Revised store plan refused by county

The compromise plan for a general store and offices at Race Track Road and Gunn Highway is voted down.

By JACKIE RIPLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 30, 2000

ODESSA -- There will be no general store allowed at the corner of Race Track Road and Gunn Highway, not even one with limited hours and four gasoline pumps.

The Hillsborough County Commission voted 4-3 Tuesday against a compromise proposal worked out by a mediator and owners of the 10-acre site.

"To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement," said Michael Horner, a planning consultant who worked on the project for Cornerstone Communities and the nine other property owners. "We're frustrated. We don't think the commissioners took the time to evaluate the changes."

Mediation was granted under a state property rights law because county commissioners denied the applicant's original rezoning request.

Changes wrought by the mediation included restricting the project's office development to nine buildings built to rural design standards, including pitched roofs, split rail fencing, pedestrian pathways and low-glare lighting.

It also included a 3,200-square-foot general store with operating hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and four gasoline pumps, as well as a 4,000-square-foot building on Race Track Road, and 10 residential lots.

Commissioners Jan Platt, Jim Norman, Ben Wacksman and Pat Frank voted against rezoning the property, which currently allows two homes per acre. Commissioners Chris Hart, Rhonda Storms and Thomas Scott voted in favor of the proposal.

Many neighbors were pleased by the vote.

"I understand where they're coming from, having property and wanting to do something with it," said Gloria Wilson, who lives a few hundred yards away from the site. "But there doesn't have to be a gas station on every corner. Even a village without a gas station would have been more accepted."

Efforts to develop the tract go back two years when Southland Corp. tried to build a 7-Eleven on 1.3 acres belonging to Raleigh Allen. The Allen family, early Citrus Park settlers, has owned the land for decades.

After initial rejections by the county staff, developers came back with an expanded plan that included homes and stores as well, on nine acres.

When county commissioners rejected that plan, 7-Eleven pulled out and Cornerstone Communities went back to the drawing board, crafting a compromise plan, the one most recently defeated.

Vin Marchetti, who represented Cornerstone, said he thinks "the board members who voted against it made a mistake" because "the mediated settlement was a win-win for all sides."

The only option left to the applicant is to petition Hillsborough Circuit Court. Marchetti said "it is too early to decide."

Staff writer Melanie Ave contributed to this report. Jackie Ripley can be reached at (813) 226-3468 or ripley@sptimes.com.

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