BrandonTimes: School Board plans tech training center

Zoning

School Board plans tech training center

By JANET ZINK
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2003

Editor's note: This column follows zoning petition requests for new commercial, retail and residential developments to provide you with specific information about what's being planned in your community. We'll also alert you about public hearings so that you can make your voice heard. Petition numbers are provided in bold to help you get more information from the county.

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The Hillsborough County School Board has asked to rezone 15 acres on Ellicott Avenue between Falkenburg Road and Interstate 75 to build a technology training facility.

The proposed Center for Information and Communications Technology would accommodate 300 to 400 students per day and house 10 computer labs, classrooms and an auditorium. The $3.3-million, 25,000-square-foot facility would support the area's high-tech industry by offering information technology and computer training classes in such areas as customer service, hardware and software installation, software certification and systems operations.

The school district currently provides similar courses at Learey Technical Center on East Hillsborough Avenue. Learey trains students in a wide variety of vocations, ranging from health care to construction.

"There was a need to expand and concentrate," says Mike Grego, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the School District of Hillsborough County. "Twenty years ago, we wouldn't be in the position we're in now. There are a lot more jobs, a lot more calls for training, a lot more calls for certifications."

The center is being planned in conjunction with corporate partners such as Capital One, Citibank and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

"We're there to serve the local industry," Grego says. "We can send our instructors out to the industry, or they can send their employees to us. So it's not as large a physical facility as Irwin or Brewster (technical centers)."

The school district plans to begin construction on the center this spring. Classes would start in early 2004.

A zoning hearing master will hear the request to reclassify the property from agricultural to planned development on April 28. (Petition RZ 03-0435)

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The following newly-filed petitions are also scheduled to be reviewed by the zoning hearing master on April 28.

PROGRESS VILLAGE: Premier Design Homes of Florida has asked to rezone 99 acres of vacant land bordered by Bloomingdale Avenue, I-75 and Progress Village Boulevard as planned development for the construction of 1,267 townhouses, condominiums or apartments. Recreational facilities on the site would include a swimming pool and play areas. The land is zoned agricultural and single-family residential. (Petition RZ 03-0439)

SUMMERFIELD: Domres Real Estate Investment wants to rezone 43 acres on Cowley Road between U.S. 301 and Interstate 75 from agricultural to planned development. The proposed subdivision, on land used as a dairy farm, would include 166 single-family homes. (Petition RZ 03-0433)

RIVERVIEW: LMC Riverview Inc. wants to rezone a 50-acre parcel at the corner of U.S. 301 and Gibsonton Drive from planned development and agricultural to retail and office development for the construction of 350,000 square feet of retail and office space and a cell tower. (Petition RZ 03-0424)

RIVERVIEW: Beazer Homes Corp. has filed a request to rezone 47.86 acres on Balm Riverview Road to build 130 single-family homes. Proposed lot sizes are a minimum of 50 feet wide by 120 feet deep. The land is zoned for agricultural uses. (RZ 03-0410)

Clarification

SUN CITY CENTER: On Jan. 28, the Board of County Commissioners approved modifications to plans for a 1,385-acre development on the northeast corner of State Road 674 at U.S. 301, just east of Sun City Center. The modifications will allow for an increase in the building height of commercial development from 30 feet to 35 feet. The approved modifications also increase the office component from 50,000 square feet to 110,000 square feet. Developers of the property, known as DG Farms, previously won approval to construct a 137-acre golf course, 5,380 residential units and 410,000 square feet of office and commercial space. The modification brings the total office and commercial space to 470,000 square feet. (MM 02-1062)

When and where

Hearings of county zoning hearing masters and land use hearing officers, and land use meetings of the County Commission are on the second floor of the County Center, 601 E Kennedy Blvd. All hearings before a zoning hearing master begin at 6 p.m. on Mondays or Tuesdays; commission meetings begin at 9 a.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Both are televised on government access channels. Land use hearing officer hearings, which are not televised, begin at 9 a.m. every third Friday. Basic information about each petition is available online at http://was.hillsboroughcounty.org/pgm_zoning/home.cfm by petition date. For information, call 276-2058.