The ongoing issue of wastewater capacity again came up in front of the Brooksville City Council during a Sept. 16 meeting, when it generated a lengthy discussion.
Throughout the summer the Council has passed emergency ordinances putting a moratorium on new wastewater permits in order to prevent exceeding capacity at the William S. Smith Reclamation Facility.
This time around there was an added section to Ordinance No. 986 concerning connections made in three subdivisions or developments which have an executed Utility Service Agreement and the ERUs assigned by a current agreement. Those three are Cloverleaf, Leyland Preserve and Southern Hills/Liberty Landing.
According to the new Section 3 of the ordinance, wastewater connection allocations for any other subdivisions or developments will be considered for approval by the Council upon receipt of an application and a 5-year development schedule showing the proposed annual unit demand increase by year. However, no connections will be allowed until the adoption and implementation of a new wastewater impact fee ordinance and the completion of the interconnect with the county’s wastewater treatment system.
Representatives from American Collegiate Academy, the developer of the Majestic Oaks development who own Brooksville County Club, pleaded their case to the Council about their already approved plans to build a school.
They pointed to a 50-year utility agreement signed in 2005 as well as a 2022 planning-and-zoning meeting in which they were assured wastewater capacity would not be a problem. Their request was to be given priority behind the other three subdivisions and developments listed in the ordinance once capacity becomes available.
Richard Weeks, Brooksville’s public works director, noted that he was not in his current position in 2022 and did not discover the capacity issue until last December.
“We cannot take on any more capacity whatsoever where we stand today,” Weeks said. “I had talks today with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection over possible fines from an overflow from infiltration. We are at full capacity.
“And I apologize to the developers on the previous administration, but unfortunately this is where the City of Brooksville stands today. My job is to protect the City of Brooksville and its infrastructure, and we cannot outgrow our infrastructure. And that’s what we are doing. We need to get on track in order to fix our infrastructure and add the capacity that we need.
“Again it’s very unfortunate the way everything has worked out to today, but we need to protect our infrastructure. We cannot outgrow our current infrastructure. We have plans in place, we do. And it is going to take time. But we have a great staff with great leaders that are working on resolving this issue. This issue will be resolved. This is one of my No. 1 priorities for this city, is to get this issue resolved. And I know it will be resolved. But I will not let this city fail, the public works or infrastructure fail, because we will fail as a city. We will obtain multiple fines on a daily basis if we go over capacity.”
Mayor Blake Bell admitted that previous decisions by the Council had been made based on inaccurate information provided by Weeks’ predecessor. The current Council has frequently lamented dealing with fallout from decisions of previous councils.
“We’ve inherited more issues than wastewater,” Vice Mayor Christa Tanner said. “I feel like we’re just constantly putting out fires up here and this is going to be one that we’re going to deal with for years to come and councils beyond all of us sitting up here are probably going to have to continue to deal with this when it comes to building a new plant expansion.
“I do appreciate the investments that are wanting to be made in the city, specifically Majestic Oaks. I appreciate the school, I think that’s a great project. I think that can be said about a lot of projects.”
The ordinance was unanimously approved 4-0 by the council members present. Councilman David Bailey was not in attendance.
“I think Section 3 improves this ordinance substantially for all those involved,” Bell said. “Like Miss Tanner said, this is a very tough position to be in as a council, not where we want to be, obviously. But it is something that we have to deal with and make sure that also the current residents of the City of Brooksville and who have lived in the City of Brooksville for many, many years are not jeopardized on a wastewater issue moving forward.”
Other business at the meeting included approving the rezoning of 0.68 acres on the north side of W. Jefferson Street, approximately 725 feet west of Darby Lane from highway commercial to light industrial use.
The Council also approved changes to the Land Development Code dealing with possession of chickens on residential property. A new ordinance removed restrictions on lot size requirements, specifies that chickens are allowed on properties containing single- and two-family dwellings, limits the number of chickens and prohibits roosters on each property. Regulations also address coop location and coop construction. Egg sales and the slaughtering of chickens are prohibited.
Plus the council approved a resolution transferring control of Hernando Park from the county back to the city.
“This is exciting and thanks to Miss Tanner for bringing this up over a year ago as part of our meeting with the county,” Bell said. “This is long overdue. It should never have been given away by the city. This was one of the original city parks so happy to have it back under the city portfolio.”
In a separate special meeting that also took place on Sept. 16, the Council approved a 5.79 percent increase of the millage rate, from a rolled-back 5.5772 mills to 5.9000 mills for fiscal year 2025. The Council additionally gave final approval to the 2025 budget with a general fund budget of $13,711,816 and a total budget of $61,807,757.
