RUSKIN - Hillsborough County Commissioners admitted Tuesday they may have goofed in rejecting Beazer Homes' proposal to build 2,260 homes and townhomes on 932 acres west of U.S. 301.
In August, the board denied a rezoning after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission voiced concerns about controlled burns on an adjacent preserve off Interstate 75. The smoke could present a hazard to residents and drivers on a road planned in the community, they reasoned. The agency wanted a 500-foot buffer to ensure that occasional burns would not jeopardize residents.
Developers agreed to the buffer during the August hearing, but commissioners still rejected the rezoning. In response, developers asked the board to reconsider the request to rezone the site from agricultural use to planned development.
Commissioners acknowledged the last-minute uncertainty.
"This is very, very muddy," Commissioner Pat Frank said.
In a 5-2 vote, the board agreed to send the request back to the zoning hearing master on Oct. 11. Commissioners Kathy Castor and Jan Platt were opposed.
The new timeline would return the request to commissioners on Nov. 15.
"We haven't won yet," said Ron Weaver, an attorney representing Beazer Homes.
RUSKIN: Commissioners also agreed Tuesday to reconsider their denial of a proposal to build 385 single-family homes on 137 acres in Ruskin. In August, commissioners denied the request to rezone the site from agricultural use to planned development over concerns about protecting the headwaters of Marsh Creek and the proposed density of the development.
The developer's representative argued that the environmental concerns were unwarranted and the density was justified in the area. The proposed development is located at the southeast corner of 14th Avenue SE and 15th Street. But some commissioners still had doubts.
"That is a more intense development than is warranted in that area, and there's nothing that was in the record that disputed that," Frank said.
The board agreed in a 4-3 vote to rehear the proposal. The board will reconsider the proposal at a hearing on Oct. 26th. (PETITION 04-46)
VALRICO - Confusion over the status of a request to rezone for 3.5 acres at the southwest corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Holland Drive to planned development for an office center prompted commissioners to postpone a decision for two weeks.
Apparently, some residents believed that a drive-in bank currently at the location no longer wanted to go through with the rezoning. Then the bank reconsidered, and the rezoning again was desired, according to the representative for the rezoning's applicant.
But commissioners feared that some residents remained confused or did not learn of the hearing, since much of east Hillsborough lost electricity for days after Hurricane Jeanne.
To be safe, they decided to push back a decision until an Oct. 12 hearing. The site is zoned for agricultural use and planned development. (PETITION 04-706)
When and where
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 www.hillsboroughcounty.org/pgm/zoning/hearings.html For information, call 276-2058.
