'No sale' for Home Depot

Last modified Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 01:55 AM
Originally created Saturday, April 23, 2005

'No sale' for Home Depot

Jacksonville Beach turns down store's bid

By Caren Burmeister
Shorelines staff writer

JACKSONVILLE BEACH -- Home Depot should not move into the former Kmart on Third Street South because more than 50 percent of the products it sells aren't allowed in the shopping center's development plan, the city's planning director has ruled.

Planning Director Steve Lindorff denied the home repair store's request in a letter Wednesday, stating that about 60 percent of its products, such as lumber, building materials and lawn and garden supplies, aren't on the list of permitted uses in the planned unit development for South Beach Regional Shopping Center.

Lindorff's decision comes about two months after the City Council denied Home Depot's application to enlarge the former Kmart by adding a mezzanine level and expanding the garden center.

About 100 people at the council meeting burst into applause after the vote. Dozens of them had told the council that the Home Depot didn't fit the retail character of the shopping center and said it would generate more traffic problems on Florida A1A and create more noise for nearby residents and doctors' offices.

One of the opponents, Dean Thompson, who lives in the Sanctuary subdivision, described the home repair store as a light industrial warehouse. He said the store would violate the shopping center's 1989 PUD, or custom designed plan.

"I'm very pleased with that," Thompson said of Lindorff's decision. "I would like Home Depot to take the hint and go away."

Home Depot may appeal Lindorff's decision to the city's Board of Adjustment. Home Depot's attorney, Paul Harden, could not be reached this week for comment on Lindorff's decision.

After the council rejected Home Depot's expansion proposal in February, company officials came back to city planners and asked if the store could move into the existing storefront. While the request didn't require a rezoning, it did require Lindorff's review of how the home repair store would fit in with the shopping center's PUD.

After consulting with the city attorney, Lindorff concluded that a Home Depot was not permitted at the location. His analysis of the information provided by Harden showed that about 60 percent of the products on the sales floor, including lumber, building materials, kitchen and bath plumbing and lawn and garden merchandise, aren't included in the shopping center's PUD.

In addition, Home Depot's new and distinct classification of "home center" or "multi-line building materials and home improvement products enterprise," was an unfamiliar concept in 1989 when the city was designing the list of permitted uses for the shopping center's PUD, Lindorff said.

Therefore, Home Depot would have to amend the PUD ordinance if it wanted to move into the shopping center, he said.

Staff writer Caren Burmeister can be reached at (904) 249-4947, extension 21, or via e-mail at caren.burmeister @jacksonville.com.

Jacksonville.com, c/o The Florida Times-Union

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