LIVE OAK — The former Suwannee County School District office building could soon be housing apartments.

At last week’s Live Oak Community Redevelopment Agency board meeting, that project received approval for cost-sharing of the fees to move forward with requests for zoning changes.

K&L Investments purchased the old SCSD administrative building in January with plans to convert the concrete block building into apartments after gutting it, renovating it and adding in individual entrances for the various apartments, which could be between 15 to 20 dwellings.

To do so, the property must have a Land Use Map change from Industrial to Residential-High Density and a zoning change from Industrial to Residential Multi-Family (RMF-2).

Gabrielle Redfern, the CRA director, told the board that city staff recommended the changes and the project.

“We are especially encouraged by the opportunity to adaptively reuse a building in a quadrant of the city targeted for residential infill,” Redfern said.

Board Member Cindy Robinson asked if there would still be air quality issues since the school district abandoned the building in 2017 due to its deteriorating conditions. An Air Intellect report indicated the indoor conditions of the building were marginal at best.

Redfern said she couldn’t speak on the environmental conditions of the building.

Redfern also told the board that during the ongoing development of the building, it will be able to negotiate with K&L Investments various conditions as part of the CRA grant process, including insuring that all the apartments are connected to the city’s water and sewer system and possibly even making sure that at least one appliance is connected to the city’s gas pipeline as well.

The board unanimously approved the request, which will cover 75% or $2,268.75 of the $3,025 cost for application and advertising fees for the requests.

The board also approved an extension of a business start-up grant for Elliano’s Coffee, which will be built in the parking lot at the Live Oak Center, in front of Save-a-Lot and Roses.

Elliano’s was approved for the grant originally in March 2019 with an expectation of a 12-month process.

However, Redfern told the board that in submitting site plans, a utility feasibility study was not completed as was recommended, which “hampered the progress” of the project.

The extension until Sept. 30 was unanimously approved.

An extension was also granted for a facade grant for parking lot improvements at Live Oak Center, which were necessary for the addition of the Elliano’s.

That grant was approved by the board in August 2019 and will cover surface improvements, resurfacing, restriping, installing landscape islands, buffers and boarders which are tied to the utility infrastructure improvement below ground that is required by Elliano’s.

The extension is until April 30.