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Complex okayed but road hits snag
By BILL COATS
© St. Petersburg Times, LUTZ -- A major apartment complex off N Dale Mabry Highway received a green light this week from county commissioners but a stop sign from the state. As commissioners debated the rezoning, a manager with the Florida Department of Transportation sat in the front row, hoping to object to the lone roadway shown on the plans, carrying the apartments' traffic to Dale Mabry at the Calusa Trace Boulevard intersection. But the manager, Judith Smith, the DOT's access management coordinator, wasn't allowed to speak under the county's strict, courtlike evidence procedures in rezonings. The file on the apartment rezoning had been closed for a month. After commissioners approved the apartments, she said the new road's traffic might be limited when permits are sought from the DOT. All traffic from the east, for example, could be forced to turn north on Dale Mabry, she said. "We would not allow a traffic signal there because we could not impede the traffic in the Dale Mabry corridor," she said. The DOT can't limit construction of the apartments, but it can control how and where the apartment residents enter Dale Mabry. No apartments are likely until the developer and the DOT have worked that out. Gerry Reno, president of Calusa Trace homeowners association, hopes the DOT will divert the apartment road to another intersection. "I want to break that link of Calusa Trace connecting to that road network," he said. Already, Calusa Trace Boulevard can be a shortcut that allows drivers coming south on Dale Mabry to bypass two traffic lights en route to westbound Van Dyke Road. Yet the boulevard also has significant pedestrian traffic to Schwarzkopf Elementary School and a small county park. Calusa Trace residents worry about children's safety. Smith said the DOT wants to see an overall road plan for the apartment property and the adjacent land owned by rancher Peter Geraci and his brother Nick. The 650 apartments and their access road are portions of a larger puzzle rapidly coming together on land the Geraci brothers inherited from their father, which may be the most valuable square mile in Lutz. Last year, the Geracis sold the southeast quadrant of their property to Idlewild Baptist Church, which plans soon to begin building one of Florida's biggest Baptist churches there. The northeast portion was rezoned for 205 houses, although owner Peter Geraci plans no development for decades. The biggest plans are for some 300 acres on the southwest corner, closest to the intersection of Dale Mabry and Van Dyke. That land is pegged on county growth plans for a major retail and office complex. "This is intended to be the most intensive activity center in north Hillsborough County, second only to the Citrus Park mall," Lorraine Duffy, representing the county's Planning Commission, told county commissioners Tuesday. Development contracts for that corner are being negotiated and plans could be submitted by year's end, said Joel Tew, an attorney for the Geracis and the apartment developer. Idlewild's project, meanwhile, includes construction of the road through the apartment development to Calusa Trace Boulevard. It hasn't applied for a DOT permit, Smith said. The road's course was plotted through years of negotiation and litigation in the mid 1990s between the Geracis and the DOT. Ultimately, the DOT condemned the right of way, paying the Geracis $1.7-million. But a DOT attorney said Tuesday that those plans were based on the road serving a regional mall that the Geracis envisioned at the time -- not that development plus 650 apartments, a megachurch and 205 houses. Tew said the DOT is obligated to give the apartment property an entrance onto Dale Mabry, at Cheval Boulevard if not Calusa Trace. But he and the DOT agreed on one point: The major entrance to the Geracis' property is to line up with the Veterans Expressway. He told county commissioners the dispute over the secondary road "is a nonissue for zoning purposes." "You don't have a dog in that fight," Tew said. "It's not your problem." Commissioners approved the apartments 6-1. Commissioner Jan Platt, who wanted the DOT's views heard, voted no. - Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.
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