Development will happen in a growing area such as ours, but is it unreasonable to hope instruments such as zoning guidelines and master plans can safeguard against destructive projects? Residents are occasionally successful influencing efforts to re-zone properties, but the next project always comes trying to make a bigger wave. Despite many available properties zoned and suitable for industrial projects, developers continue to target inexpensive tracts of land completely unsuitable for intense development.
November 27th Plant City Commissioners will vote on a proposal to re-zone 243 acres of rural/ag land as industrial, adding a 1.5 million square foot warehouse campus. The project will sit at the county line, border 500 acres of wetland, reside within the stressed Itchepackesassa Watershed, and occupy land designated on all current and future planning maps as “unsuitable for development.” The project was rejected by Hillsborough County, recommended against by the Plant City planning board, but remains alive.
Homeowners will band together to persuade officials elected in a city many do not reside in, not to annex a plot of land they currently do not oversee, and that a large industrial park in the region’s most stressed watershed is ill-advised.
Brian Holbrook, MBA, MS