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County delays decision on land-use plan

Developers and real estate brokers say proposed changes would have an adverse effect on business.

By DAN DeWITT
Published July 14, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - County Planner Jim King said last week that business people had offered no objections to a planned revision of the county comprehensive plan.

"There has not been a single negative comment," he said.

But after Wednesday's County Commission meeting, King founded himself surrounded by a half-dozen hostile developers and real estate brokers, including Ana Trinque.

"You're strangling business is what you're doing," Trinque told King.

Similar objections to the revisions convinced the County Commission to postpone making a decision on them until next month. This will give planners time to meet with business leaders to discuss their concerns.

Len Tria, a government liaison for three business groups, said most of the members he represents were unaware of the proposed changes, which are part of a plan update the state requires every seven years.

After the meeting, King said they should have been informed; he sent e-mails to all the organizations, informing them of public hearings where the changes would be discussed.

Whether or not the members of the groups were adequately informed, Tria said, they are now mobilizing to oppose the changes.

"This is not a growth management plan, this is a no-growth plan," Brooksville real estate broker Gary Schraut said during a break in the meeting.

Two of the changes would close loopholes that have allowed the spread of strip commercial development. By limiting new construction to existing nodes, these changes would save the county and state huge amounts of road-building money, King said last week.

Schraut and others said the new rules would result in a shortage of land available for commercial development; it also would render road-front property nearly worthless because it is not desirable for residential development, Schraut said.

Schraut also complained about similar restrictions designed to stop the spread of residential development into agricultural areas.

In other business, the commission postponed decisions on two other controversial plans on Wednesday.

They decided to delay hearing a plan to build a commercial shopping center south of the entrance to the Glen Lakes subdivision, which is on U.S. 19 north of Weeki Wachee.

Residents filled the meeting room, concerned that the plan called for a private road in their development to connect to the shopping center.

The postponement is designed to give the county time to find out whether the developers have a right to use the road.

The commission also put off the vote on a plan by Sun Fiberglass Products Inc. to transform an abandoned house on Martin Luther King Boulevard to a sales center. Commissioner Nancy Robinson said she could not vote for rezoning to allow this plan because it would allow dump trucks and heavy equipment to be parked on the property, which is adjacent to a residential neighborhood in southern Brooksville.

Planners will look for a zoning classification that will allow the sales center but prohibit truck parking and potential objectionable future uses, including bars and miniwarehouses.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified July 14, 2005, 00:31:19]