already handles 10,000 vehicles per day at the Malabar Road intersection.
Lotis Palm Bay would be The Lotis Group’s second project. Its first, Lotis Wellington in Palm Beach County, secured a 44 million construction loan in March 2024 and sold 172 homesites to Lennar for 54 million in October 2024. Construction is ongoing.
Consent Agenda: Infrastructure Maintenance, Tax Compliance, Dog Park Trees
The consent agenda moves 14 items as a block unless a council member pulls one for separate discussion.
The city will award a $333,695 contract to Freese and Nichols, Inc. for a Water Master Plan update. The plan will model the distribution system at 5-, 10-, and 20-year planning horizons and produce a Capital Improvement Plan with cost estimates. Palm Bay’s water system is under pressure from population growth across the southeast quadrant.
Two pipe rehabilitation contracts cover CIPP (Cured in Place Pipe) Units 7 and 8, totaling 362,029 combined. Atlantic Pipe Services gets Unit 7 at 214,715; Hinterland Group gets Unit 8 at $147,314. Both use piggyback pricing from a Polk County contract.
Building inspector and plan review services go to five firms sharing a $516,000 contract: C.A.P. Government, Inc.; Joe Payne, Inc. (JPI); PDCS, LLC; SAFEbuilt Florida, LLC; and Willdan Engineering. The arrangement lets the city scale contracted staff up or down as permit demand fluctuates, rather than carrying fixed headcount.
Council will accept 2025 annual compliance reports from four companies enrolled in the city’s ad valorem tax abatement program: L3Harris Technologies, Project LEO, Project SAMT, and Rogue Valley Microdevices. No new exemptions are being granted; this is the routine annual review to confirm the companies met their commitments.
The Ken Greene Memorial Dog Park gets four 6-inch caliper Oak shade trees at $22,850, drawn from the Municipal Tree Fund. The park opened recently and currently lacks shade for extended daytime use.
A multi-year copier lease and maintenance agreement with Sissine’s Office Systems, Inc. also appears on the consent agenda, utilizing a University of California Omnia cooperative contract. Annual payments are expected to exceed $100,000 depending on usage.
Travel and training approvals cover Fire Rescue employees attending training at Marion Technical College (3,170) and a multi-department delegation to the 2026 APWA Florida Chapter Public Works Expo in Tampa, where the city will accept a Project of the Year Award. Combined travel costs for Public Works, Utilities, and Fire total approximately 3,376.
The Law Enforcement Trust Fund will cover $4,765 for protective vests for Crime Scene Technicians.
Procurements: Wastewater Plant Covers, New Tractor
The North Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant will get fiberglass covers on two clarifier launders, awarded to Odyssey Manufacturing Co. for 297,000. The city is also requesting a 76,700 budget appropriation to cover the difference between available funds and the contract total. Clarifier launders drain treated wastewater toward the reclamation facility; without covers, algae grows and odors escape. The plant sits at 1105 Clearmont Street NE.
Public Works is buying a John Deere 6M tractor for 267,121 through a Sourcewell cooperative contract, coming in 25,656 under the budgeted amount.
New Business: Department Reorganization, Church Settlement, Small Business Agreement
Three ordinances on first reading reorganize the city’s department structure. The Housing and Community Improvement Division moves from the Community and Economic Development Department to Growth Management. What remains in the old department gets renamed Economic Development, focusing exclusively on business attraction and commercial tax base expansion. Ordinances 2026-06, 2026-07, and 2026-08 implement the change through amendments to Chapters 31, 37, and 39 of the City Code. The effective date is October 1, 2027.
The city is entering into an 18-month agreement with the UCF Small Business Development Center to embed a full-time business consultant at City Hall, available to local businesses free of charge. The total cost is 112,500. The problem: only 37,500 is budgeted in FY26. The remaining $75,000 is subject to FY27 budget approval, which does not happen until later this year. Council is being asked to commit to an agreement before the funding is confirmed.
The Centerpointe Church settlement resolves a lawsuit stemming from council’s prior 3-2 denial of the church’s zoning request. Under the settlement, Centerpointe agrees to drop litigation and refile its application at RS-1 (down from the denied RS-2). Each party covers its own legal fees. If approved Thursday, the amended ordinance goes to a noticed public hearing on April 16, 2026. The land is a 10-acre parcel bounded by Emerald Road to the south and Valor Drive to the north.
Appointments: CATF and CDAB
Council will fill three board vacancies. Jose Buttera, Jr. and Judy Trandel are both nominated for at-large seats on the newly created Citizens’ Accountability Task Force (CATF). For the Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB), council will choose between applicants Donny Felix and Matthew Thomas to fill the seat vacated by Deborah Livingston’s resignation. The appointed CDAB member serves through June 15, 2028.
Ceremonial and Committee Reports
Councilman Kenny Johnson sponsors a proclamation declaring March 28, 2026 as Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day in Palm Bay.
The invocation will be delivered by Pastor Ken Delgado of The House Church, Palm Bay.
Council members will deliver committee reports from the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization, Space Coast League of Cities, and the Tourist Development Council.
Meeting Details
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2026 Time: 6:00 PM Location: City Hall, 120 Malabar Road SE, Palm Bay
The full agenda packet is available on PrimeGov.
Sources
Palm Bayer: Palm Bay Council to Vote on Lotis, Cogan Projects Amid Infrastructure Debates
Palm Bayer: Palm Bay Road Projects Overhaul Follows Lotis Development Pause
Palm Bayer: Lotis Palm Bay Development Vote Delayed Again Until August
Palm Bayer: A Tale of Two Mandates -- Palm Bay Council and the 3% Cap
The Real Deal: Lotis Nabs $44M Construction Loan for Wellington Project
The Real Deal: Lennar Buys 172 Homesites at Lotis Wellington
