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Development near wetlands okayed

The Hernando County project is to include 263 houses and apartments on 88 acres.

By DAN DEWITT
Published October 13, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - More than a year ago, Coastal Bay Properties of Tampa stunned residents on the southeast side of town with plans to develop 464 acres that appeared green both from their yards and on the county's future land use map.

Called either Griffin or Chocachatti prairie, the property had remained undeveloped because most of it was classified as a wetland and designated for conservation in the county's comprehensive plan.

Coastal Bay gradually whittled down its plan for the property until it was approved Wednesday by the County Commission.

No one from the public objected.

The project, with 263 houses and apartments, now covers 88 acres on the north edge of the original parcel, upland from the prairie, said Don Lacey, vice president of Coastal Engineering Associates of Brooksville, which represented the developer.

"The parcel is essentially the side of a hill," Lacey said.

To blend with the larger lots on Griffin Road, the plan calls for a 75-foot buffer along the southeast edge of the development, and lots in that part of the development will cover an acre.

The 88-acre plot - which is within an area designated for residential use in the comprehensive plan - is just south of State Road 50 and west of Griffin Road.

"We have the drainage. We are consistent with the comp plan. We've made changes to put the transition and buffering in place," Lacey told the commission.

Commission Chairwoman Diane Rowden offered the only objections, saying the property was in the drainage basin of flood-prone Bystre Lake.

Also, she said, no other subdivisions have been built nearby.

"There's not development anywhere near here," she said. "How's this consistent with the comp plan?"

County planning director Ron Pianta said the land was within the area where the city of Brooksville has the first right to provide utilities and that the larger lots helped it blend in with surrounding rural areas.

Lacey later pointed out that Coastal Bay had scaled back its plan for the 88 acres, where it had originally proposed building nearly 500 houses and apartments.

He did not say whether the apartments would be rented or sold, but did say they would be affordable. Because the project is close to Brooksville, he said, it fits with the county policy of encouraging multifamily development near jobs.

He said retention ponds on the south edge of the parcel mean the project will either reduce the amount of water draining off the property or keep it at current levels.

Rowden remained skeptical.

"Sounds good," she said. "But we all know that what we see on paper and what we see (when the development is complete) are sometimes different."

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

[Last modified October 13, 2006, 06:26:26]