Commission Denies Rezoning Near Spring

BROOKSVILLE - Concerns about the impact to a little-known spring near County Line Road prompted the County Commission on Wednesday to deny a rezoning request for commercial development on a nearby parcel.
Commissioners voted 4 to 1 to deny a planned development project zoning for a 13-acre tract on the northwest corner of County Line and U.S. 19. Commissioner Dave Russell dissented.
The vote prompted an explosion of applause and whoops from dozens of residents of Holiday Springs RV Resort who boarded a bus early Wednesday to pack the chambers in opposition of the plan.
"Thank you," shouted one man who, like his roughly 100 neighbors, sported a sticker on his shirt asking the commission to "Vote No!" and "Save Bobhill Spring."
Commissioners agreed with a wetlands expert who said the rezoning would allow for uses, such as an automobile dealership and repair center, that are inappropriate for an area so close to Bobhill Spring.
"Some of the businesses intended to go in there could be an issue," Commissioner Rose Rocco said.
Chairman Chris Kingsley said the proposal is the kind he has typically opposed in the past because of the often sensitive nature of land west of U.S. 19.
Two areas of the property - one at the northern end and another at the southern end, both along U.S. 19 - are already zoned commercial. However, a majority of the parcel is zoned for agriculture.
The landowner, Edward Kovach, is in negotiations to sell the property to Jolla Oil Enterprises, a developer in Tampa.
The plan called for separating the property into five outparcels, with five freestanding buildings totaling nearly 50,000 square feet.
The rezoning would have allowed for myriad commercial uses, such as drive-in restaurants, a car or truck dealership, auto repair shops, liquor store or mini-warehouse, among about a dozen others.
The dogleg-shape parcel wraps around the eastern and northern boundary of the 35-acre Holiday Springs Resort, a community of some 240 lots.
Tidy mobile homes, most of which are owned by part-time residents, sit on most of the lots, while others are reserved for RVs. The community uses the spring, which has been surrounded with a concrete patio, as a swimming hole. A small creek flows from the spring to a five-acre lake that also features a small natural spring.
Bobhill Spring is about 75 feet from the Kovach property line, and residents were especially worried that automotive businesses, with their requisite fuels, oils and other chemicals, could spell disaster for the spring.
County staff had recommended approval of the rezoning, and the Planning and Zoning Commission last month gave its approval with a 4 to 1 vote.
Robert Williams, a Tampa attorney representing Jolla, said the plan is consistent with commercial development along the U.S. 19 corridor. The portion of the property zoned for agriculture "logically" should have been zoned commercial, Williams said.
He said Jolla has worked with staff to minimize the impact to the neighbors, citing plans for a reverse frontage road on the western border of the parcel and a 9-foot masonry wall. Both features, Williams said, would help reduce the impact to the RV park.
"We're not trying to jam everything we possibly can in here," he said. "This developer is not a slash-and-burn. They don't want to mow everything down."
He also pointed out that Kovach, if awarded the rezoning, would donate an adjacent 27-acre tract of wetlands to the state to be designated for preservation.
"This is a huge benefit to the public and the RV park," Williams said.
Martin Armstrong, president of Armstrong Environmental Services testifying for Jolla and Kovach, told commissioners the plan includes a stormwater retention area on the northwestern portion of the property that would treat runoff from the development before it discharges into the wetlands.
"It will be clean water coming out of that," Armstrong said. And, he said, "Everything we're going to be doing is downstream of the spring."
There is a reason why only the top and bottom portions of the property are already zoned for commercial development, said Deborah Martohue, a St. Petersburg attorney representing Holiday Springs owners Wayne and Lamont Garber.
"It's because that's where predominantly the wetlands don't exist," Martohue said.
The proposed retention area would have to be dug out of the wetlands that do exist on the property, said Roseanne Clementi, a Plant City environmental consultant and wetlands ecologist testifying for the Garbers.
There still would be "a tremendous amount of seepage" of water and pollution from the pond into the wetlands, Clementi told commissioners.
As for Bobhill Spring, it is one of 17 named springs in Hernando County that are part of the Chassahowitzka Swamp system, Clementi said, and it's the only spring that's not on conservation land.
"These springs are supposed to be afforded the highest protection," Clementi said.
Holiday Springs resident Annette Smerdon was one of several who pleaded with the commission to deny the plan.
"Look at these chambers," Smerdon said. "You see not just people, you see constituents. Most of us came here because of the environment."
"Please don't take our quality of life away," implored another resident.
Russell said his decision to vote against the motion to deny the plan was heavily influenced by the donation of the 27 acres of wetlands. It's the kind of land the state has paid millions for to ensure it's preserved, he said.
He also said that the planned development rezoning would have given the county much control over what kind of businesses to actually allow on the parcel, including the two pieces already zoned for commercial development.
"Now we've lost that," he said.
When asked after the vote what their next move would be, Williams replied: "It's too early to tell."
"We're happy," Lamont Garber said after the vote. "I'm just concerned this is not over."
Todd Pressman, a Clearwater land use consultant hired by the Garbers, was less worried.
Pressman said the vote was "a clear signal" that commissioners are serious about protecting Bobhill Spring and the surrounding wetlands. He called the decision a "knockout" for residents because, he said, it virtually assures that development on the land will be less intense than what was proposed this time around.
"They either litigate," Pressman said of Kovach and Jolla, "or they come back with a minimally-impacting plan."