By Tony Marrero lmarrero@hernandotoday.com, Published: Jul 10, 2006
BROOKSVILLE — The county's planning and zoning commission has approved a site along U.S. 19 in the Royal Highlands area for an elementary and high school.
The 70-acre site, which is zoned agricultural and commercial, is three-quarters of a mile south of Centralia Road.
The high school would be constructed first on the southern end of the property, followed by the elementary school, according to Paul Carland, attorney for the school district.
The high school would serve a student body of between 2,000 and 2,500 students, Carland said.
The elementary school would serve between 750 and 900 pupils.
A football stadium and track with nearby baseball and softball fields for the high school would be situated between the two schools. A soccer and baseball field for the elementary school would be built north of the school.
The main entrance to the property is on U.S. 19. Commissioner Anthony Palmieri asked about the possibility of a traffic signal there.
County engineer Charles Mixson and Ken Pritz, the school district's executive director of facilities and support operations, said the county and district have struck deals in the past to pay for and maintain signals at school sites and could do so here if one is warranted.
A study showed gopher tortoises inhabit the property. The school district would likely elect to move the animals to another site to mitigate the loss of habitat, according to the report from county staff.
The school district will be required to direct lighting away from a mobile home park near the northern portion of the property near an existing mobile home park.
Commission member Anna Liisa Covell voted against the measure. Covell said the site was “excellent” for the school project but she wanted more specific language in the agreement that would require the district to build a frontage road parallel to U.S. 19 if necessary as commercial property to the north and south is developed.
The request must now go before the Board of County Commissioners for final approval.
The board also postponed for 30 days a decision to amend the county's comprehensive transportation plan.
Staff had made numerous recommendations to meet projected needs to 2025 and beyond to the county's build-out. Among them was a recommendation to realign and extend Powell Road at its eastern end to create an east-west corridor connecting to the I-75/SR 50 commercial and industrial development district.
Staff had considered that route and another farther south. Chief planner Jim King said the northern route, closer to SR 50, would be a more efficient way to relieve pressure from that roadway.
Joel Tew, an attorney representing Sunrise, a 4,800-unit development in the development district, said that route would “devastate” the project and asked the county give a committee of area developers and local residents more time to come up with a better route.
Several Spring Lake residents also spoke in opposition to a roadway through the area, contending that the construction of a major thoroughfare would bring too much development to the rural area.
In other action, the commission:
- Approved unanimously a conditional plat for Heritage Hills, a development of 48 single-family homes on 35 acres off County Line Road, just west of Linden Drive.
- Approved unanimously a master plan for a sliver of land between the junction of SR 50 and Wiscon Road, just west of Winter Street. The landowner plans a drive-up coffee stand with one entrance from SR 50 and an entrance and exit on Wiscon.
- Approved 4-1 a request from Schafer Development to rezone from agricultural to planned development single-family a 25-acre site on the east side of Emerson Road about one-half mile south of the SR 50 bypass. The plan calls for 75 homes with a density of 2.5 homes per acre.
- Approved unanimously a master plan for a 21-acre, commercially zoned parcel just east of the Sherman Hills community in Ridge Manor. The plan calls for 100,000 square feet of commercial space and the realignment of the existing Sherman Hills Boulevard to connect to a future southern roadway on the south side of SR 50.
- Approved unanimously the rezoning from commercial to multifamily a parcel on the north side of Northcliffe Boulevard west of Larson Road. A project there calls for a 160-unit apartment complex.
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