By SUMMER HAMPTON
The Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 on May 3, 2021 to deny a rezoning request for the property more commonly known as Milk-A-Way Farms. Croom Road Land Holdings, LLC has been seeking to rezone and develop the 442-acre property, located on the east side of Broad Street (U.S. 41) and north side of Croom since 2018.
At the Brooksville City Council meeting on June 21, 2021, Mayor Pat Brayton requested this decision be reconsidered. In the meeting prior, Mayor Brayton requested that Cliff Manuel, President of Coastal Engineering keep his presentation on the development short, which they did. Now Mayor Brayton would like to give the opportunity back to Coastal Engineering to present their plan in full.
To be clear, this is not the council voting on the development, rather they’re voting on whether these developers will be heard at a later date.
Designated as Hernando County Agricultural (AG), the petitioners sought to rezone the land to City of Brooksville Planned Development Project-Mixed Use (PDP-MU). The development plan was for 999 residential units consisting of 657 single-family conventional dwellings, 150 villas and townhomes, 192 multi-family units and 50,000 square feet of commercial floor space. The petitioner also requested the ability to convert attached single-family units (two-family villas/townhomes) to single-family detached units at a 1 to 1 ratio.
Many Brooksville residents opposed reconsidering the development. Josh H. stated that since there was such opposition to the development last time, why doesn’t the builder come forward with a more affordable building plan. Then we can provide more affordable housing for our city residents, because the cost of living is extremely high right now.
Donna Morin stated that the impact on the city’s stormwater is going to be immense. She also brought up concerns about if the land is safe to be developed on after being a cattle farm for many years.
Elsie M., who lives on Croom Rd. and has lived on the property for 40 years. Her property backs up to a portion of the farm. She states that while development of this land is inevitable, orderly growth will be more productive. The development is so dense, the community would have enough people to have their own school. The traffic on 41 around this area is intense and the concern is for the safety of kids living here, traveling to and from schools.
Her other concern is for the buffer distance between the proposed properties and the existing ones that neighbor it. Originally it was proposed a 10 ft buffer, then 20 ft. But that is still not enough, she is asking for a 60 ft buffer between the properties. She is in favor of ½ acre lots, because increasing to half acre lots will provide more room for everyone and the project won’t be as dense as there will be less homes.
Kevin F. states that while the city needs more people for more tax revenue, there needs to be jobs to support that many incoming people. The only jobs available right now are low paying service jobs which would not support a community like that and without any jobs available, is this community planning on being a retirement community? He doesn’t see the benefit to this town.
Lastly Crystal R. brought up another environmental concern. There is going to be a massive amount of water being used to supply all of the proposed houses. Where are we going to get the water to supply this? She also states that our roads are not able to support the traffic currently, so how would we manage the influx of people from this community.
The Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 for the reconsideration of the Rezoning Ordinance No. 926 – Milk-A-Way Farms/Croom Road Land Holdings Rezoning. The council will set up a later date and time for this.
