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By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net
APOLLO BEACH – Outstanding for its potential access to multiple modes of transportation, a substantial tract of acreage here may be destined for development as an office park with industrial uses.
A petition to rezone the 66-acre site in the southeast corner of the U.S. 41 and Big Bend Road intersection for manufacturing uses is scheduled for initial hearing Monday in Tampa.
At least one area citizen group, however, is expressing concern about the proposed project due to a lack of detailed information despite requests.
The property, east and south of an existing convenience store and an operating retail plant nursery abutting the roadways, is owned by Peter and Nancy Skemp of Tampa, according to Hillsborough County records. They, along with John K. Shepard, are being represented in the rezoning effort by the Genesis Group. The site is being referred to in the rezoning petition documents as the “Skemp-Shepard Industrial Park.”
The acreage, in one contiguous parcel, currently is zoned for agricultural-industrial uses. The owners are seeking rezoning to the broad manufacturing category which permits, among a number of varying uses, office parks with light industrial functions.
And this is the present intent of the owners, Kevin Mineer, an executive planner with Genesis Group, said this week. It is thought, he added, that the site is suited to development of a business center similar to the Crescent Office Park on U.S. 301 south of S.R. 60, currently anchored by a large Progressive Insurance complex, or the vast, older Sabel Park commercial development between U.S. 301 and Falkenburg Road north of S.R. 60, where everything from banks to a bottling plant are headquartered, or the newer, larger SouthShore Office Park south of 19th Avenue adjacent to the Hillsborough Community College Ruskin campus.
In the past, the owners have developed at least one such commercial center in Tampa on a smaller scale, Mineer noted.
Regardless of how the acreage ultimately is developed, from a commercial uses standpoint it is a “special” site, suggested Joe Incorvia, retiring community planning manager in the county’s Planning and Growth Management Department. Situated on the south side of Big Bend Road and on the east side of U.S. 41, with CSX railroad tracks along its most eastern edge, the acreage offers easy vehicular access to and from I-75 north and southbound via Big Bend , as well as quick access to and from U.S. 41, plus the potential of rail transport, he pointed out. What’s more, he added, there’s potential for accessing aspects of the Port of Tampa facilities along Tampa Bay’s eastern shore.
The acreage, once rezoned for manufacturing uses, also could be sold to another developer, Incorvia acknowledged.
While a simple site plan submitted with the rezoning application does not define proposed uses of the property, the application’s written statement requests rezoning “to allow an industrial/office park and related uses.” Such a use meets the intent of the Apollo Beach Community Plan which designated the area for “job generation,” Mineer emphasized. The proposal also fits in the light industrial future land use category as designated in Hillsborough’s Comprehensive Plan and applied to the area, he added.
Regarding another developer waiting in the wings for successful completion of the rezoning endeavor, Mineer said “no one’s on the hook,” but added that an inquiry or two had been received.
It’s the indefiniteness that unsettles Barbara Compton, president of the Apollo Beach Civic Association. Compton said this week she remains puzzled and concerned about the proposed project. “It’s not that we’re opposed to the development,” she asserted, “the problem is we can‘t get straight answers from anyone.”
The civic group has tried to get a speaker for the owners or their representatives to outline the project for the association members at a regularly scheduled monthly meeting, but the invitation has been ignored, Compton said. In addition, the county file pertinent to the rezoning request is not very enlightening, she noted. “We just want some answers,” she said.
To meet that objective, Compton said members of the civic association plan to attend the rezoning hearing scheduled to begin at 6 PM at County Center, downtown Tampa.
Current scheduling sets presentation of any rezoning recommendations for November 10 before county commissioners.
© 2009 Melody Jameson
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