Out-of-State Rental Developer’s Bid to Rezone Former Radio Station Land Unites City Hall and Lake Washington Neighbors in Opposition
A request to rezone roughly 14.37 acres of wooded land off Turtle Mound Road near Lake Washington has drawn opposition from the City of Melbourne, the area’s county commissioner and a growing neighborhood coalition, setting up two public hearings this summer over the future of the former AM radio station property at 1800 Turtle Mound Road.
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The applicant, listed on the county’s rezoning notice as Defender Homes Airway Heights LLC, is asking Brevard County to change the property’s zoning from RR-1, a rural residential category that allows one home per acre, to RU-2-6, a classification the county code defines as low-density multiple-family residential permitting up to six units per gross acre. A companion Future Land Use Map amendment would shift the site’s designation from RES 4 to RES 6.
The density math is the heart of the dispute. At one unit per acre, the current zoning would support roughly 14 homes. At six units per acre, the requested zoning could allow as many as 86. A density-comparison graphic now circulating among opponents lays the two scenarios side by side, 14 homes against 86, with an average lot size of about 7,260 square feet under the higher density.
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Who is behind the application
Defender Homes Airway Heights LLC traces to Defender Development, a Washington-based company operating in the Spokane and Cheney areas. According to the firm’s own website, it develops and manages rental properties, including apartments and townhomes, and recently offered a block of townhomes for sale to renters under USDA homeownership guidelines. The company has retained local attorneys to handle the application and the hearings.
That background feeds the central question neighbors are raising. Opponents acknowledge the applicant has represented an intent to build single-family attached or detached homes. But RU-2-6 also permits multifamily dwellings such as apartments and condominiums, and opponents argue that a stated intention is not legally binding. If the rezoning is approved, they contend, a future apartment project could move forward at the site without another rezoning or public hearing.
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The city’s objection
Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey sent a formal letter to the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners on June 12 asking them to deny the rezoning. Because the parcel sits in unincorporated Brevard, the county, not the city, holds the zoning decision. The city’s leverage is utilities: Melbourne provides wastewater service to the area, and Alfrey’s letter states that the existing sewer force main does not have sufficient capacity to handle the additional demand the higher density would generate, calling approval premature until that capacity exists.
Alfrey wrote that the Melbourne City Council unanimously expressed its opposition at a June 9 meeting, and that Vice Mayor Julie Kennedy, who represents the surrounding District 6, will appear at the county hearing to voice the council’s concerns. In a separate post on his official Facebook page, the mayor also pointed to Florida’s Live Local Act, cautioning that future proposals with an affordable-housing component could qualify for administrative approval and bypass the local rezoning and public-hearing process residents have historically expected. He said the extent to which those provisions might apply to this property remains unknown.
The neighborhood campaign
Lake Washington resident Dianne Baumert-Moyik, president of Baumert Public Relations, has organized neighborhood opposition and launched a Change.org petition urging the county to deny both the rezoning and the land-use amendment. As of publication, the petition had drawn over 1900 signatures.
The petition argues the change is incompatible with the surrounding area, noting that the adjacent Fox Bay community is zoned EU-2 and Carolwood Estates is zoned RR-1, both made up of single-family detached homes. It raises traffic and utility concerns, asserting that no comprehensive traffic study has been presented and that water and sewer capacity has not been verified by the city. It also cites environmental constraints, stating that most of the site lies within a FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Area and a Type 3 Aquifer Recharge Area, and that county staff have identified wetland and floodplain issues. Those environmental claims should be weighed against the county’s staff report, which we haven’t obtained yet.
Baumert-Moyik has directed residents to the office of District 5 Commissioner Thad Altman, whose district includes the property and whom the mayor addressed as chair, saying staff there are tracking community feedback.
A view from the development side
Not everyone in the real estate world views the opposition as warranted. Cassandra Hartford, CEO of REACH Commercial Real Estate, weighed in by resharing the mayor’s post and framing the dispute as a routine part of land development. She noted that buyers seek long due-diligence periods precisely to learn what can and cannot be built on a parcel, that a deal dies if the land cannot be rezoned, and that the same process drives a property’s value and the owner’s future sale options. “So cut your buyers some slack,” she wrote, adding, “Who knew a housing development would get this much hate.”
What happens next
The Brevard County Planning and Zoning Board will hold its public hearing at 3 p.m. on June 15 at the Brevard County Government Center, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Building C, in Viera. The board’s recommendation then goes to the County Commission, which is scheduled to consider the matter at 5 p.m. on July 9 at the same location. Written comments filed with the county zoning official before the commission meeting will be considered, and the public may appear and speak at both hearings.
A proposed site plan for the property had not been made public as of this writing.
