Crayon inventor Edwin Binney's estate may yet be saved - by coloring outside the lines

Call it a triumph of hope over experience, but I'm starting to think there's a chance an apartment complex planned for a site adjacent to the former home of Crayon inventor Edwin Binney might not be the total disaster I originally envisioned.

Don't get me wrong: There are still about as many ways the project near Fort Pierce could go awry as there are different colors of Binney's best-known invention. (He also invented a type of dust-free chalk that was popular back when classrooms still used slate blackboards, but Crayons will forever be his main claim to fame.)

But after watching the St. Lucie County Planning and Zoning Commission discuss the apartment plans Sept. 28, I'm filled with cautious optimism this won't be a typical case of developers steamrolling the concerns of local residents.

WGI Engineering, a national development company with several Florida offices, wants to build 288 apartments on 33 acres near where Indrio and Taylor Dairy roads intersect, northwest of Treasure Coast International Airport. Here's the rub: The proposed site almost completely encircles Florindia Farms, where Binney and his family lived nearly a century ago.

Binney wasn't your run-of-the-mill guy who earned fame and fortune elsewhere before retiring to a quiet life in Florida.

After moving to the area, he played an integral role in developing Fort Pierce's port, saved St. Lucie County Bank from failure during the Great Depression, founded the local Sea Scouts chapter, and donated land that's home to the Fort Pierce Coast Guard Station and the Pelican Yacht Club.

So I'm encouraged the planning commission seems to be in no rush to rubber-stamp WGI's project and forward it to the St. Lucie County Commission.

When the planning commissioners got their first look at the plans in June, they asked the developers to make a number of changes, some of which would make the project more compatible with the Binney estate.

At the Sept. 28 meeting, WGI came back with plans to use "old Miami style" architecture on the apartment buildings and clubhouse, which the developers said would be similar to the design of Binney's home.

That wasn't enough to satisfy the people who spoke during a public hearing at the meeting, including a couple of historic preservation buffs from Vero Beach.

Several speakers said the three-story apartment buildings would still be out of scale with the Binney home, and the landscaping and other buffering planned would be inadequate to protect sight lines from the estate.

"It's such a dishonor to this man, to the history of this county," said Vero Beach artist Katherine Larson, whose words were choked with emotion as she spoke. "Don't let this get destroyed."

Other speakers, including Dennis Jurkiewicz and Janie Baugh, the estate's current owners, expressed similar sentiments.

"Edwin Binney did so much for this community that I can't believe this is even being considered," Baugh said. "I don't know what else to say other than it's a sad situation and it would adversely affect our property."

Now there's a sentiment that often gets overlooked when pro-growthers get on their high horses about protecting people's property rights. What they mean by "protecting people's property rights" usually translates into "give developers free rein to do whatever the heck they want."

The property rights of nearby landowners who might lose equity and/or the enjoyment of their property as a result of land-use changes that facilitate new developments frequently get lost in those conversations.

To their credit, though, the St. Lucie County planning commissioners weren't ready to dismiss the residents' concerns out of hand.

After Lindsay Libes, WGI's vice president for civil engineering, said she would be willing to work with local residents on a compromise, the commissioners voted unanimously to delay a recommendation on the project until their Nov. 16 meeting.

Which all sounds good, as far as that goes. Still, it's going to take some creative thinking ― in other words, coloring outside the lines ― in order to make this work.

Libes said her company remains committed to building multi-family housing on the property.

Reducing the building heights from three to two stories was one of the suggestions several people made to bring WGI's project into scale with the Binney property. It seems unlikely, though, that the developers would be willing to reduce the number of apartment units by one-third.

There's a possibility WGI could sell or use "density credits" to build more units at some other location. That would depend on the availability and feasibility of finding another location where the credits could be used, though.

If the building heights can't be reduced, Commissioner James Taylor said no amount of site realignment would make the plans more compatible.

"We can move everything around, but I don't see how this is going to work with three-story buildings," Taylor said.

(Taylor also shot holes in one idea I had, which was to move a preservation area the developers want to place on the south side of their property farther north, between the Binney estate and the apartments. Since the designated preserve is an old-growth forest, it can't simply be relocated to another portion of the property.)

The next month and a half of negotiations probably aren't going to be easy. Even after they're finished and the planning commission has made its recommendation, the county commission still gets the final say about whether the project moves forward in any form.

The good news is, the opposing sides are still talking. As long as that's happening, there's reason to hope.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Crayon founder's Fort Pierce home may be saved by creative thinking