Palm Bay on tap for 1,200 new homes. Here's what you need to know

Jim Waymer, Florida Today
·2 min read
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More than 1,000 new homes are on the horizon for Palm Bay, Brevard County's largest city.

A Madison Avenue asset manager has received environmental permits to begin early work on 1,238 homes on 450 acres north of Palm Bay Regional Park and east of St. Johns Heritage Parkway.

What's Happening?

A New York-based company, DW Partners, received an environmental resources permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District to build and operate a stormwater system for Everlands Phase 2 (aka NE Quad) and for Palm Vista Medley at Everlands.

What does Everlands include?

  • Everlands Phase 2 (aka NE Quad): a 398-unit subdivision on 159 acres north of Emerson Drive.

  • Palm Vista Medley at Everlands: an 840-unit residential subdivision of single-family, town-homes and paired villas on 291 acres north of Pace Drive and just south of Emerson Drive and of Everlands Phase 2.

More: More than 500 more homes on way in Palm Bay's Cypress Bay

Environmental impacts?

According to the district's technical reviews:

  • Everlands Phase 2 proposes to impact 13 acres of upland cut ditches that are overgrown and "do not provide habitat for listed species."

  • Palm Vista Medley is comprised of uplands, pine flatwood, oaks and grasslands with seven wetland systems and upland cut agricultural ditches.

  • Both sites had historically been used as grazing lands for farming and are "sufficiently far from offsite wetlands and other surface waters to ensure they won't cause "unacceptable adverse secondary impacts" to wetland functions.

  • For both projects, "no evidence was observed that the upland portions of the site are being utilized by bald eagles, and aquatic and wetland dependent listed species for nesting and denning."

What is DW Partners?

According to its website, DW Partners is "an employee-owned alternative asset manager that invests in bonds and loans collateralized by real estate."

A FLORIDA TODAY analysis of real estate properties in Brevard County found that at least 19.8% of Space Coast properties are investor-owned, up from 13.7% in 2013.

Where can I read more about growth in Palm Bay?

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Palm Bay to get 1,200 new houses near St. Johns Heritage Parkway