In a bit of a reversal from a vote last month, the Brooksville City Council denied the request of developer Troy F. Carter to rezone a property from mixed-use to multifamily.
The decision came as the result of a quasi-judicial, ex-parte proceeding during an Aug. 19 meeting concerning the second reading of Ordinance No. 979. The first reading had been unanimously approved back in July.
Located on the south side of West Jefferson Street, approximately 1,750 feet east of the Cortez Boulevard/Jefferson Street intersection, the property would eventually be used to build up to 180 multifamily apartments or townhomes.
Previously, the request had an option for 60 duplex dwellings, but that was removed based on Carter’s interpretation of the Council’s concerns during the first reading of the request.
“Hopefully, with establishing what we’re agreeing to tonight with this specific request, having the multifamily restrictions already built into your code, that should hopefully alleviate concerns that somebody is going to come in and do what the city wants done,” Carter said.
However, some council members expressed disappointment that the duplexes had been taken out of the plan. Carter admitted there may have been some confusion over the Council’s previous opinion.
In the end, though, the Council unanimously decided not to let the rezoning move forward for other reasons.
“I’m not opposed to anything that you build on these properties. I’m just opposed to the timing. It’s not the right time,” Councilman David Bailey said. “Our infrastructure is porous. I think we need to fix it before we continue to build.”
“We oftentimes are stuck addressing issues that were zoned 10, 15 years ago. And we’ve talked about this on this Council,” Mayor Blake Bell said. “I kind of touched on it when I was talking to the developer about being at a unique time because if we do approve this and as he noted, this isn’t going to move forward for years. I definitely won’t be on the Council when it moves forward. Others probably won’t either at that point.”
“I think the mayor brings up an excellent point about us being very cautious about what we approve that’s going to get built five years from now,” Vice Mayor Christa Tanner said. “There’s some issues that we all on this Council, I think everyone in this room and Councilman Bailey even alluded to them as well, that the city has to address that’s going to impact building overall regardless of what people are going to put in the ground here in the near future.”
The Council did approve a request to designate a parcel of land north of West Jefferson Street, approximately 725 feet west of Darby Lane for industrial use to allow for the development of up to 23,696 square feet of non-residential floor space, as well as a resolution waiving emergency building permit fees following a major storm. Those waived fees will be recorded in case there are FEMA reimbursements.
