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County hears growth concerns

Developers say there isn't enough commercial and residential land in Hernando's comprehensive plan, but county officials see plenty of space.

By DAN DeWITT
Published July 22, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Along with Robert Buckner's familiar argument that Hernando County faces a future shortage of commercial land, the Brooksville real estate broker produced figures he said backed up his claim.

An analysis of property records, which he presented to county planners Thursday, showed about 75 percent of the land available to build shops and restaurants on State Road 50 west of Brooksville has already been developed; 71 percent is already occupied on southern U.S. 19.

Not setting aside additional commercial land in the county's new comprehensive plan, Buckner said, "is not good common-sense planning."

When county planners look at the comprehensive plan, though, they see large reservoirs of land for future business districts.

These include part of the 4,800-acre planned development community on SR 50 near Interstate 75, the land around the Hernando County Airport and chunks of commercial property in subdivisions such as Hernando Oaks and Southern Hills Plantation.

Planning director Larry Jennings said he would consider the arguments of Buckner and other business interests and agreed to meet with them again on Aug. 1. But he did not promise the requests he heard Thursday would become part of the comprehensive plan.

"This is pretty late in the game and this is a game that has been going on for more than two years," Jennings said.

"If you add a lot of issues at the last minute, they're probably not going to fly."

On Aug. 10, the County Commission is scheduled to recommend broad changes to the comprehensive plan, which the state requires every seven years. Though the county has held several public meetings, several business groups complained last week that they had not had a voice in the revision of the plan.

The meeting on Thursday was small enough to be held around the conference table at the County Government Center, and included representatives from the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce, the Hernando Builders Association and the Hernando County Association of Realtors.

Mostly, they argued for extending the strip development in the county, especially in areas expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, including U.S. 41 south of Brooksville and on SR 50 near the interstate.

They also complained about increasing restrictions on converting agricultural land to residential development.

Len Tria, hired by the three groups to monitor the comprehensive plan, pointed to a paragraph in the new draft and said, "This basically says there won't be any development until all these things occur."

Just as with commercial land, a cap on new residential property would cause growth to stall. It would also force development into old, large and poorly planned subdivisions, especially Royal Highlands.

Jim King, a county planner who helped write the changes to the plan, disagreed. The current plan would allow about 220,000 homesites for residential development, he said, about three times the current number.

The county has already approved several large residential developments, some of which are just starting to sell houses; it also has several more on line.

If the plan is unfairly restricting growth, Jennings said, he hasn't seen any evidence of it.

"I certainly haven't noticed things coming to a grinding halt," he said.

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

[Last modified July 22, 2005, 00:33:20]