Sean Kelly is a senior planner with the City’s Planning and Development Department’s Comprehensive Planning Division.
WHAT DOES HE DO?
Kelly reviews site, engineering, planned unit development plans and plats for Planning Department approval.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
“Consistency with zoning, land development standards, comprehensive plan policies, land use and land development criteria or standards.”
HOW DOES THE WHOLE PROCESS OF GETTING A PLAN APPROVED WORK?
“The first thing a developer will do is come in and try to get concurrency approval. Concurrency is the reservation of the City’s allocation of availability of services in terms of water, sewer, drainage, solid waste, mass transit, traffic generation and that the roadway capacity can handle the development. Once they obtain that, a developer will prepare a preliminary site plan and submit it to me. I will take that packet of plans and distribute it to different agencies, including Traffic Engineering, Florida Department of Transportation, Duval County School Board and several other agencies. We get comments back from those agencies and then make a presentation and recommendation to the planning commission whether to approve, deny or approve with conditions.”
WHAT TYPE OF PROJECTS NEED TO BE APPROVED BY THE PLANNING COMMISSION?
New schools, subdivisions, roads, apartment, townhome and condominium projects, any commercial development that is over 40,000 square feet enclosed and lots with multiple structures.
WHAT AREAS DO YOU COVER?
Duval County, except the beaches and Baldwin.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL PLANS?
“We review residential plans for the site engineering, roadways, interconnectivity of the neighborhoods, road width and pavement width. When you get into commercial, they are a little easier because they are not as involved as a subdivision.” For commercial, they review zoning, parking requirements, landscaping, sidewalks, wetland impact and coordination with mass transit.
DOWNTOWN?
“The Planning Department created the Downtown Master Plan. Once we did that we gave it to the Downtown Development Authority, which is part of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. What we do is coordinate with Jason Thiel, who is the Downtown Design Review Committee presenter. We will sit in on Downtown Design Review Committee meetings and we have some input at that level. There are streetscape requirements already in place. We will review it for zoning, parking, compensation planning policies and consistencies.”
HOW LONG HAS KELLY BEEN WITH THE CITY?
Six years. He moved to Jacksonville in 1993 and interned with the Planning Department. He landed a job with St. Johns Engineering for three years before returning to the Planning Department. He started in the Concurrency Department and worked his way up to senior planner.
COLLEGE
He has a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from State University New York, Oneonta.
BIRTHPLACE
Long Island.
DESIGNATIONS
He has earned the American Institute of Certified Planners designation.
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
He is on the Subdivision Standard Policy Advisory Committee.
FAMILY
He has been married to Linda for two years. They have a puppy, Sully.
RESIDES
Intracoastal West.
HOBBIES
He enjoys golf, tennis and scuba diving.
FAVORITES
His favorite movie is “Star Wars.” The most recent book he read was “The Geography of Nowhere,” by James Howard Kunstler. When dining out he tends to frequent Castillo de Mexico near Kernan Boulevard. When relaxing at home he enjoys watching “Law & Order.” His favorite place to visit is Washington, D.C.