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A planning board says the park's environmental impact and density outweighed staff approval. But commissioners will have the final say.
By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published December 16, 2005
LECANTO - The Planning and Development Review Board on Thursday voted against a zoning change that would allow a developer to build a 499-pad RV park.
The 5-2 vote came after nearly two hours of presentations and public comment about the project, which has drawn criticism in recent weeks from homeowners associations and the TOO FAR environmental group.
County staffers recommended approval of the project, which would be about 3 miles east of the Inverness city limits off State Road 44 E and beside Lake Spivey.
But the board majority expressed concerns about the project's density and impact on the environment.
"Do we have a comprehensive plan or don't we? I don't understand how the county can recommend approval on this," board member Raymond Hughes said. "We really don't need all these planners because people just do what they want to."
The County Commission will have the final say. It is slated to hold a workshop on the matter during its Jan. 26 meeting.
The developer, Century Realty Funds, said the 207-acre Preservation Pointe would be a self-contained luxury resort that would have no impact on neighboring wetlands and no visibility to neighboring residents. Lots would range in price from $75,000 to $150,000, and the recreational vehicles at the park would range in price from $250,000 to more than $1-million.
The developer must get approval from the county to rezone the property from low intensity coastal lakes to recreational vehicle park. That would require changes in the county's comprehensive plan and land development code.
Under the current zoning, only one unit per 20 acres could be built on the land. The proposed RV park's density would be 2.42 units per acre.
Representatives of the developer and county staffers repeatedly emphasized the role the project would play in bringing sewer service to an environmentally sensitive region of the county.
Century Realty Funds has offered to pay more than $2-million to provide water and wastewater services to the development, including $500,000 for upgrades for the regional wastewater plant in Inverness.
"This would make it much easier for residents south of (SR) 44 . . . to be able to get them online on a sanitary sewer system," county environmental planner Sue Farnsworth said. "Hopefully this can address that before it reaches a head like it has in Chassahowitzka."
But several people who spoke against the zoning change said the offer to construct a sewer system does not mean the county should overlook problems with the project.
"I don't want the county to be held captive by a carrot called a sewer line . . . like an old mule," Inverness resident Jim Adkins said.
TOO FAR president Marco Wilson said the group was concerned about the scale of the project and its impact on wetlands. He asked that the county require the nine-hole golf course at the development to meet Audubon standards.
Adkins and Wilson were among about 20 people who spoke against the proposal.
Most focused on environmental concerns. Several said they were worried that residents of the age-restricted, gated RV park would not feel attached to Citrus County.
But Ed Bland, who lives in a 45-foot motor home in Mount Olive Shores, a Century Realty Funds RV development in Ruskin, said residents should not be worried about the development. He praised the developer and the lifestyle the company promotes.
"In all of my travels, I have never found a place which is as comfortable as Mount Olive Shores," he said. "We're not rowdy people. We bring a certain degree of affluency."
John Eden IV, whose family owns the property where the park would be built, asked the board to be fair and unbiased in its consideration.
"The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages," he said.
Board members Dwight Hooper and John "J.J." Bard voted for the project.
Bard said he liked the fact that the developer would bring sewer service to the area. And Hooper said he thought the resort would be a "nice project" for Citrus.
The majority disagreed.
Board member Marion Knudsen said approving the development would be "destruction of our environment to benefit a gigantic, moneymaking big business."
Board members spent Thursday afternoon discussing proposed amendments to the county's comprehensive plan.
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.
[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:54:19]