Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
DAN DeWITTA new subdivision near Brooksville may prompt a money-saving arrangement.
BROOKSVILLE - For the city of Brooksville, the 999-home Southern Hills Plantation comes with one big initial expense: $2.6-million to help build a new sewage treatment plant to serve the planned development.
The city is now looking for a way to cut that cost, and it is considering doing so with an unlikely partner - the county.
The proposal is for the city to buy, at a bulk rate, sewage capacity from the county's treatment plant near the Hernando County Airport. The city would then bill residents of Southern Hills, and its developer - LandMar Group LLC of Jacksonville - for sewer service.
"They would be the city's customer," said Kay Adams, director of the county Utility Department.
Adams and city staffers emphasize that the talks are in the early stages, and several obstacles remain.
"We're just having very preliminary discussions," said Emory Pierce, the city's Public Works director. "There's three parties here, and everyone needs to have their needs met."
The most obvious possible advantage for the city and LandMar is saving money. But hooking into the county sewer system could also be one of the objections to the development raised by the state Department of Community Affairs - that Southern Hills fails to use existing infrastructure. The county, meanwhile, would find a large customer for its underutilized plant.
In a development agreement approved by the City Council in May, the city agreed to pay roughly half the cost of a new plant, which would be built south of Brooksville, on the west side of U.S. 41, across the highway from the 1,600 acres that LandMar owns.
The new plant is needed, LandMar has said, because the company wants to irrigate Southern Hills' golf course and lawns with reclaimed water; the city's existing plant cannot provide water clean enough for that purpose.
Neither can the county's plant, Adams said. Also, under terms of a previous agreement, Silverthorn has first right to any reclaimed water available from the airport plant.
But, Adams said, the current rate of development should mean reclaimed water is available sooner than the county had expected. Silverthorn, Pristine Place, and Hernando Oaks all use the airport plant. So will Sterling Hill, a 1,250-home development on Elgin Boulevard.
"If these developments grow the way their developers expect them to, (the plant) is going to have flows like we built it for," Adams said.
Brooksville officials are also examining how much the city would save by tapping into the airport plant.
The main service lines would not be long because the county has already extended pipes to Hernando Oaks, which is just across U.S. 41 from Southern Hills.
But to offer reclaimed water, the developer, probably with the help of the city, would have to extend a separate pipeline several miles to the airport plant, Pierce said.
"We'll look into whatever will save the city and the developer money," said Bill Geiger, the city's community development director.
- Dan DeWitt can be reached at 352754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com