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Proposed subdivision doesn't fit plan

Oak Crest developers want to change the comprehensive plan for Hernando County. Planners are concerned about using up industrial space.

By DAN DeWITT
Published August 25, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - The county has received yet another proposal for a subdivision with more than 1,000 homes - one more sign that the current growth spurt may be the most explosive in Hernando history.

Woodshed Development Corp. of Tampa wants to change the county's comprehensive plan so it can build a shopping center and 1,700 houses and apartments on 685 acres in Ridge Manor. The Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, which owns about 200 of the acres, is seeking permission to enlarge a church there and build a school and retirement community.

Oak Crest, as the project is called, is the fourth proposal for a development of regional impact that the county has received in a little more than a year, said Jerry Greif, the county's chief planner. The DRI projects, which are subject to a higher level of scrutiny and regulation, have a total of nearly 10,000 housing units.

Of course, they first need the county's approval, and Oak Crest faces at least one significant obstacle, Greif said.

Most of the Oak Crest parcel - at the southeast corner of State Road 50 and U.S. 301 - is designated for industrial use on the county's comprehensive plan. County planners have repeatedly said Hernando may face a long-term shortage of industrial property and have advised against allowing the remaining land to be used for subdivisions.

The planners, who will have their first formal meeting with Oak Crest today have not yet made any recommendations about the project, Greif said. But the industrial designation "is obviously going to be one of the major issues," he said.

"At some point, we're going to need to add some industrial land."

Representatives of Woodshed did not return telephone calls about the project, but Steve Zientek, manager of real estate and planning for the diocese, said the land never should have been designated as industrial.

"We think it's sort of an overzealous mapping situation," he said.

The diocese does not have any immediate plans to expand the church - St. Anne on U.S. 301 - or do any other construction, he said, but wants the right to do so in the future.

Also, Zientek said, "We don't want (industry) next to our church in the years to come."

The other proposed DRIs are Sunrise, near Interstate 75; Hickory Hill in Spring Lake; and World Woods in northern Hernando County.

Before those, the last DRI proposal in the county was Seven Hills, west of Mariner Boulevard between Spring Hill Drive and County Line Road, which the county approved in the late 1980s.

[Last modified August 25, 2005, 00:52:33]