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Hearing Officer Backs Ruskin River Rezoning OK

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BY YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

RUSKIN - A zoning hearing master is recommending approval of a rezoning request that would allow eight more houses in an environmentally sensitive area along the Little Manatee River.

The Hillsborough County Commission is expected to hear the rezoning request April 7.

County hearing officer Steve Luce imposed several stipulations in recommending approval of the rezoning, which would allow eight single-family lots to be added to the 22 houses already approved near Mill Bayou.

Little Manatee Reserve LLC plans to build a 30-home gated development on the small peninsula at the end of Seventh Street Southwest in Ruskin, something local environmental activists have tried to stop.

Luce recommended the county commission include specific language in the rezoning approval that prohibits the developer from destroying healthy native trees within a 100-foot natural buffer between the development and the Little Manatee River.

He also recommended that regulatory language be added to any approval requiring the developer to protect as many trees as possible around the houses.

Because a portion of the original planned development is within the county's designated urban service area, the entire project will fall under the rules governing that area. That means the developer can run water and sewer lines through the project.

Environmentalists say such development along the river is too intense, jeopardizes wildlife and sets up the potential for stormwater pollutants to run into the Little Manatee, designated an Outstanding Florida Water by the state.

The county commission meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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