City Council discuss new homes in Crestview; changes to alcohol ordinance

CRESTVIEW — During Monday night’s City Council meeting, the council approved ordinances that will bring major changes to the area.

After the second reading of changes to the alcohol ordinance, the council approved the amendments. Changes include expanding the Community Redevelopment Agency district exemption area and changing some of the language to allow for more restaurants in the area.

The council also approved one new amendment to the ordinance that had not been previously discussed: giving Life Point Church, the only church in the CRA exemption, a 400 foot buffer to keep bars and breweries away from the church.

“I think any time you go through redevelopment and transition, it’s important to pay attention to how you’ve been as a community as you move into who you’re going to be as a community,” city manager Tim Bolduc said.

Life Point’s lead pastor Michael Legones was thankful for the council’s decision.

“I love that we have a group of people that want to grow our city, develop our city and take steps forward,” Legones said. “I appreciate different council members speaking for the people, standing for what they believe and at the same time at the end I feel like families came out on top.”

The council also heard and adopted two separate ordinances that could bring almost 300 new homes to the city.

The first ordinance deals with almost 63 acres of land near the intersection of Garrett Pit Road and Point Center Road behind Antioch Elementary. The land is proposed to be used for a 140 lot subdivision.

This ordinance has been brought before the council several times before, but due to various errors had to be re-adopted.

“For a lot of different reasons, I think it’s important that Crestview take advantage of the market the way that it is right now,” Bolduc said. “Most predictive housing markets say we’re going to see a downturn somewhere in the next two years, maybe even as early as next year.”

The second ordinance deals with almost 32 acres of land at the corner of Old Bethel Road and Jones Road behind Davidson Middle School. The land is proposed to be used for a 146 lot subdivision, which would include a community center and community pool.

This ordinance had also been heard before by the council, but was pulled due to complications outside the city’s control. The complications have since been resolved.

“Everybody says ’I don’t understand why don’t we have a steakhouse.’” Bolduc said. “It’s all about algorithms, it’s all about the numbers. You have to have an adequate number of people to provide the need to then meet the need.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: City Council discuss new homes in Crestview; changes to alcohol ordinance