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A draft of rules governing development is on the way to enforce the slow-growth visions for Lutz and Keystone.
By JOSH ZIMMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 4, 2002
KEYSTONE -- The process has been long, grueling and sometimes bitter. But after two years of discussion, a draft set of rules governing new development in Lutz and Keystone should be ready for review by February.
The debate over changes to the county's land development code is closely intertwined with efforts to implement ambitious community plans for those two largely rural areas.
The community plans, approved last year by the County Commission, lay out slow-growth visions for Lutz and Keystone. But without specific rules setting limits on specific features, such as building size and design, lighting, landscaping and walls, the plans will lack teeth.
Citizen activists and county planners will try to hash out the unresolved issues at a meeting this month, said Paula Harvey, director of planning and zoning for the county's Department of Planning and Growth Management. A final draft is scheduled to go before the City-County Planning Commission in March before it is presented to the commissioners for ultimate approval in June.
"We're planning on proceeding with it in this current round of amendments," Harvey said. "It's going on too long."
Dealing with these tough issues for the first time in Lutz and Keystone should make the process easier for other communities that are working on or contemplating community plans, such as Town 'N Country, Wimauma and Thonotosassa, Harvey and others agree. But much work remains before Lutz and Keystone settle all their issues. And their concerns are not all the same.
"Our biggest issue is the commercial design and size," said Keystone activist Laura Swain. "That's been our hot button all along because we have so much property already rezoned. The new stuff we have coming we can always control through the . . . planning review process."
Under Keystone's current draft of code changes, participants also have penciled in a ban on sidewalks and, for the most part, lighting. Swain said the community will push for externally lit signs. Banning sidewalks became preferable after the county refused to spend money on a walking trail system.
Lutz also wants to limit on commercial buildings by restricting their size to no more than 30,000-square-feet each to scare away megastores, community activist and commission candidate Denise "Dee" Layne said. Lighting remains a concern, although Lutz may settle for less intense lights as opposed to none at all, she said.
The biggest stumbling block at this point is the size of churches. Layne said she initially wanted restrictions on their expansion but Harvey told her bluntly that she would not support them.
"First of all, I have a philosophical problem telling any church they can't grow with their congregation," Harvey said. "Secondly, I think there's some Constitution issues. They're basically allowed in every zoning district."
Now, Layne said she is looking for tougher landscaping and setbacks requirements to maintain a more rural feel around places of worship.
Although they would like smaller schools, Swain and Layne said they have backed off after being told the school district must meet federal and state rules.
The process was mired in frustration last year. Swain and Layne credit Harvey with reviving the process by bringing in zoning specialists, although they still do not agree with all her positions.
Particularly encouraging is the progress being made on another set of code amendments, Layne said.
One would allow developers to cluster buildings in exchange for preserving larger tracts of land. Another would allow communities to transfer commercial land in rural and residential to areas targeted for commercial development.
In Harvey's opinion, those changes could be approved in June, as well.
"These are difficult issues," Layne said. "None of us realized what we were dealing with when we walked into this. Is it better than what we had before? You bet."