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Condo decision uncertain until end
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- For a few tense moments Tuesday night, before they narrowly approved the proposed Halls River Retreat condominium project, the five county commissioners weren't certain they could muster a majority vote. Commissioners Gary Bartell and Vicki Phillips opposed the plans, saying the four-story time shares would be incompatible with the neighborhood and detrimental to the environment in Homosassa. Commissioners Roger Batchelor and Jim Fowler were squarely in the developer's corner, saying F. Blake Longacre had "bent over backwards" to bring his 54-unit complex in compliance with the county's Comprehensive Plan, and therefore was entitled to develop his 11-acre property on the banks of the Halls River. In the middle was Commissioner Josh Wooten, who wanted more information on the environmental impacts -- specifically, the resolution of challenges to the project's environmental resource permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District -- before moving forward. "I want to make the decision when I see the science in my hand," Wooten said. "I have some concerns that were not answered tonight," he added. Wooten moved to postpone the vote but his motion died for lack of a second. A second Wooten motion, to deny the project based on its lack of an environmental resource permit, failed 4-1, as his fellow commissioners said the developer deserved a decision based on the overall merits of the project. After 51/2 hours, Wooten eventually sided with Batchelor and Fowler. The controversial project, which still faces myriad legal challenges from opponents, moved one difficult step forward. Although fractured in their views on this project, the five commissioners agreed on this much: Halls River Retreat was the most emotional and trying issue to come before the commission in recent years. "I have agonized over this more than anything since I have been on the board," said Wooten, who was elected in 2000, as the hearing passed the five-hour mark Tuesday. "This issue has divided our community, divided our staff, divided commissioners against staff. It has been hard to sit back and watch this." But the commissioners' agreement seemed to end there. Bartell and Phillips said the four-story buildings would be completely incompatible with the neighboring homes, mobile homes and campground. "I do not believe you can find a surrounding property that is compatible with the development proposed tonight," Phillips said. Bartell laid his hands on two 3-inch binders filled with more than 2,900 petition signatures and 800 letters against the project. "These two books and all of the correspondence we've had, the e-mails and the speakers tonight tells me that this project is not compatible with the Homosassa community," Bartell said as the capacity crowd in the Lecanto Government Building burst into applause. But Batchelor described compatibility as a matter of opinion. In his opinion, he said, the new condos would be an improvement to an area with older mobile homes and camp sites. "This thing is more compatible with that area than some of the things that exist there today," Batchelor said. Wooten said the environment, not the project's compatibility, was his concern. "I hope Swiftmud does due diligence so we don't have another Home Depot," said Wooten, referring to the stormwater drainage pond behind the Crystal River home improvement store that breached the aquifer in 2000. Fowler downplayed the project's environmental aspects. "If we are required to consider only substantial, credible evidence, we haven't heard any evidence on the environmental impacts one way or the other," he said. Instead, Fowler framed his argument around the developer's property rights. Once Longacre complied with the restrictions government places on his property, he has the right to move forward with his project, regardless of what the public thinks, Fowler said. "We do not count noses in this process," he said. "We stand up for constitutional rights." During the course of the hearing, the commission heard from nearly a dozen supporters of the project and almost three times as many opponents. A crowd of mostly opponents filled the 130 seats in the meeting room, while others sat in an overflow room upstairs with a video link to the commission hearing. Even so, Fowler noted, the county is home to 117,000 residents. "Are we to assume this is the voice of the people?" Fowler said, looking out into the crowd. "Yes!" the audience cried. "I beg to differ with that," Fowler replied.
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