The state is seeking more proof that the city can provide for a 999-home development.
By DAN DeWITT
Published July 26, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - The state has slammed the city of Brooksville's plan to allow the 999-home Southern Hills Plantation development, saying it promotes sprawl and fails to account for the project's impact on roads.
The Department of Community Affairs sent the letter in response to the City Council's vote in May to change its comprehensive plan to accommodate the Southern Hills Plantation.
The change also allows future residential development on property owned by the developer, LandMar Group LLC. As many as 3,000 homes may be built on the company's 1,600 acres, most of which was previously designated as rural on the county's future land use map.
The letter - essentially a warning that the city's comp plan changes are not in compliance - may not be as damaging as it sounds, however.
Mostly, the state is seeking more proof from the city that it can accommodate the growth, though it does so in language that sounds like a broad condemnation of the project.
"Basically we're looking for some refinement and some additional information," said Ron Horlick, a DCA planner.
The agency, which was created in the mid 1980s to control development, once regularly required significant changes to projects. Such aggressive action has been rare since Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999.
The letter says the comp plan change "promotes ... significant amounts of urban development in rural areas at substantial distances from existing urban areas while leaping over undeveloped lands."
It also, "allows for land use patterns ... which disproportionately increase the cost in time, money and energy of providing and maintaining facilities and services," the letter stated.
The department's objections echo concerns they raised last year, when the city first proposed the comp plan change. The county also complained about some of the same issues in a lawsuit it filed against the city in June; this suit claimed the city had tailored its zoning laws to accommodate Southern Hills.
Bill Geiger, the city's community development director, said he is confident that the city can address these problems in discussions with DCA representatives.
In fact, he said, he thought the city had answered them in discussions before the city took the vote in May. He has met with the DCA several times since it sent a similar letter last year, he said.
"We told them how we planned to respond and they said, "That sounds fine,' " Geiger said.
But Horlick said the city's change still lacked significant supporting documentation, especially on the transportation portion.
"What they did in their adoption package is say, "The infrastructure will fail as a result of this development, but we'll create new infrastructure so it does not fail.' We need to know how they will do that," Horlick said.
But he also said the city had made progress since last year. The most recent list of objections is far shorter than the previous one, he said.
Among other objections, the letter says the project fails to make use of existing facilities. The city completed a new sewage treatment plant about two years ago, for example; LandMar plans to build a separate plant to serve Southern Hills, with the city picking up the cost either through direct payments or breaks given to the developer on hookup fees.
- Dan DeWitt covers the environment, politics and the City of Brooksville. He can be reached at 352 754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com
