Rezoning Considered Along Little Manatee River

A developer hoping to add more stilt homes to a controversial proposed development on land jutting into the Little Manatee River promised Tuesday night to honor the fragile environment when planning the community.

Environmental activists adamantly opposed to the project called the plan an affront to a river designated an Outstanding Florida Water and to the wildlife that lives there.

Hillsborough County Zoning Hearing Master Steve Luce has two weeks to render a recommendation on the rezoning to the county commission.

If a rezoning is granted, changing the designation on the 46-acre tract from Agricultural Residential to a Planned Development, Little Manatee Reserve LLC plans to incorporate it into plans for its adjacent land, where it has already received approval for 22 houses.

The land sits on a spit on Mill Bayou, just off Seventh Street Southwest, in Ruskin.

Adding to the controversy is the inclusion of a new Hillsborough Planning Commission policy that allows landowners with at least 35 percent of their property within the Urban Service Area to provide water and sewer lines to a development, even in the county's designated rural zone.

Without the policy, because of the land's proximity to the river, designated a coastal high hazard zone, it could not be developed as planned. Septic tanks are not allowed in high hazard areas.

David Bell, an engineer for the developer, told Luce the owner plans to "keep the ground as natural as possible," put the houses on stilts and avoid cutting down trees, where possible.

"Nothing will be built near the river," Bell said.

County planner Isabelle Albert said the developer will have to comply with all county policies protecting the natural resources there.

Not good enough, Ruskin activist Mariella Smith said.

She turned in a list of county policies she said will be violated if the land is developed as planned. The land, she said, "is an integral part of the Little Manatee River and the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve. It's not the tangle of Brazilian peppers" depicted by a paid consultant, she said.

"The only effective way to plan development of this unique spit is to put it into one PD [planned development] ... so they can more effectively cluster homes to preserve the area," she said.

Smith said it is wrong to allow the developer to create a separate zoning when it will be incorporated for development with the adjacent property.