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County okays 379-home development

The developer must include timber harvesting and burning information on all deeds and contracts.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published October 12, 2006

INVERNESS - County commissioners voted unanimously to approve a master plan for a 379-home development on Pleasant Grove Road on Tuesday.

The gated community will be outside the city limits on 141 acres about a mile south of State Road 44, just east of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

As a condition of approval, commissioners required the developer to mention the Division of Forestry's regular timber harvesting and prescribed burning on all contracts and deeds for property in the subdivision.

Developer Vista Realty Group of Orlando still needs to get final plat approval. That's when county officials will ensure that local utilities have the capacity to serve the project.

But county staffers said Tuesday that isn't a concern on Pleasant Grove Road - yet.

"We will be facing concurrency issues on this roadway," which also is known as County Road 581, director of Development Services Gary Maidhof said. He noted that there are several projects in the works on that road.

When it comes to reserving capacity for developments, the county's approach is "first-come, first-served," he said.

Ten minutes later, commissioners found themselves in a similar discussion about a proposed office complex only a few miles away on Croft Avenue.

McFarland Construction asked the county to rezone 3.56 acres from low density residential to professional service/office. But a report from county staffers said the road doesn't have the capacity to handle the increased traffic the project would generate.

"These folks are facing the wall" that property owners on Pleasant Grove will face eventually, Maidhof said.

Commissioners ultimately tabled their discussion of the office complex in light of concerns raised by Inverness attorney Clark Stillwell, who claimed the county had used incorrect traffic guidelines to evaluate the proposal.

Commissioner Jim Fowler said the project was part of a larger problem.

"This has just been a screwed-up mess, Croft Road, and it's only going to get worse," he said. "We've known for years that Croft needed to be four-laned."

He asked commissioners to commit to widening the road. But several commissioners said that was premature.

In other news at Tuesday's meeting:

- Commissioners voted unanimously for County Attorney Robert "Butch" Battista to ask for an attorney general's opinion on how much insurance the county must require for its contractors. The vote came after a lengthy discussion about the county's aquatic weed harvesting contracts.

The County Commission unanimously decided to award the contracts to the bidder who had met the bonding requirements outlined in the county's bid request. But commissioners said wording in a state law about how much insurance the county should require was unclear.

- Commissioners accepted Marion Knudsen's resignation from the District 2 position on the Planning and Development Review Board. Her term will expire Nov. 30.

- The commission approved changes to the county's dress code. Male employees who had been required to wear ties now have the option of going without, and female employees no longer must wear hosiery when they wear open-toed shoes.

Times staff writers Jim Ross and Barbara Behrendt contributed to this report. Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified October 11, 2006, 20:26:35]