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Third time, charm is used on neighbors for rezoning

BRANDON: For the third time in one year, the southwest corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and John Moore Road is being considered for rezoning.

Vincent Marchetti has filed a request to rezone 35 acres at the intersection to a "planned development" zoning to permit commercial and residential development. The property owners want to build an 11,000-square-foot drug store, 12,775 square feet of office space and 12,000 square feet of retail space along Bloomingdale Avenue, and about 50 homes on John Moore Road. Current zoning permits one home per acre on the site.

Residents in the area successfully defeated previous plans for that corner. In December, the County Commission denied a request from the Barclay Group to build a CVS drug store on Bloomingdale Avenue. And in April, commissioners denied a rezoning request from Centex Homes that would have allowed 125 homes on John Moore Road.

"We know it's going to be developed," said Jeannette Figari, who helped organize neighborhood opposition to the two prior projects. "We just want to make sure it's going to be developed in a way that's compatible."

Developers met with residents in August to discuss their plans for the site.

Transcend Development, a division of Brandon-based Sunrise Homes, has suggested minimum lot sizes of 9,600 square feet. Centex had proposed minimum lot sizes of 5,750 square feet.

The Barclay Group has eliminated from its plan a fast food outlet and convenience store with gas pumps, which residents objected to in the past.

"We're involving the neighbors in the process, in the planning, in the design," Marchetti said.

That, he hopes, will make this third time around the charm.

A zoning hearing master is scheduled to consider the request Dec. 15. (Petition 03-1603)

SEFFNER: County commissioners on Tuesday sent a request from the Archerd Co. to rezone 102 acres at the northeast corner of Kingsway Road and U.S. 92 back to zoning hearing officials.

The parcel is currently zoned for one home per acre and general commercial development. The developer wants a planned development zoning to accommodate either 319 single-family homes and up to 175,000 square feet of commercial space, or 98 townhomes, 252 single-family homes and 156,800 square feet of commercial space.

Residents of the Shangri-La subdivision south of the proposed development object to the project. They expressed concern about the large number of homes in the plan and the potential for increased traffic and drainage problems.

"The plan should have been approved today," said developer Fritz Archerd after commissioners made their decision. "We brought a very well-planned project."

Commissioner Jim Norman was the only commissioner who voted against the remand. He said the county's comprehensive plan allows for this type of project on the site and the developer had already invested a great deal of time and money putting together a project that adhered to government planning documents.

"We can't have something out there that exists and people follow our rules and then we turn them down," he said.

A zoning hearing official will reconsider the request Nov. 18. (Petition 03-0753)

RUSKIN: Stokes and Griffith Properties wants to rezone 195 acres on the north side of Shell Point Road between 14th and Fourth streets to planned development to make way for 700 single-family homes. Current zoning allows one home per acre on portions of the property and one home per five acres on other parcels. The property, which currently is used for commercial farming, is owned by Artesian Farms and Ruskin Builders, Inc.

The property is adjacent to 258 acres that in February was rezoned to accommodate 625 homes.

A zoning hearing master is scheduled to consider the Stokes and Griffith request Dec. 15. (Petition 03-1602)

SABAL PARK: The Compass Rose Foundation has asked to rezone 10.5 acres at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King and Riga boulevards from manufacturing to planned development. The change would allow Compass Rose to use an existing 30,307-square-foot building on the site as a temporary educational facility and office space and then build a new, 100,000-square-foot education center designed to accommodate up to 900 students, faculty and staff. The majority of classes will be held in the evenings and weekends. A zoning hearing official is scheduled to consider the request Dec. 15. (Petition 03-1607)

RIVERVIEW: Robert and Cheri Encinosa have asked for a major modification to the zoning of 6.5 acres on Boyette Road just east of U.S. 301. The modification would permit a 13,000-square-foot expansion of the Boyette Animal Hospital and a 2,000-square-foot addition to a neighboring office building. A zoning hearing official is scheduled to consider the request Dec. 15. (Petition 03-1606)

Hearings of county zoning hearing masters and land use hearing officers, and land use meetings of the County Commission are held 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.