RUSKIN - Residents are fighting two proposed rezonings that stand between developers and their construction plans.
A hearing for the largest of these projects, the Little Harbor development, has been pushed back to Dec. 6.
The county in June accepted 78 acres of undeveloped property from Manatee Bay Associates, much of it wetlands, in exchange for 13 acres south of E.G. Simmons Park.
The developer plans to build 67 housing units on the property it acquired from the county with the understanding that commissioners will rezone the agricultural property to a planned development. The plan also entails rezoning 102 acres to build 390 homes south of the Little Manatee River and south of Shell Point Road.
Manatee Bay Associates owns the nearby Little Harbor development, and is well into building 1,500 condominium and townhome units.
The developer in late October held an open house to promote the land swap, which county environmental staffers favored as a way to save wildlife. One day after the open house, general manager Richard McGinniss sent out a press release announcing that an "overwhelming majority" of the more than 100 residents who attended supported the project.
Ruskin resident Anita Jimenez followed with her own mass e-mailing, saying that she and other residents at the open house opposed the rezoning.
Antonia Singleton, 34, also attended the open house but opposed the project, which she contends will block the ability of wildlife to cross the Little Manatee River.
"The county has spent many years and millions of dollars to create a wildlife corridor from Apollo Beach almost to the Manatee County line, and now with one rezoning they are going to defeat the whole purpose," Singleton wrote in an e-mail to the Times.
McGinniss acknowledged that some oppose the project. But he argued that little wildlife existed on the 13 acres acquired from the county, and estimated that most animals will remain in the 80-acre parcel acquired by the county for conservation.
"We are looking to preserve half of our site," McGinniss said. "Half. That, in terms of a developer's gesture, is huge."
The zoning hearing master will issue a recommendation after the Dec. 6 hearing, which begins at 6 p.m. The County Commission will consider the request on Jan. 10 . (PETITIONS 1785, 1779 and 1926)
The zoning hearing master will hear testimony on Dec. 5 about a piece of land at the south end of SW Seventh Street in Ruskin that extends into the Little Manatee River, where SWW Inc. plans to build a gated community with 67 houses.
The developer wants to rezone the 60 acres from agricultural to planned development. The Sierra Club is mobilizing to oppose it on the grounds that the development would destroy wildlife.
Dan LaValley, who lives close to the property, was among the residents who wrote the county in protest. His handwritten note alluded to 40 freedom-fighting years in the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard.
"I believe that everyone around here wants to keep this a rustic, rural area," said LaValley, 68.
After a Dec. 5 hearing before the zoning hearing master, county commissioners will hear the request on Jan. 6.
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 http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/pgm/zoning For information, call 276-5920.
Andrew Meacham is a staff writer in the Brandon bureau of the St. Petersburg Times. He can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com
