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Planners push for limits on land use
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- Aiming to close a loophole that allowed the controversial Halls River Retreat condos to be approved earlier this month, the planning board Thursday backed a move to sharply limit development of land zoned for mixed use. That zoning label, a hybrid designation created by county staff years ago, allowed up to 20 residential units per acre in a portion of the Halls River flood plain, where the Comprehensive Plan limits development to one home per 40 acres. In turn, that zoning paved the way for the approval of a 54-unit time-share condominium complex on the banks of the Halls River. The planning board and county staff on Thursday took steps to change what would be allowed under mixed-use zoning in the future. The actions will not affect the Halls River project, however. The proposal, which still must come before the County Commission for approval, would no longer allow large commercial projects or new recreational vehicle/mobile home parks on land zoned for mixed use. The proposed changes would limit mixed-use sites to less intense projects, such as single-family homes, offices and "neighborhood" businesses such as beauty shops and cafes. Even with these changes, however, some members of the Planning and Development Review Board wondered whether the measure will prevent future developers from squeezing large projects onto mixed-use properties. "Mixed use will still end up being full of loopholes," planning board member Marion Knudsen said after the meeting, although she didn't know what those loopholes would be. "Somebody will think of it." "None of us realized what on earth was going to happen (with mixed-use properties)," she added. "I think we should get rid of it and go with (the other zoning categories) we have." About 843 acres of mixed-use properties are scattered throughout the county, given the catchall zoning brand in 1990 because they included a blend of uses. Many were coastal area mobile home or RV parks that also included marinas, bait shops and other commercial uses. In recent years, however, the broad zoning category has allowed for a Home Depot on an environmentally sensitive site in Crystal River and the razing of the Tradewinds Marina and Mobile Home Park for an upscale housing complex that will be built on the Homosassa River. Two weeks ago, the County Commission voted 3-2 to approve the Halls River Retreat condominium project because the 11-acre site, a former family compound, was already zoned for mixed use. Other mixed-use sites -- including hundreds of acres at Nature's Resort Campground and other mobile home/RV parks throughout the county -- could someday become ripe for similar redevelopment. In addition to limiting the intensity allowed, the proposed mixed-use changes endorsed 6-0 by the planning board Thursday would require new projects to be compatible with their surroundings. And for the first time since 1997, the density allowed on mixed-use properties would match the density shown for the site on the Comprehensive Plan's Generalized Future Land Use Map. The county eliminated mixed use from the Comprehensive Plan and its map five years ago but never changed its zoning maps. As a result, properties like the Halls River Retreat site remained on zoning maps as mixed use, where 20 units per acre are allowed, while the Comprehensive Plan map showed the property as low intensity coastal and lakes, which allows one home per 40 acres in the flood plain. "The result has been a confusing array of potentially incompatible land uses in this district at a density or intensity inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan," senior planner Ian McDonald wrote in his staff report. The measure also includes building height restrictions, an idea the planning board liked so much that it has told county planners to draft a separate proposal to limit building heights countywide. As it is now, buildings anywhere can be virtually any height, as long as they meet the county's setback requirements. The proposed restrictions for mixed-use properties would limit buildings to 30 feet above the base flood elevation in the coastal and lakes flood plains, enough for a two- or three-story home, depending on whether parking is provided beneath the home. For central ridge properties zoned for mixed use, buildings would be limited to 42 feet, or roughly four stories. Developers seeking to build higher could ask the planning board to grant a variance.
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