Three plans in works for site near Dale Mabry, Sunlake Drive

Livingston Avenue rezoning would allow 360 apartments.

By LOGAN MABE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000

LUTZ -- A Tampa developer has designs on an undeveloped tract of land between N Dale Mabry and Lutz-Lake Fern Road north of Sunlake Drive.

David A. Kennedy has requested a rezoning that would allow several businesses to be built across the middle of the roughly triangular parcel. Kennedy is asking the zoning be changed on 5.2 acres of the property, from neighborhood commercial to planned development, to make way for a mini-warehouse and a restaurant or retail outlet.

The plan, as outlined in the application, has three alternatives, all of which include an approximately 70,000-square-foot warehouse. In addition to the warehouse, one version has a 6,000-square-foot "quality restaurant." A second version would bring a specialty retail shop of the same size. The third version has a 3,300-square-foot fast-food restaurant.

Access to the businesses, which will stretch between Dale Mabry and Lutz-Lake Fern Road, would be from Dale Mabry.

That stretch of highway has a level of service rating of "D."

The site for the proposed development is across the street from a neighborhood of lakeside homes, one of which Kennedy owns. (Petition RZ 00-0841)

LUTZ: A former Major League Baseball pitcher is asking to rezone 43 acres on the east side of Livingston Road at Martha Circle for a 360-unit apartment complex.

Emmer Development Corp., a Gainesville company, is the applicant but the parcel is owned by Layne and Lance McCullers. Lance McCullers, who grew up in Lutz, was a relief pitcher with several major-league teams before injury cut short his career.

Plans for the complex call for 30 12-unit buildings of two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments. (Petition RZ 00-0832)

KEYSTONE: Belleair Development Group, Inc., a Largo company, is asking to rezone 5.2 acres at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road to build a complex of office space, a bank, a day care center and a retail outlet.

The undeveloped lot is on the northeast corner of the junction and abuts the Upper Tampa Bay Trail on the east. The site is zoned agricultural and Belleair Development is asking for a planned development designation. (Petition RZ 00-0837)

LUTZ: Westfield Development Corp. is seeking a special-use permit to make it easier to deliver dirt to two school construction sites just south of its property along the Suncoast Parkway, south of the Pasco County line.

In October, Westfield was granted a two-year special-use permit to excavate 330,000 cubic yards of fill material from the site. This latest filing is to amend one of the conditions of that permit to change the haul route.

The company wants to have a direct route to haul materials from the site to elementary and middle school sites directly south of the property. (Petition SU 00-0874)

CITRUS PARK: Centex Homes recently bought 40 acres of land at Sheldon Road and Linebaugh Avenue from Osprey Property Group for a townhouse project. Centex paid $1.13-million for the parcel and plans to build a 130-unit townhouse development there, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm that brokered the deal.

Where and when

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. The zoning hearings begin at 6 p.m. and the commission meetings begin at 9 a.m. Both are televised on government access channels. The land-use hearing officer hearings, which are not televised, begin at 9 a.m. For information, call 272-5920.

Livingston Avenue rezoning would allow 360 apartments.

Commercial development proposed at Van Dyke and Gunn.

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