LUTZ: Hospital rooms are getting bigger these days, so hospitals need to do the same.
By JEREMY HAYES
Published December 4, 2005
With that argument, St. Joseph's Hospital wants to build a four-story hospital on Van Dyke Road, instead of the three-story one the county approved four years ago. Medical offices are being built there now, with the hospital still on the drawing boards.
St. Joseph's is proposing to eliminate a 300-bed nursing home from the plans, to compensate for the larger hospital.
Next door, Calusa Trace is wary. "We just think it's too tall, too close, too big," said Gerry Reno, homeowners president in the 520-home development.
The question goes before a zoning hearing master Monday night. The county's planners have endorsed it. (Petition 05-2100)
UNIVERSITY AREA: With housing and rental prices steadily rising, affordable housing is gaining importance in urban areas.
The Oaks at Stone Fountain, if approved, would bring 74 new affordable housing units to the University area, at 19th Street north of 131st Avenue. The plan would merge three parcels of land with four others, which are already zoned multifamily. As many as 16 of the existing units could be renovated, and 58 newly built.
Thirty-five of the units would be reserved for families earning less than 50 percent of the area's median income, and the remaining units would go to families making 50 to 60 percent of the median.
The Oaks at Stone Fountain Limited Partnership, which is seeking the rezoning, is also considering two-parent and single-parent families in their plans. The partners argue that there is a severe shortage of rental housing available for families, and that many new properties are being developed to exclude children. To that end, all 58 of the newly constructed units would be built with more than two bedrooms. (Petition 06-0310)
TOWN 'N COUNTRY: Bert Barber received approval for Carrollwood Gardens, a development of 68 two-story townhomes at Humphrey Road east of Lois Avenue. He now wants to modify the development to build three-story instead of two-story buildings. Barber argues that this will maximize open space and minimize the impact on wetlands.
Barber also wants to change the plan of the internal roads in the development, to ease the flow of interior traffic and to maximize building space. (Petition 06-0312)
CITRUS PARK: Finding office space in Citrus Park might become easier if a planned development is approved for 2,700 square feet of medical and professional offices on Gunn Highway.
Lawrence Migliara and Charles Inman are seeking approval to build offices on their property on Gunn Highway a quarter-mile east of the Veterans Expressway and abutting the Tampa Jewish Family Services Center.
The problem comes with a rule saying that a planned development cannot be accepted on a parcel of less than 2 acres. The owners, though, argue that their offices would be consistent with the surrounding area, where four nearby parcels have recently been rezoned for office use.
In addition, they argue that more than half of the land along Gunn Highway in that area already holds offices. (Petition 05-0315)
UNIVERSITY AREA: Bob Annibale of Avid Car Rental Systems Inc. wants to build a car rental business at 13116 N Florida Ave.
The parcel is zoned for mixed uses, where part is zoned for commercial use and part is zoned residential. Annibale wants to change the zoning to entirely commercial. (Petition 06-0334)
- Times staff writer Bill Coats contributed to this report. Jeremy Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5302 or via e-mail at jchayes@sptimes.com
