New developments — Palm Bay, Florida

One major residential project the City of Palm Bay publicly tracks as under review is Eden at Bayside Lakes, a proposed 460-unit master-planned community on the former Majors Golf Course (Palm Bay, Eden at Bayside Lakes).

Joy LLC, owner of the Bayside Lakes golf course land since 2019, seeks to turn it into a primarily single-family neighborhood with supporting commercial uses. Three Palm Bay applications sit in the city's iMS system: a large-scale Future Land Use Map amendment (Case CP24-00008) from Rural Single Family to Neighborhood Center and Low Density Residential, a Preliminary Development Plan (Case PD24-00001) and a Final Development Plan (Case FD24-00002). The first two were submitted on March 12, 2026 and are in their 4th review, with city comments due back to the applicant within 30 days.

The Final Development Plan, first submitted June 25, 2024, is on hold and will not proceed until the Palm Bay City Council approves the Preliminary Development Plan. Because Eden at Bayside Lakes was filed before Palm Bay adopted its updated Land Development Code in September 2024, it is reviewed under the previous code. The city's project page posts the applicant's narrative, environmental assessment, transportation impact analysis methodology and a public schools capacity determination, and warns that every document is a draft that may change, with no set timeline for the applicant to respond.

The Palm Bay City Council denied Lotis Palm Bay 5-0 on March 19, 2026, voting down the Preliminary Development Plan based on substantial evidence from the city's public service subject matter experts (Council minutes, March 19, 2026, page 8).

Lotis Palm Bay was a proposed Parkway Mixed-Use District (PMU) project on 353.47 acres north of and adjacent to Micco Road, east of Interstate 95, filed as Case PD23-00010 by Peat Holding, LLC and continued from the November 6, 2025 council meeting (Council minutes, March 19, 2026, page 7). The Palm Bay Planning and Zoning Board had recommended approval. At the hearing Deputy Chief Thomas put public safety response times at 9 to 12 minutes depending on the responding agency, and Deputy Chief Spears gave police response time as approximately 8.5 minutes, with more rooftops expected to affect that level of service.

The denial took the rest of the Lotis Palm Bay package with it. The Final Development Plan (Ordinance 2025-30, Case FD23-00014) was rendered moot, the proposed Lotis Palm Bay Community Development District (Ordinance 2025-15) was withdrawn by the applicant, and the development agreement with The Lotis Group was rendered moot (Council minutes, March 19, 2026, page 9). Before the vote, the minutes record, Deputy Mayor Jaffe said the Palm Bay Comprehensive Plan did not allow denial of projects based on levels of service, and the city's Ms. Smith confirmed that but noted that the adequacy and availability of existing police and fire services for a Planned Unit Development was a criterion council could consider under the Land Development Code (Council minutes, March 19, 2026, page 8).

A redevelopment study for the city recommends starting the Compound, an abandoned tract in southwest Palm Bay, with an industrial or business park in its northeast quadrant (Compound study, page 16).

The Compound is 2,321 acres in the southwestern corner of Palm Bay, originally planned as part of Port Malabar and abandoned in 1991 (Compound study, page 5). The study, prepared by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, bounds the Compound by Angora Street SW on the north, Alwar and Sage Avenue on the east, the Melbourne-Tillman Canal on the south and the Three Forks Conservation area on the west. The developer had already laid a street grid of 200 miles before walking away. The Compound holds 5,023 parcels, most of them roughly a quarter acre, and over 90 percent are classified as Vacant Residential (Compound study, page 7).

Ownership is the hard part in the Compound: Brevard County Property Appraiser records show 2,755 unique owners in the area (Compound study, page 9). The study points to the northeast quadrant for quick wins: there the City of Palm Bay already owns several key parcels covering over 60 relatively contiguous acres, and the nearby area has access to existing utilities because it sits across the street from the BRP facility (Compound study, page 16).

Turning that quadrant into an industrial hub would take roadwork and utilities. The study calls for more capacity on JA Bombardier and Wingham roads, with Wingham serving as a possible connector to the planned St. Johns Heritage Parkway extension and its direct access to I-95, and for water and sewer lines extended inland, but no new infrastructure until the property entitlements change (Compound study, page 37).

On March 20, 2025 the Palm Bay City Council adopted Ordinance 2025-13, changing 15.4 acres south of Foundation Park Boulevard and west of Babcock Street from Low Density Residential to Industrial on the Future Land Use Map (Council minutes, March 20, 2025, page 5).

The Palm Bay vote on the land use change was 4-1, after a tie vote of the Planning and Zoning Board left no recommendation (Council minutes, March 20, 2025, page 6). The companion rezoning of the same Foundation Park Future Investments, LLC site from RS-2 single-family to LI Light Industrial and Warehousing (Ordinance 2025-14, Case CPZ24-00007) passed first reading 3-2.

The rezoning motion carried with conditions set forth by the applicant: the southmost twelve acres are limited to stormwater management, wetland preservation and enhancement, tree preservation and mitigation and related drainage work (Council minutes, March 20, 2025, page 7). A related request for a tree and landscape recycling facility on 36 acres (Case CU24-00008) was continued to the April 3, 2025 Palm Bay council meeting.

A Planned Unit Development in Palm Bay needs a Preliminary Development Plan and then a Final Development Plan before permits can be issued (Palm Bay, Eden at Bayside Lakes).

Where the land use must change, a Future Land Use Map amendment runs alongside, as the Eden at Bayside Lakes case file shows.

Palm Bay changed one step in March 2026. Ordinance 2026-04 amended Chapter 172 of the Code of Ordinances, Development Review Procedures, by modifying the requirement of a Development Agreement for Preliminary and Final Development Plan applications (Case T26-00002) (Council minutes, March 5, 2026, page 4). Council adopted it on March 5, 2026 by a 4-1 vote after a motion to add a terms sheet died for lack of a second (Council minutes, March 5, 2026, page 5).

Apartments can also come through the state Live Local Act. The Palm Bay Live Local Policy, approved February 11, 2025, lists the qualifying zoning districts, from Community Mixed Use and Urban Mixed Use to Neighborhood, Community, General and Highway Commercial, Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial, and requires a qualifying project to be mixed-use with 35 percent of its total square footage in non-residential uses (Palm Bay Live Local Policy, page 1).

Live Local projects in Palm Bay must also identify at least 40 percent of their multifamily units as affordable rentals for at least 30 years, and land inside a Planned Unit Development does not qualify (Palm Bay Live Local Policy, page 2). The policy cites the Palm Bay 2045 Comprehensive Plan, Table FLU-6, for the share of city land in commercial use, 2 percent, and in industrial use, 2.4 percent.

Council hearings on these Palm Bay cases are held on the first and third Thursday of each month, except June, at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 120 Malabar Road SE, with agendas and minutes posted on the city's PrimeGov platform (Palm Bay Agendas / Minutes).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay website (project page, council minutes and Live Local policy).