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Supercenter plan makes headway with county
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer CRYSTAL RIVER -- The third time may be the charm for the proposed westside supercenter. County planners are recommending approval of a proposed, no-name 200,000-square-foot retail center at the southeast corner of U.S. 19 and W Penn Drive, saying the 27-acre property has fewer wetlands and environmental limitations than previous sites. "In comparison to other large tracts within the area, the subject property offers the least environmental constraints and development will impact 3.86 acres of wetland(s)," the county's principal planner, Jenette Collins, wrote in an April 16 staff report. The latest RealtiCorp proposal, which includes a request to rezone 18 acres for commercial use, will come before the county's Planning and Development Review Board on May 2 and May 16. The County Commission would vote on the project after its own hearings June 11 and July 9. Two years ago, RealtiCorp proposed building a slightly larger discount superstore on the 32 acres north of this site, on W Venable Street immediately across from the Home Depot. But the South Carolina-based land investment company, which had an option to buy the tract, withdrew the plans because the site included 18.1 acres of wooded wetlands and would create traffic problems. Wal-Mart had shown interest in the W Venable Street site after its plans stalled for a 281,000-square-foot super center on the west side of U.S. 19 just north of Scotty's, also for environmental reasons. Officials would not say whether the discount giant is behind the latest supercenter plans at U.S. 19 and W Penn Drive. But this project will likely face the same foes: Environmentalists who fear a repeat of the Home Depot incident, in which workers breached the water table digging the stormwater retention pond behind the U.S. 19 store. "The thing that has concerned us consistently about the other sites is that they were taking out wetlands and they were basically too close to the water table to be able to put in stormwater retention ponds," said Ron Miller, president of the Citrus County Audubon Society and the Save the Homosassa River Alliance. "It just looks to me like: Are we doing it again?" Miller said. The plans include 200,000 square feet of retail space, which could fall under one roof or be split among several stores. Two separate parcels would front U.S. 19. The site would have one driveway on U.S. 19 and two customer driveways along W Penn Drive. RealtiCorp would grant the county a 60-foot-wide easement to cut an access road from W Penn Drive to W Venable Street, easing the traffic flow to the property. The front nine acres along U.S. 19 are already zoned for commercial use. Technically speaking, the county would consider two different commercial rezoning requests for the remaining 18 acres, which are designated for low-density residential use. The first is a request to rezone nine acres that already sit in the "commercial infill area," the region targeted by the Comprehensive Plan for future commercial growth. The second request is to rezone another nine acres that fall outside the commercial infill area. -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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