For months now, Majestic Oaks has sought to gain priority for when wastewater capacity limitations ease within Hernando County.
At the Jan. 6 meeting of the Brooksville City Council, held at Jerome Brown Community Center, there appeared to finally be some headway toward a resolution. The Council approved the draft of an assurance letter that the City would discuss the future capacity allocation of 900 units (180,000 gallons per day) to Majestic Oaks, which is attempting to build a sports academy at Brooksville Country Club.
Majestic Oaks has expressed a willingness to fund the upsizing of a wastewater interconnect force main which is meant to provide the City with an additional 600,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity. The future of the interconnect is pending an agreement on its construction with Hernando County.
The wastewater crisis was the dominant issue continuously brought in front of the Council throughout 2024. Since the summer there has been a wastewater moratorium stalling further development throughout Brooksville in order to avoid going over capacity at the William S. Smith Water Reclamation Facility.
Three developments are exempt from the wastewater moratorium, including Cloverleaf, Leyland Preserve and Southern Hills/Liberty Landing, and Majestic Oaks has been lobbying to be fourth on that list with the caveat that it would wait until capacity was available.
Majestic Oaks has pointed to a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in 2022 during which the developer was assured by the City that its 2005 utility service agreement remained active. The City has since said that information was given erroneously and that the agreement has expired.
Potentially footing the bill for the interconnect and saving the City considerable expense may finally move Majestic Oaks to the front of the line, though there is no timeline for an agreement on the interconnect or its completion. Also, connection fees for this project will be assessed at the updated rates once the City’s connection fee study for water and sewer rates has been completed. The City will credit these connection fees toward the funding provided by Majestic Oaks.
The Jan. 6 meeting lasted over five hours largely because of a lengthy discussion over the first reading of an ordinance seeking to rezone approximately 462 acres on the south side of Southern Hills Boulevard, north of Powell Road and east of Broad Street, to build a variety of housing types, including conventional single-family detached units, villas, bungalows and townhomes. The request is for development of up to 1,477 dwelling units for the Cascades expansion project.
This mirrored a tense P&Z meeting in November when that commission denied the request after numerous public comments that largely focused on potential flooding issues the development could create. Coastal Engineering, representing developer Inland Homes, claims any flooding the area experiences is independent of construction there, based on past studies by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
This time the Council decided to table the issue until the City conducts an independent review.
Also the Council voted to approve the interlocal agreement with the county for the South Brooksville Community Redevelopment Area master plan. That establishes a community redevelopment agency that will oversee such issues as land acquisition, demolition and removal of structures, redevelopment, improvements, zoning and planning changes, land uses, maximum densities and building requirements.
The agency will also be called upon to provide for the development of affordable housing in the area and govern property used for nonresidential purposes.
