TAMPA - A large housing development soon will encroach onto rural lands in the Balm area of eastern Hillsborough County despite the protests of area residents and the sympathy of several county commissioners.
The approved Balm development will include over 600 homes on 358 acres in an area of five- and 10-acre single family homesites.
The commission did agree, however, to delay a similar vote for a commercial project in another rural area along Muck Pond and McIntosh Roads.
The proposed 1,000-vehical car lot was instead sent back to a hearing master because of an error in the county's evaluation of the project's impact on area traffic.
Balm area residents pleas and support from some commissioners were not enough, however, to win a similar delay.
Three commissioners - Pat Kemp, Lesley Miller and Stacy White - initially supported sending the Balm project back to the county's hearing master for a rehearing on density issues raised by area residents, but were outvoted.
Efforts to delay the project were defeated and the project was approved with White joining those in favor.
"I have very many concerns. I agree with the Balm community that this does not seem consistent with the rest of the area. We have turned this into a typical sprawled development. We should stop moving forward with things that don't work for the betterment of the community," said Kemp to loud applause from the audience.
White, who said he has "issues" with the county's RP2 zoning category, also pushed to remand the project to the hearing master, but added that he doubted the county had a legal basis to reject the plan outright.
The quirk in the zoning category for the 358-acre property restricts development to no more than two homes per acre. But it also allows those homes to be "clustered" at a higher density, which keeps open, undeveloped areas in a particular parcel.
It was that clustering with zero-lot line parcels averaging 50 feet in width that drew the ire of area residents.
Many of the properties surrounding the project are single family homes on five and 10-acre lots.
"I have lived in the Balm area all my life and I was on the committee that drafted the Balm area community plan. This rezoning has numerous inconsistencies with our goal to remain rural agrarian," said William O'Brien, president of the area's civic association.
Similar arguments by Muck Pond area residents were not successful at a zoning master hearing, but because of a mistake by county traffic engineers, the residents now have a second chance to stop the proposed car lot.
At issue is the 1,000-vehical car lot's entrance and exit on Muck Pond Road, which residents say will produce a tremendous amount of traffic.
The county is on record claiming that traffic impacts will be minimal, producing under 300 trips a day. It now appears the true amount of traffic for this size car lot is more than 1,400 trips per day.
Last week, the residents received an email informing them a vote on the proposed car lot would be delayed.
The reason, according to resident Jim Drapp, is that county officials agreed an outdated manual was used to calculate the amount of traffic the car lot would generate.
"It's a big concern for us," said resident Jim Drapp, president of the Pemberton Creek Property Owners Association.
Both Muck Pond and McIntosh Roads are only two lanes and serve not only residents, but school buses for three nearby schools and traffic headed toward or from the McIntosh on-ramp of Interstate 4.
Tuesday, the county commission agreed to send the project back to the hearing master's Nov. 19 meeting for a rehearing.
Contact Sheila Mullane Estrada at hillsnews@tampabay.com.