Royal Oak Rezoning – April 4, 2023 Update

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April 3, 2023

Dear Neighbors of Royal Oak,

Thank you for your interest as we work together to prevent rezoning of the Royal Oak Golf Course.

We started our subcommittee of “Royal Oak Neighbors” after the ROCA Board presented the tentative plan from Toulon Apartments at a general membership meeting in Dec 2022. We met with Brienne Robertson (ROCA Pres) to keep ROCA informed of our activities and consider that we are partnering with ROCA, “all pulling on the same end of the rope.”  We have requested to meet with the ROCA Board, but have not been permitted to do so, in spite of numerous requests. Please complete the recent survey ROCA sent out, and encourage them to work with us. For starters, we’d like the ROCA membership list, to help our “get out the word” efforts.

First, I’d like to inform you of our next meeting & encourage you to attend if possible. April 5, 2023, 5pm, at Kate Flynn’s house at 2805 Player Court. We are sorry for the late notice but things are moving quickly now.

We firmly believe the zoning should remain as is, and the city’s comprehensive plan should be honored. We definitely oppose the current proposal of the new owner, Toulon Apartments LLC, to build 1038 units at a density of 7.05/acre.

The current zoning allows for 79 homes. Toulon Apartment’s s initial plan, as shown to 2 ROCA Board members last year, indicated 600 units. On March 31, 2023, Toulon submitted a concept site plan to the city for High Density Residential under a “Planned Development” zoning. They are submitting to the city for an amendment to the comprehensive plan. Our goal is to stop rezoning.

Our plan is to educate the entire Royal Oak Community about Toulon Apartment’s proposal. We are doing this in the following manner:

  1. Establishing a walk plan to cover the Royal Oak Community, providing an “Objections” handout, and asking residents to sign our petition. We need help creating a “walk plan”, rather it be a grid or by streets. We have walker packets made up with clipboards of the petition, handouts, and nametags. We are asking walkers to wear a red shirt symbolizing “STOP.” We did recently acquire a list of the street names (and some resident names) of the Royal Oak Community. We need walkers.
  2. Compare, in excruciating detail, the proposed Toulon Apartments’ plan to the city of Titusville Comprehensive Plan. This is key to helping give the city council rationale for denying the rezoning. We need help with this.
  3. Yard signs are being placed in high visibility areas on Royal Oak and Country Club as part of our education mission. You can create your own (don’t place on the easement) and we are trying to get some printed that say “Prevent rezoning.” The city says we are not allowed to have a stop sign, or “STOP” or “WARNING” on our yard signs.
  4. Establish a finding mechanism for donations for our out of pocket expenses. Some people can’t walk the streets and want to donate. We can’t afford an attorney, so we need to find a legal way to collect and disburse. We need help with this.
  5. We will all need to attend any public hearings on this proposal and pack the council chambers. No dates have been set yet. We do know the city will be meeting with Toulon Apartment’s rep on April 11, but don’t’ think this is an open meeting.
  6. We’ve established the following websites to provide various types of information about Toulon Apartment’s proposal. They all lead back to our royal oak neighbors committee.

https://royaloakneighbors.org

https://stoptherezoning.com

We want you to know about meetings we’ve held:

March 6              Met with Brienne Robertson, Pres of ROCA

March 15            City Hall, with Mayor, City Admin, City Planner, and 2 city attorneys

Attempting to set meeting with St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD). The stormwater concerns could be a deal killer for this development, since the lakes on the current golf course handle not only Royal Oak homes, but drain to the Preserve on Knox McRae/Park.

Attempted to meet with Brevard Realtor Group to encourage their realtors to stop spreading disinformation about this proposal. Calls/emails have not been returned.

Will continue attempts to meet with full ROCA Board to discuss our goals and plans to prevent rezoning.

Reported code violations to city numerous times regarding old clubhouse area being a nuisance and questionable activities occurring especially after dark. The new owner has not done anything to this area except installed a very easy to climb fence.

We will set and announce a general meeting in the future after we gather more details.

We are very open to other ideas of ways to oppose this rezoning. Everyone has a role to play in opposing this rezoning. The clock is ticking now that Toulon Apartments has submitted their plan to the city.

Thank you all very much!

Vickie Conklin on behalf of
Royal Oak Neighbors

royaloakneighbors.org

More To Explore

Upcoming Meetings

Upcoming Rezoning Meeting April 9, 2024

The next meeting of concerned Royal Oak Neighbors will take place on Tuesday April 9, 2024 at 6:00pm-7:30pm at the Titusville Library – 2121 S

Would You Want To Join Us And Preserve Titusville

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