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Rezoning Request On Little Manatee To Test Policy

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

RUSKIN - Developers who want to turn a spit of land on the Little Manatee River into a gated community will test a new Hillsborough Planning Commission policy that some believe will allow more urban sprawl in the rural community.

Little Manatee Reserve LLC wants to rezone 46 acres, mostly wetlands, from Agricultural Rural into Planned Development, then add 10 more houses on urban-sized lots to the 22 already approved on an adjacent tract.

The request is scheduled to go before a Hillsborough County zoning hearing master at 6 p.m. Feb. 17 at the County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

When developers approached Hillsborough County the first time in 2006 about creating a gated community on the river, environmentalists and community activists responded with e-mail blitzes, T-shirt campaigns and emotional speeches.

The plan, opponents said, would destroy a pristine segment of the river, doom gopher tortoises on the property and create other urban issues in a rural area.

Still, the county commission eventually approved the rezoning after reducing the number of houses allowed from 25 to 22 and requiring a buffer along the riverbank. There was also a plan to remove the tortoises and find them another home.

But nothing was ever built.

This newest move has added fuel to a fire community activists believed had already been doused.

Ruskin resident and environmental activist Mariella Smith has prepared a long list of talking points she plans to use to battle the developer, which wants to include county water and sewer lines in the planned community. Much of the planned development falls within the rural service area, where the county doesn't typically allow such public utilities.

Little Manatee Reserve is attempting to manipulate the rules, Smith said. "It's a travesty."

For starters, she said, the developer should have to include the land rezoned in 2006 in its proposal, since both parcels will be built as one community. Not doing so, she said, keeps the public from arguing against a larger plan that harms a fragile area. Wildlife and the quality of the Little Manatee are at risk, she said.

Principal Planner Ty Maxey, who represents the developer, said the property rezoned in 2006 originally was to be included in the newest rezoning, but the developer changed the plan Jan. 8.

To support its newest proposal, the developer plans to cite a new planning commission policy that it believes allows it to connect the additional acreage to county water and sewer lines, even though the property that would be rezoned is outside the urban service area.

The policy, approved in August, allows landowners with property that straddles the edge of the urban service area to install water and sewer lines, said executive planner Stephen Griffin. To develop on small lots in a planned development, the developer must get approval for those utilities, since using septic tanks requires lots a half-acre or larger.

Griffin said Little Manatee Reserve's rezoning request will be the first to test the new policy.

The planning commission, which makes recommendations to the county commission on rezoning requests, has not yet filed a decision on the project.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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