Will Citrus Park Village begin to sprout from the bucolic environs of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail or will the sounds of development remain in the future for a while?
By JOSH ZIMMER
Published November 16, 2003
CITRUS PARK - Now that the Citrus Park Village Plan is firmly in place, what's next?
The Hillsborough County Commission last week gave final approval to rules that will guide future development throughout this 800-acre community. But will developers be interested in the energetic mix of homes and businesses envisioned in the plan? If so, when might the building begin?
Assessments differ. Residents who spearheaded the community planning effort see a range of possibilities, from rapid growth to short-term inactivity.
Richard Wolfe offers the rosiest scenario for the development-minded. A member of the citizens steering committee that drew up the plan, he claims to have no insider knowledge of impending land deals - just an optimist's nose for what's to come.
"I would imagine by the summer we would expect two to three projects," said Wolfe, who owns 10 acres in central Citrus Park now zoned for multifamily use such as apartments or townhomes. "Hopefully, that would stimulate the rest of it."
Frank Glavan, the steering committee's chairman, is more guarded.
Glavan owns Citrus Park Computer, a business near the Upper Tampa Bay Trail that employs about 20 people. Although the business is by a proposed village center of shops and homes near the intersection of Gunn Highway and Ehrlich Road, he has no immediate plans to expand his business.
"I would say, by and large, most of the people who own property . . . have no intention of doing anything with the property (yet)," he said. "It was really slated as a 20-year plan."
The plan emerged after four years of contentious debate pitting supporters of aggressive growth vs. people who feared that would spoil Citrus Park's small-town character.
In the end, development supporters won out. The final plan calls for higher housing densities and building heights.
Linda Gadbaw, who fought against the current plan, believes it will not create a comfortable community to live and walk in. There's too much construction built into the plan, she said.
"Hopefully that's not the kind of development that's coming in . . . and the greedy people will decide they have to settle for less money," she said. "A lot of people have moved in liking the rural thing. That's what I'd like to see."
Future use of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, where longtime landowners own significant tracts of developable land, turned into one of the most divisive issues.
The plan's critics accused some landowners of supporting denser growth to cash in on their properties.
Wolfe and Glavan consider that insulting. To Bill Billingsley, whose family owns 25 acres south of the proposed village center, the only fair thing was to guarantee the family's right to sell the property for development.
County parks officials didn't want any buildings south of the future village center. But they eventually compromised after winning concessions from the citizens committee, later approved by the County Commission.
Under the agreement, the planning district on the trail's east side in Citrus Park still allows for a combination of businesses and homes. But to discourage sprawl, buildings can only cover half of a development lot and will have to be within 50 feet of the trail's easternmost boundary. Businesses have the choice of facing the trail or turning to the side.
Development along the west side is restricted to businesses, which must face the trail.
Many residents and landowners are eager to see that pristine section of trail transformed into an upscale commercial strip with ice cream shops, bike rental stores and other businesses.
For Billingsley, the issue is about more than money. He wants his family to make enough profit from developers so they can buy enough land for all the relatives in Citrus Park.
They decided to sell their individual properties together in hopes of maximizing the land's market appeal.
"We would be buying . . . a bigger place where we could all live together," Billingsley said. "The way it is now, we have to cook him (my father) something and take it over to him."
He has talked with developers before. But at this point, he thinks any deals are automatically on hold until the county resolves land ownership issues along the trail.
The county recently acknowledged that it may not own a 100-foot-wide right-of-way along the old railroad corridor comprising the 4-mile trail through Citrus Park and Town 'N Country.
Some landowners just south of Ehrlich Road believe there's only a 60-foot-wide public corridor in their area, and the county is claiming 40 more feet of land than it really controls.
The county Real Estate Department is surveying the entire trail, not just in Citrus Park, to determine how much land Hillsborough County really owns. That report should be ready early next year.
"It's kind of hard for a buyer to come in there and draw up a site plan when you don't know what the boundaries are," Billingsley said. "I still think it's up to the county until we settle that issue."
- Josh Zimmer covers University North, Keystone and Odessa and Citrus Park. He can be reached at 269-5314 or zimmer@sptimes.com
