TAMPA - Proposed new housing developments in East Hills-borough's vacant pastures are increasingly raising the ire of long-time residents.
A nearly six-hour-long hearing before the county's zoning master on Monday proved to be no exception.
Three of the 17 proposed projects under consideration - one calls for more than 600 new homes along Balm/Wimauma Road, another involves nearly 400 proposed housing units in Ruskin, and the third for a 19-acre used car lot on Muck Pond Road just off Interstate 4 in Thonotosassa - are strongly opposed by the people who live there, some for many decades.
The hearing, which took place in the Hillsborough County Commission chambers, overflowed with determined residents, who at times broke their patience with shouts of "no, no" and "greed, greed."
The hearing was mostly filled with sworn testimony from hopeful developers, county planning officials, and residents who sometimes supported and most often opposed the projects.
Many of those residents brought signs and wore bright green T-shirts that made clear their opposition to proposed new developments.
At the end of the long evening, no decisions were made.
The hearing master's recommendations on the 17 projects under consideration Monday will be transmitted to the county commission by Sept. 11 and officially heard during the commission's land use meeting on Oct. 9.
A group of Balm-area residents strongly opposed to a project in their neighborhood plan to file a request to speak before the county commission. Such requests for any projects to be heard at the October meeting must be filed by Sept. 21.
"We have wide open spaces out there. We are not Riverview or Gibsonton. We are as rural as it gets," said resident Mike Favreau. "This is about greed; it is not compatible with where we live."
Favreau's remarks drew loud applause from Balm residents who raised white placards reading "Balm/Wimauma Residents We're Opposed."
However, despite area residents' opposition to the project, county planning officials have ruled it "compatible with the comprehensive plan" for the county.
And they are not necessarily wrong. The two properties that make up the project are surrounded by zoning that allows a density of up to two homes per acre.
That density is fine with most of the area residents. But they don't like the developers plan to "cluster" the new homes on small lots.
William O'Brien, president of the Balm Civic Association, was blunt: "It (the development) doesn't fit. It puts 40 foot wide lots in an area that has one house per acre.
O'Brien also pointed to the Balm Community Plan, approved by the county commission, that sets development goals for the area that seek "to maintain and preserve the rural and agrarian quality of life established by long time residents."
At issue was whether the developer, the Eisenhower Property Group LLC, had properly calculated the site's allowable density and whether there would be adequate buffering between the project and surrounding properties.
The same developers were not so persuasive in their density argument for what they described as an "innovative" project in Ruskin.
County planning officials told the hearing master that plans for 40-foot-wide lots did not meet the requirements of that neighborhood's community plan and is "inconsistent with the comprehensive plan".
A spokesperson for the developers warned that adhering to the requirements would produce an economically unviable project that would never be built.
Dozens of Thonotosassa residents wearing T-shirts reading "Save Mock Pond" argued vehemently against a plan to put a large used car lot in a cow pasture very close to the Macintosh Road ramp to Interstate 4.
Because of traffic entering and exiting the highway, the project calls for entrances to the car lot to be located on nearby Muck Pond Road.
"This is just not compatible with the community," said resident Steve Allison.
Other residents said a car lot expected to hold hundreds of cars would destroy the character of a neighborhood of tree-lined roads and pastures filled with cattle, horses and donkeys.
Contact Sheila Mullane Estrada at hillsnews@tampabay.com.