Map displays the RP-2 and WVR-2 land-use categories under consideration for 270-day zoning moratoriums in south Hillsborough County.
Concerns deepen over south county development moratoriums
By LINDA CHION KENNEY
South county residents for and against development moratoriums in Wimauma and the Balm and Sun City Center planning areas told Hillsborough County Commissioners they have their work cut out for them if they plan to appease both sides of the fence.
On one side are landowners who want to cash in on the development boom. On the other side are residents stuck in traffic, raising concerns about inadequate infrastructure resulting from unbridled urban and suburban sprawl.
“The landowners who live elsewhere and want to sell their tracts of land don’t have to live with the consequences,” said Wimauma resident Christina Bosworth. “The loss of the rural flavor of this historic village by poor planning would be tragic.”
Later came Alan Daoud, a real estate agent, speaking on behalf of five property owners with land off Balm Boyette Road. “I understand responsible growth, but at the same time we have property owners who are fully vested to the area, have been committed to the area, and have now gotten an exit strategy out of their property,” he said. “We’d like to be excluded from this moratorium, so we can begin our zoning applications.”
In all, there were two moratorium-related public hearings at the Nov. 6 meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. One was a first public hearing for a 270-day moratorium on zonings and zoning modifications within the Wimauma Village Residential (WVR-2) land-use category, championed by Hillsborough County Commissioner Mariella Smith.
The other was a second public hearing on a similar 270-day moratorium, this time within RP-2 land-use category, championed by Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White.
“I’ve been clear to both sides, both the large landowners and the citizens,” White said, in an interview after the board meeting. “This is going to be a process, so both sides feel some give and take. If both sides walk away and feel like they had to give something up, then my job is done.”
But it won’t be easy, and it’s not all for naught, he added. “I never think it’s too late to plan better and better manage growth,” White said. “We obviously can’t do anything about what’s on the ground. But we can do something about what’s yet to come. I’m forever the optimist.”
Toward that end, both moratoriums are scheduled for further action. The aim is to allow more time to plan for growth. As Wimauma resident and business owner Vivian Handy put it: “I support the moratorium because it does allow us to revisit and better define some of these zoning categories.”
The WVR-2 moratorium, affecting Wimauma Village, will have a second public hearing. A Dec. 4 vote will be taken on the RP-2 moratorium, affecting the Balm Riverview area, which because of board action Nov. 6 excludes an area to the north, where FishHawk and the under-construction Hawkstone communities have taken root.
“As the champion of the RP-2 moratorium, I am not going to get into the business of listening to case-by-case situations involving individual parcels, individual hardships,” White said, after several such matters were raised earlier at the Nov. 6 hearing.
Nevertheless, he added, “as a matter of public policy, I very much think of the RP-2 land-use category as a north section and a south section,” with the “Balm Boyette [Scrub] Nature Preserve serving as a nice, natural boundary between the two.”
That should make landowner Bill O’Brien happy — but not necessarily. Thanks to breakneck growth, “You can’t travel anywhere today,” he said at the Nov. 6 public hearing, held at the Fred B. Karl County Center in Tampa, at 601 East Kennedy Blvd. “It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get here today, just to get to this meeting.”
Born and raised on Boyette Road, O’Brien said he hails from “downtown Boyette,” down the road from the area folks have taken to calling FishHawk and Hawkstone. He told commissioners he is a “fairly significant property owner in South Hillsborough County” and that he wants his land “to be valuable and have value in the future.”
Still, “I want to help manage responsible growth,” he told the commissioners. “I believe that’s your job and we’d like to hold you accountable to that.”
