 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
New site targeted for retail 'big box'
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer CRYSTAL RIVER -- The plans for an unnamed 226,000-square-foot "discount super store" on U.S. 19 have shifted one block south, to a vacant 27-acre site that contains fewer wetlands than the developer's first choice. Like the previous site at U.S. 19 and W Venable Street, much of the new site at U.S. 19 and W Penn Drive would have to be rezoned before the project could go forward. And like the last version of this project, the new plans submitted last week will face opposition from environmentalists who fear a repeat of a Home Depot incident, in which workers digging the hardware store's retention pond a year and a half ago breached the water table. "All along that area there, I think anything along U.S. 19 is a mistake," said Billy Mitchell, a Crystal River resident who has fought several similar projects. "We should learn from the mistakes at Home Depot that we should stay away from U.S. 19 with these big box stores." Wal-Mart has shown interest in building a supercenter at two other U.S. 19 sites in recent years, although officials would not confirm whether the discount giant was behind the latest plans at W Penn. The plans include a super store and two outparcels along U.S. 19. The stormwater drainage system would be built behind the store. County planners received an application to rezone 18 acres at the southeast corner of U.S. 19 and W Penn from low density residential to general commercial. The front 9 acres of the property are already zoned for commercial use. The property is part of a larger tract owned by William J. Podkowa and Jeanne C. Whitaker of Plano, Texas. RealtiCorp, a South Carolina land investment company, has an option to buy the tract. Technically speaking, the rezoning application contains two parts. The first is a request to rezone 9 acres that already sit in the "commercial infill area," the region targeted by the Comprehensive Plan for future commercial growth. The second request is to rezone another 9 acres that fall outside the commercial infill area. RealtiCorp originally proposed a super store at the southeast corner of U.S. 19 and W Venable, just south of the Crystal River Airport and across from Home Depot. Those plans stalled last January, in part, because the 32 acre site included 18.1 acres of wooded wetlands that "created substantial wetland impacts and stormwater issues" and "made site development costs prohibitive," attorney Clark Stillwell wrote in the rezoning application for the new site. By contrast, a biological survey for the W Penn Drive site shows 1.14 acres of freshwater marsh and 0.63 acres of a mixed wetland forested community that extends past the east end of the site. But it appears that the survey only covered the rear 9 acres of the site; county principal planner Jenette Collins said the developer would need to provide environmental information about the rest of the property. The rezoning request is tentatively scheduled to come before the Planning and Development Review Board in May, with a County Commission vote set for July. And what about the property at U.S. 19 and Venable? "There will be a series of outparcels there (along the strip already zoned for commercial use), but a large portion of that property is pristine wetlands and will be preserved as such," said Steve Latiff, the Realtor handling the tract.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Citrus Times |
