The people in the neighborhoods that are affected aren't going to like it, but if it wasn't in their back yards, they probably would agree with it.
I'm referring to the proposals to build condominiums at two sites near Mariner Boulevard and State Road 50. The Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hear the developers' requests at its meeting in Brooksville on Monday.
One proposal, by Wright Land Development, LLC, asks the commission to rezone 16 acres adjacent to Tara Street and Lola Drive, just south of State Road 50. The parcel is a few blocks behind behind Mariner Square Shopping Center, where the big Beall's store and the county's original Wal-Mart are located. The developer wants to build 20 single-family homes, and 120 condominiums. The land is zoned for single-family and the commission must consider whether to rezone it to include multifamily housing.
The other rezoning request comes from Charles G. Sheffield, who wants to build 14 duplexes, 40 single-family homes and some small retail stores on 20 acres on Jacqueline Road. That site is north of State Road 50 and behind the Coastal Way Shopping Center, which is roughly behind the Belk's store and the soon-to-open Circuit City.
Not surprisingly, residents in both areas are lobbying against the rezoning proposals. You can't blame them; no one wants to see the quiet woods behind their homes cleared and replaced with asphalt and stucco, or for increased traffic to cause them to pause before they back out of their driveways.
But it makes good sense to build multifamily developments near commercial hubs. Clustering residences near the places where people can work, shop and eat is not only convenient, it is sound land-use planning. It was an accepted reality for most of the people who moved here from other states, and the burgeoning growth in Hernando County necessitates that the same logic be applied here.
One of the concerns of residents near the proposed Wright Land Development (south of State Road 50) is traffic. That's a legitimate safety issue. But before residents near there use that as a premise for their opposition, they should know that the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization already has designated that area for road improvements.
According to county road planner Dennis Dix, there is a plan to build a collector road from the intersection of Mariner Boulevard and Landover Boulevard (the first one farthest north toward State Road 50) east to Irving Street (currently a dead end from Barclay Road). That link eventually will connect to the yet-to-be-constructed southern extension of Sunshine Grove Road, which is just west of Sam's Club and beyond the Progress Energy power lines. That network of roads is scheduled for completion in 5 to 10 years.
Or, it could be sooner if these multifamily rezoning proposals are approved and the MPO revises it priorities.
I'm not saying the Planning and Zoning Commission should approve these projects at this time. There may be variables to which I'm not privy, and it may mean the developers are jumping the gun.
But I do agree with the consensus of a group of County Commission-appointed residents who were assigned to make recommendations about needed amendments to the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. That panel advised that dense residential developments should be located near existing commercial centers that have the infrastructure to support the people who live, or will move, there. If those people can walk, bicycle or take a short drive to work, it will relieve traffic on the county's major roads.
In the long run, that is preferable to spoiling the back yard views of a handful of residents who, try as they may, are only putting off the inevitable.
The Planning and Zoning Commission, and the County Commission, where the decisions about these two proposals eventually will be made, should take that long view in their deliberations.
This is only the first of several busy intersections in the county where similar multifamily developments will be proposed. The planners and commissioners need to ask themselves, if not here, where?
