Area residents that showed up at this week’s commission meeting to express their opposition to a proposed rezoning near their rural land didn’t leave Plant City’s City Commission meeting happy.
In a split 3 – 2 vote, the Commission approved the Knox family’s request to rezone 42.62 acres of land from Hillsborough County Agricultural Single Family-1 to Plant City Industrial, making way for a 542,358 square-foot distribution warehouse along the west side of South County Line Road, east of South Wiggins Road and south of Medulla Road.
Mayor Nate Kilton and commissioners William Dodson and Mary Mathis voted in favor of the rezoning. Commissioners Michael Sparkman and Jason Jones opposed the request.
“I’m very troubled with the residential next to this,” said Sparkman. “It’s in their backyard.”
Mark and Shawnia Kummelman are two of the homeowners that live on Mcelveen Avenue whose property abuts the site. They showed up to express their concerns about the rezoning request. “Our home is our safe haven after a long day’s work where we enjoy our rural quiet country living,” said Mark Kummelman. “This investment was one of the largest decisions we’ve ever made and now you’ve annexed a piece of property into Plant City to build a warehouse that’s going to be squeezed between homes and a couple of churches.”
Kummelman expressed his opinion that the rezoning is not compatible with the city’s comprehensive plan. “There’s nothing whatsoever that makes this warehouse fit within our residential properties.”
His comments were met with loud clapping by other residents that opposed the project.
While the dissimilarity between residential and industrial zoning was a main concern from residents, Planning & Zoning Coordinator Robyn Baker said buffering can make incompatible uses compatible.
The property owner proposed a 100-foot building setback from the property line, an 8’ opaque fence, truck staging on the north and west side of the site and landscape buffer to include medium to large trees spaced an average of 40’ apart to mitigate any negative impacts from daily activities to the homes. “These are things we looked at to make these two unlike uses compatible,” said Baker. “The purpose of landscaping and fences is to cut down on noise and traffic.”
Other positive aspects of the plan included access to the site only from South County Line Road (no access off South Wiggins Road), the site is located along a major transportation corridor (County Line Road is a four-lane divided highway) where industrial development is encouraged and the project enhances economic development within the city.
The project’s positive aspects weren’t enough to deter neighbors from expressing their objections, sometimes loudly. Kilton, on two occasions, had to remind some members of the audience who were speaking out of turn that distractors would be removed from the chambers.
“These are never easy decisions for us, balancing the needs of the community with our commercial needs,” said Kilton. “It’s a difficult situation because we’re seeing this in other situations where it’s impacted people but I believe it’s consistent with our needs.”