County commissioners also are frustrated when they learn about changes to the development at Gunn Highway and N Mobley.
By JOSH ZIMMER
Published May 30, 2003
ODESSA - An angry debate unfolded at Tuesday's Hillsborough County Commission meeting over what is arguably Keystone's most important project.
So did a nagging sense of deja vu.
The Keystone Civic Association wanted to know why commercial plans for Keystone Shores, an upscale mixed-use development at the northeast corner of Gunn Highway and N Mobley, appeared to have changed.
Frustrated commissioners asked the same thing.
"Who did it?" Commissioner Pat Frank asked county planners. "This is the same thing we've run into before. If we make a condition . . . that should be like money in the bank."
In a unanimous vote, the board pushed for answers from the Department of Planning and Growth Management, which approved the site plan changes.
Saying their credibility is at stake, commissioners gave the staff several weeks to prepare a report explaining why the 18,000-square-foot business park concept looks different than the one they approved.
It's a hot-button issue in Keystone, where mistrust of county planners runs deep. Many residents accuse staff of letting developers change site plans, undercutting efforts to preserve the area's rural character.
Tuesday's discussion mirrored the controversy over the Keystone Crossings strip mall, home of Kash 'N Karry, at Gunn and Van Dyke Road. In that case, a year-and-a-half ago, staff approved a final plan that barely resembled the more upscale artists' rendering approved by the commissioners.
Plaintiffs, including the civic association, sued and eventually forced the Sembler Co., developer of Centro Ybor and BayWalk in St. Petersburg, to make major changes. The commission criticized staff, saying future artist renderings it approved would have to be followed.
That is one reason why residents and board members were so flabbergasted by developer Dimitri Artzibushev's project. Another reason is the importance of the Gunn-N Mobley intersection.
Commonly called Fox's Corner, it is the area's proposed commercial and communal center. Residents, with guidance from the City-County Planning Commission, already are exchanging ideas on what the intersection should look like.
One of the Cracker-style buildings has been up for months. The tenants held an invitation-only party last Friday, expecting to open their art gallery on June 3, weeks before the commission will see the Planning and Growth Management report they ordered Tuesday.
Artzibushev, who is applying for further changes to the 1998 rezoning, is seeking a temporary certificate of occupancy so the opening can move ahead as planned. The tenants, Steve and Laura Metzer of Keystone, believe their gallery represents a positive model for the future community center.
"We understood . . . that everybody was happy with it," said Steve Metzer. "That was a major surprise."
In his application, Artzibushev wants to delete or soften some conditions. But, essentially, he was seeking the commission's blessing for a redesign they knew nothing about.
That redesign - moving the gallery building west to preserve a stand of oak trees - occurred during site plan review when Artzibushev's planners sat down with county staff. The effect was to eliminate a planned courtyard along Gunn.
After the vote, Artzibushev said he had met with residents and thought everyone was on the same page. The association let him know that was far from the case.
"Our community is furious; they feel cheated," association president Rich Dugger said. "The deals were made and the developer is not paying up."
Marvin Travis was equally direct.
"I do not understand how a developer can proceed to this point without the planning people monitoring what's going on," he said.
Craig Mahlman, who heads site plan review for Planning and Growth Management, tried to downplay the significance of what happened. He said it is hard to make site plans fit new zoning requirements under the community plan.
That led Commissioner Ronda Storms to question why the board's land use votes matter at all.
During an interview afterward in his office, Mahlman said he regretted ongoing misunderstandings about the site plan review process. General site plans - the ones the board approves - often are altered for practical reasons, he said.
For example, environmental agencies may say that a detention pond needs another location. Or, in this case, a developer might wish to save large trees by moving a building.
"We followed the general site plan," in spirit, he said. "We're going to be totally vindicated."
Commissioners also voted to let residents participate in the project analysis. Their anger wasn't lost on Bruce McClendon, Planning and Growth Management's new director.
"These are things we're going to look into," he said. "We want to re-establish confidence."
- Josh Zimmer covers Keystone/Odessa, University North and Citrus Park. He can be reached at 269-5314 or zimmer@sptimes.com
