Zoning Amendment (Regular) – SR40 LLC/Riverside Village Unit 5 – Change in Zoning from a R-2 Low Density District to a MF-1 Multiple-Family Medium Density District (55 Townhomes) - Southwest Pasco County – South of Alvernon Drive, East and West Patrician Drive – Containing Approximately 12.03 Acres
What the county recorded
Staff recommendation
Approve
DispositionApproved
Approved Staff’s recommendation with the number of homes to be 45.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Dec 7, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Dec 7, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
This case, across meetings
PDD-22-7552 in full →PDD-22-7552 was taken up 2 times between Oct 26, 2021 and Dec 7, 2021, continued 1 time — this is appearance 2.
- Oct 26, 2021BoardP68▶Continued
- Dec 7, 2021BoardP125▶Approvedthis item
What was said
Machine transcription of 1h 8m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 92% of 306 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Yep. All right. So all in favor? Aye. Aye. Discontinuing this? Aye. Hi. Thank you, Ainsley. Okay, we are on 125. Is that right?
Madam Chairman for that item?
I I did. I went a little early. Sorry, Commissioner Mariano.
Item um P one twenty five was published in the Tampa Times on July twenty twenty one. I'm sorry, on July twenty-whinth, twenty twenty one and August fourth, twenty twenty.
William Devine, Planning and Development. Um P12125, PDD 22-7552 in the name of SR40 L L C slash Riverside Village Unit 5. It is a zoning amendment from R2 Low Density District to MF1, Multifamily Medium Density District. After the agenda was published, several ex parte communications were received and sent to the clerk's office. The subject site was is located on the south side of Alvernon Drive
and east and west of Petrition Drive.
Access to Access to the site is from Alvernon Drive and Pritition Drive, which are county-maintained roadways. The surrounding future land use to the north, south, and west are is Res 9, and to the east is Res 3. The surrounding zoning to the north is R2, to the east is R3, to the south is PUD, and to the west is R1. Taking a look at the surrounding area, the star in the middle of the map is the subject site. To the north is the Riverside Village
Unit 2, which is currently zoned R2. To the south of the subject site is the River Chase Unit 2, which is zoned PUD, which was approved in 2009. It was approved for either single-family detached or multifamily dwellings. either or situation, it was eventually then developed as single family. South of that is the Seven Springs Villas condos, which are multifamily condos. And then to the southwest of the subject site is the
Villa Del Rio Unit 3 and 4, which are single family attached villas.
The subject site is undeveloped on approximately 12.03 acres. The applicant proposes to develop 55 townhomes in conformance with the MF1 Multifamily Medium Density District Standards for Development. The surrounding area is characterized by residential development, consisting of single-family detached and attached dwellings.
The future land use for the site is Res9. The subject site was previously zoned to MF1 from 1984 until 2002 when it was rezoned to R2. The applicant has some voluntarily submitted a deed restrictions limiting the maximum number of dwelling units to 55, limit the types of dwelling units to townhomes, villas, and duplexes. Street trees and front yard trees requirements, limit the amount of driveway and curb cuts, and develop in
conform in compliance with the Unit 5 ERP. um operation and maintenance of the stormwater management facility south of Alvernon Drive and allow Riverside Village Unit 4 to discharge stormwater into their Alvernon ditch. The second deed restriction would restore the swale known as KK and restore the two outfall shelters in Riverside Unit 4 behind the lots of 69 and 70 and 39.
And this is coming with a recommendation for approval.
Okay, we'll take the applicant now. The applicant's representative
now.
Good afternoon, going on evening. Barbara Wilhite, 6327, Grand Boulevard, New Port Richey, Florida, for the applicant. I have my client, Chris Shear, here, as well, as well as Steve Henry from Linkson Associates. The purpose of our application is to allow attached product, townhomes, or duplexes under the MF-1 zoning district, no apartments. The um so we're just trying to change the product. The max density is four fifty-five units, which is the same max density
as the current um zoning district. There is I I would note that there's forty seven homes on the southern boundary of this property. So fifty seven, forty fifty-five, forty seven. are very compatible numbers. Clear precedent, your staff report is very thorough. Clear precedent for MF1. This property was zoned MF1 before. The property to the south was zoned MF1 before. The property to the south is currently zoned PUD, which would allow either single family or
townhome MF1. Townhomes, they chose to do the single family 47 unit. With that, I'm gonna bring up Chris Shear who has a presentation, wants to go through. We heard at Planning Commission drainage and traffic. So I'm gonna go quickly through the zoning and planning because your staff did a great job in their staff report. I don't think there's any zoning and planning issues. Do you want to talk drainage and traffic? And if I presented something to receive and file for the clerk, it's a letter from the engineer about the drainage situation
as well as uh some concept plans. So if we could receive and file that. Second. All in favor.
Madam Chairman.
Yep.
Barbara, I don't know if you listened this morning. They had public comment about which you might want to have your traffic engineer address about the whether or not the traffic study that was introduced Um took into consideration the fifty five Town homes and the queuing of the turns onto little at some point in your presentation, not now, but I wanted
to remember to say that.
Thank you. No, I wasn't able to watch, but thank you.
Yeah. Good afternoon. My name is Chris Shear. I live at [address removed] and I have been sworn in. Uh at our planning commission meetings Uh concerns were expressed about stormwater problem. Uh traffic impact. Uh the lack of sidewalks in the subdivision. Uh the Planning Commission also requested I prepare a preliminary site plan, which I did and I will be sharing it with you today.
I don't know how to go to it back to the beginning.
No. I can't seem to be going.
Can you s put it to beginning? I don't know how well so
Okay, that's great. So um I wanted to uh go over uh stormwater with management with you first um and discuss with you the causes of uh street flooding and flooding on my property. Uh in 2015 I hired a professional engineer to investigate the causes of flooding on Alvernon Drive as well as my property. Uh that stormwater report was prepared in October of 2015. And on October of eighteenth of twenty-one, Mr. Gonzalez issued an updated
inspection report confirming that the two clauses of of the two causes of flooding identified still exist today. I've provided you with a copy of that letter from the engineer. Both the flooding flood study and the letter confirming his findings have been submitted to staff, and Mr. Gonzalez is here to answer any questions she said.
Uh this as an how do you make the little light come on? Oh here we go. This is the uh Riverside Village Unit 4 subdivision. This is my piece of property here, and this is River Chase. Two.
Again, I've blown up. Riverside Village Unit four. The uh because the first cause of flooding on my property And Alvern Drive is the complete failure of Riverside Village Unit Four and its drainage system. And that would be this system right here, along here. My property's here. This property is all supposed to drain into a ditch. And the ditch is supposed to take the prop uh the water out here to the main d ditch for the whole subdivision. and
uh take it down the Anclo River, but their system has failed. The failures appear here. This is a this line here represents a ditch called ditch KK, which was part of the ditch that was this ditch was built as part of the original permits. That ditch no longer exists. Because that ditch no longer exists, the water from these Ponds come streaking across the wetland here, they fill up Alvernon Drive
and they flood my property. The second failure of the system is this alfault structure here. This is outfall structure number three. It's supposed to drain this pond, but this pond and this structure does not work at all. It's completely failed. And instead of the water going under the street into the ditch and out through the subdivision, it instead fills up and goes backwards into this wetland and then it comes out. on Alvernon and floods my property and Alvernon as well. The third
failure Is this uh Alpha structure number two. Alpha structure number two does not function as it was designed and the water does not come underneath the street and into the drainage ditches it's supposed to. It just uh fills up in that pond and uh sheet flows across the street when it rains too hard for too many days and the uh street is actually supposed to drain into that pond but it can't get there. The the street water. So those are the three sources of uh f of
um failure. I've got pictures of it.
I think I have pictures of him.
Okay, this area right here.
Well.
I'm sorry. It's not my machine. Stop.
Mm-hmm.
Mm no, you're going the wrong direction. I'm sorry.
Okay. That is drainage structure number three. The the ditch still longer exists. I had pictures that show the ditch don't exist, but since you can't see it it really doesn't matter. The ditch does not exist.
Do you want 'em to go back?
What's that? If you would like to see that
picture.
I don't know which one back.
Not you. Let her control
it.
Do you want her to control it? it? Sure.
be a ditch here called KK and it's no longer there. Uh that ditch is because it's no longer there the watersheet flows off the back of those houses, goes through the Wetland and floods Alvernon Drive and my property. And then we could go to the next one. That is outfall structure number three. There's Mr. Gonzalez up there with his three fingers in the air.
That is the alpha structure. Obviously that alpha structure is not working. If it was working, you'd be able to see the uh drain pipes. And it it appears to me and this little area right here That the it has collapsed. But we'd have to get in there and look at it. But obviously it's not working and because it's not working, this pond stays full all the time and it's not supposed to be that full if you want to go to the next one. This is actually a retaining wall that the homeowner behind me, when I took that picture, has built
on his property because the water's so high all the time he's losing his backyard. So uh but you don't have to take my word for it or my engineer's word for it if you go to the next one. This was um outfall structure number two. Outfall structure number two is failing in this area right here. And if we go to the next picture, this is outfall structure number two again. As you can see, in one area it is wet and one area is dry, which means one of these pipes is not functioning.
Okay.
But go to the next one. And this is outfall structure number one, which Uh you can look at it and see it's just it's really not even there anymore. So the entire system has failed. All outfall structures in Riverside Village Estates have failed. Their ditches are non existent. But like I said, you don't have to take my word for it. I think the next one this is a compliance letter It was recently written from Swift Mud. to the Homeowners Association, letting them know that All three outfall structures are have
failed. and that the swale is not there and they need to repair it. And he wants it repaired now because it's causing street flooding. It's flooding my property. It's causing all kinds of problems out there. So anyway, my solution to this problem will be I along with this approval, hopefully that I get, I will rebuild the the kit ditch KK. And I'll incur the cost. I'll rebuild the structures two and three and clean out the drainage pipes under the road. for connection
to Alvon the Alvernon ditch. I have uh along with this application, I have submitted a deed restriction which will require me to make those repairs. As long as the Homeowners Association gives me access, I'll make the repairs. Because I want to get the water out of there. That I want everybody to know that I don't have to make these repairs for my permits to work. My permits will stand on their own, my drainage system will stand on my on its own. But I wanna make the repairs because I wanna get the water off
the street. It doesn't look good. And uh the time to do it is when I'm out there building a new subdivision. Um everybody's already mo uh Well mobilized, it's a good time to build it. And to fix their system and build my system at the same time. So I've I think I've given you a copy of the Uh deed restriction requires me to fix it. So Okay.
And then the next one. Okay. Um the second cause of flooding on my property is the uh flawed design and construction of River Chase. This is River Chase. On my southern border.
That property is the uh lineal footage of the shared property is two thousand three hundred feet. The back of the right-of-way. Fifty feet of every home site along that uh two thousand feet is draining directly toward my property. And one half of the rooftops all drained on my property. This water floods, this water commingles with the flooding that's occurring from the fatal system up here. and all the water is accumulated in here and then it rushes out onto Alvernon Drive.
And the other flaw is the drainage pipe under Patrician Road here was never sized. It was never sized big enough to handle the drainage that's coming off the back of these homes in River Chase which are flooding my property and flooding Albernon Drive.
And then it hits this back yard, all the law all the home sites back here. are coming to me. They're all flooding me. There's no attenuation, there's no drainage pipes, there's no drainage ponds. I don't know how it how it uh got approved. Next one. This is a uh Gutter on the back of a house? And the roofs all connect to gutters back here and they all come down to my property and this is how they this is how they're flooding me. If you go to the next one. This is
another typical home at River Chase. You can see right here, the property all come I'm standing on property line right here. And this is a pool deck, and the pool deck drains onto my property, and all these ponds, they got their gutters out here, and then that all drains down here. You can see it's cutting a little.
There's another typical house, River Chase. You can see pool decks draining it out here, over here, and then all the water sheet flows to May. So I'm being flooded from two directions. Um The uh solution I would like to propose is that if we go to the next one. As part of the permit that I already have with Swift Montbasco County I will construct a two thousand thirty foot long drainage ditch. Along
the back side a river chase. On my property. Be thirty five foot wide. And it'll take all the water. There's currently sheep flowing to me and flooding out on a drive. I'll put a pipe underneath patrician and it'll come out here to the main drain and go back to the river where it belongs. This this ditch will remove the river chase water from my property, the area in general, and help prevent street flooding.
Come on. Uh another one please.
Next one? Sorry. Okay. Uh I wanted to hit the site preliminary site plan. This is sheet one of four. Uh my property starts at the corner here. This is Patrician Drive. It goes all the way down to Almanar Drive. There's only uh this is only half the property because the property's uh 2,190 line of feet long. Uh it's a quarter, it's one it's forty two percent of a mile. Uh and it's a dead end on the street, so it's very low traffic. I've
incorporated a uh Internal driveway. To limit the number of curb cuts on Alvernon Drive. That it not only will limit the curb cuts, but it also limits the number of drainage pipes that need to be placed in the uh the ditch.
The property is two hundred feet deep.
The front. Set back to the building to the buildings would be eighty-four and eighty f eighty to eighty-four feet. The rear yard setbacks to River Chase will be ninety-one to eighty-six And the green stage buffer. between uh Albernon Drive and the internal drive is thirty five feet. The distance between my buildings is twenty feet d between 'em. They don't have that down at River Chase. Uh the green space islands
between the driveways, which I know is a Uh something that uh you all have been thinking about a lot. Mine are twenty feet wide and twelve feet wide, so there'll be nice green spaces between them. If we could go down a couple more. This is the overall plan? I wish I could get the The overall plan. Oh there it is. My property starts right here. I'm building units all the way down to the end of the Alberna on Drive. I've got tennis courts and flex courts. And a um Clubhouse
designed for the area. There you go, that looks good. And that there's the clubhouse. The next one. And that would be the play courts and stuff like that. Could we go back two more place? Okay.
So anyway, uh there he is. That's like eighty five eighty f that's ninety feet, that's eighty feet, that's eighty f eighty four feet. There's tons of space. The reason I want to do townhomes is I w I I want to have a lot of space out here. I don't want to be built like this. with homes jammed together and everybody has a little driveway coming out on the street. I w I want it to be a first class development. Uh anyway, my development will add benefits to the area. The entire project. will
be maintained by a homeowners association. All the graphs All the buildings, all the paint. All the retention ponds and the straighten stitch along the the back side. as well as a drainage ditch on the front side.
So we're gonna completely do those ditches and then also We're I'm adding twenty one hundred lineal foot. Of sidewalk to the area. which will connect two river chairs.
So uh in summary I have identified the stormwater problems and I have presented you with solutions. I had developed a concept plan which demonstrates Compatibility with my neighbors. and provides many benefits to the area. The repairs to Riverside Village Unit four And the new two thousand foot line uh ditch along River Chase will be very costly. I'm requesting the change to townhomes to help cover these additional costs. If my neighbors are sincerely worried about stormwater
system out here. They should support my plan and this rezoning because I want to fix the system. And That would be I I I d I went too fast, I'm sorry, but I was asked to be brief, so
Thank you very much. Uh does anyone have any questions for Chris?
Okay, Barbara?
Madam Chair, just one quick question. And then for the record the the applicant didn't meet with me prior to this meeting. Um You say suitable trees to remain, so it th you're considering that's your buffer from to the homes to the rear?
The the trees that are shown?
Yes.
I I consider the ninety foot of property between my property and the uh the southern property line to be the buffer. I I proposed a little twenty-five foot strip. I don't know how to make that rear.
Yeah, we're talking about rear.
I do want to sh I'm gonna save as many trees as I can between the ditch and the homes. But a lot of the trees have been flooded and they're dying. And a lot of them are just big giant pine trees. So as many as I can save I will.
Yeah. And I see you have the landscaping in the front. Uh because Commissioner Starkey Chairman Starkey ask you that in a second.
Yes. What are those
exactly? They look like cabbages.
So our deed restriction, which is the count hu now the county standard deed restriction for townhomes, prohibits um queen palms and crate myrtles. So you can't have those for as your lot trees, but does allow a variety of different uh trees as your staff would approve.
Right. As long as it's not an understory tree, but uh tree like a I mean a Lugustum tree doesn't count but that's
further down the road right so with that I what I'm gonna do is I do have Steve Henry but I think the more efficient use of time is to listen to the public comment so then he can specifically address that and answer your questions one time instead of coming here twice. So I'm trying to uh expedite this a little bit so thank you.
Madam Chairman Mariano. Yep. I do have a um I do have individuals signed up to speak to this matter. We have seven signed up for P one twenty five.
Right.
Oh thank you. I'm trying to pull up the uh sign of my map. All right, who's um signed up to speak first?
Okay. Um handwriting is a little difficult, but I'm going to say Corey Marcus.
Yeah, I see here.
Seven.
Mm-hmm.
When you come up to the podium if you could um state your name and address and that you've been sworn.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Marcus Coe. I live in [address removed]. Uh I was sworn in. Thank you. Um I come before you. This is the fourth time I've had to come to one of these meetings to try to stop this. Uh I've explained. I don't know how many have seen the other uh meetings that they had for it. Uh I retired from the US Army after eighteen years of service and And every time I go to public talk my voice goes out. After eighteen years I bought a house on Nile Drive. It took me six
months of living with my father and if anybody ever met my father, it was worse than war. Um So I f I searched for the first perfect house. I grew up here. I went to Anclote Elementary. I went to golf middle, I went to golf high school. When I retired, the only thing I could look forward to was coming back to my neighborhood, coming back to Pasco County. So when I retired, I looked, I found the perfect house for me, a half an acre lot. In an area that is not highly trafficked. When I m when we moved here from Pennsylvania
when I was five years old. We moved to Colonial Hills. And if anybody knows what Colonial Hills looked like in the eighties versus what it looks like now, we had a beautiful neighborhood. It's got a ways to come back. It's working on it, but it still has a ways to go. I found a neighborhood that reminded me of where I came from in Pennsylvania. So I bought my house. in the understanding that these small ho uh these large lots is the way it was gonna maintain. And then four years later they want to put town homes on
it. Well, if you live in an area where you have a dog, you walk it, you don't have sidewalks, and you're gonna add a hundred and ten vehicles, every house is uh approximately two cars per house, you have dangerous areas. There's a lot of neighbors that we had out here the first time that now that we're at the fourth meeting that could not be here. I am afforded the opportunity so I'm speaking with them for them because of their work schedule. You know, when you go to work you can't always make a one thirty appointment, especially if we're on number four. So hopefully
I can do them justice. As commissioners, I ask you to listen to the people. You said that everybody in the county gets to vote for you. Well we're speaking as a small portion of that county that voted for each and every single one of you. Then w when we ask you not to build this here, if you if Mr. Shear wants to build the nineteen properties, nineteen homes that he had said in his previous, we're all for it. Keep it the same structure that it was. Don't have it that you're looking out through your back door and you're looking up
at somebody that's looking down on you when you're in your pool. you know, the person who built that And I believe by my research was Mr. Shear's company that built the re uh the villages to the left that or to the south that failed. So what's gonna stop that from failing in the future? You can put anything you want in writing, but when it comes down to a deed restriction or a civic association, I've seen them fail and they go out of business and nothing gets done anymore. So as you take a look at this neighborhood, take
a look at yourself and ask if you want to look out of your back door and look up to see your neighbors, even if it is ninety foot away. Thank you for the time.
Thank you. Um the next person signed up is Michael Van Diver.
Good afternoon. I'm Michael Van Diver. I live at [address removed]. I have been sworn in. Um I have lived there at the entrance of River Chase on Patrician. If you look at the map there, my house is right there at that where the Alvernon Drive is. I've lived there for 21 years. I have seen what's happening out there. The flooding issue, Mr. Scheer I understand, has had an engineer, but I'm also a civil engineer by education, so I
have a little bit of history here. Plus, I've lived there for 21 years, and I have seen the reason that this uh area floods. Part of it is probably the outfalls and the drainage system system with the lakes. The biggest problem is that the main ditch entry uh exits into the uh Anclote River. The Antillope River rises, floods, the ditch backs up, and it has nothing to do with the water coming from the ponds. It's the tides stopping the water from exiting the Anclote
River. I've seen it year after year after year. They clean the ditch out, but they don't clean it out often enough. So that's part of the problem. The other is I have been a developer. I understand he wants to maximize the return on his property. However, this is a single-family neighborhood. We need to keep it a single family neighborhood. I don't think anyone is going to squawk about him building his 19 houses if that's what he wants to do. But we certainly don't need a multifamily Um
multifamily project on this road. Also, I sat out the other day and counted cars. coming out of River Chase, turning left onto Alvernon Drive. In one hour there was seventy five to a hundred cars that came out. If you add another fifty five units, you're gonna increase that at least two hundred cars per day, 'cause everybody's gonna make two trips, they got two cars. The traffic
on that road is already dangerous. It's a very straight road. Yeah. Kids the children that play on that road.
Probably shouldn't be playing on the road, but it is a family neighborhood. So I would ask this Commission to, if you want to approve the nineteen homes, please do that. Give him all the opportunity he can. But please don't increase the danger to our children and the flooding and traffic on that road.
Madam Chairman as a civil engineer and also a golfer and by the way, Jan Stevenson. Stevenson.
She
was gonna
ch talk as well if it's okay.
Uh so it's Seven Springs Golf and Country Club. Yes. When you get to the back side of the holes, the northern part. There's a river that runs there. And sometimes that the river gets really good. That's the
Anclote River.
So that river there, when that backs right up, that that is what you think is causing the flow to go back up as well?
It is. As a matter of fact, during uh Hurricane Sandy, if you remember that. I went over to Seven Springs and the fifteenth green was underwater by about six feet. You couldn't see the flag. It was the flooding of the Anclote River. So it had nothing to do with water coming from one area to another our subdivision. The river backs up, it flooded the entire golf course.
Are you speaking of the big storm where we where the enclop really uh jumped its banks? Yes.
It
wasn't it wasn't a hurricane, it was a
it was tropical storm.
That was a five hundred year flood event.
Right. And and anytime you have a major uh a major flood event. Whether it's a five ten, twenty-five-fifty, or hundred-year flood event. That river backs up when the tide comes up because you can see it. When the tide goes down, the water exits and Alvernon Drive is not flooded any longer. When the tide backs up, the river backs up, the water can't exit the ditch, and Alvernon Drive floods. I live on that road, seen it for twenty one years, so I understand. There's not a whole lot we can do because Mother Nature's
not gonna let us keep the the uh Gulf of Mexico down.
Did any water get any in anyone's house?
Uh no, we did not we've never been flooded.
Mine mine. Turn my house into an island, but
the water has not come into my home.
And that's the nature of development here, is that the roads add storage in a unusual rain event, right?
That is correct.
Okay.
And if you add another fifty five residences you're gonna put more rooftops. Less percolation, more flooding. Adding to the problem. Thank you.
Uh next. Next person signed up is Miriam Butler.
And whoever's speaking next, if you could go ahead and line up, um we still have another hearing after this one.
Hi, good afternoon. My name is Miriam Butler. I live at [address removed] in Riverside Village Estates Unit Four. I um I have spoken at oh and I am sworn. Um I have spoken at the Planning Commission meetings representing members of my community who oppose the rezoning we um from single family to multifamily. We cited inconsistencies with our c our community of large home
sites. The increased traffic, which has already been mentioned, that the 55 residences would bring in the drainage issues that are already problematic, as you've heard. We brought a petition of over 600 names, signatures from the surrounding area to the Planning Commission. Um We At the last meeting, we had concerns that Mr. Shear's plans were not even made available ahead of the
meeting so that anyone could study them, including the planning commissioners. And yet it was approved. For the record, I would like to note that the Planning Commission was rather dismissive of the public at many times. I can cite examples. but I won't right now, at times even mocking. And it seemed that our experience taught us that the the developers could find a much more generous reception there than the public, the private citizen.
But before I go on, um, Mr. Shear has told us, me, the Planning Commission at that last meeting, and several of our residents, that he intends to do everything he said to do. And I'm happy to see that those. Those issues would be delineated in the deed restrictions because our community is very concerned about preserving the drainage that we require in order to maintain our pond system.
Now, I'm a little our pond system didn't look too good in the things that he showed you, but I want to assure you, we have been in touch with Swift Mud for years. John Pawanda, who wrote that letter to us two weeks ago, came out at our invitation again, we've met with him before on September 13th, walked the property with me and one of my board members, um President, and he said, You're in compliance. There is repair that needs to be made, but it is
not causing flooding on Mr. Shear's property, it is n and there was there are problems with culverts that are clogged that the county needs to help. We can't go under the roads. That's not our responsibility. And I agree about the um encloat flooding um but not every uh not every outfall is as in as bad condition as Mr. Shear indicated. I think it was outfall number two. That's on my pond. I kept an eye on it
during all the recent rain that we had a month ago or whenever it was. It's working fine. It never sheets across Alvernon there. The culvert is half blocked, one of the two outlets. So there are oh so many things I would like to say, but
You have another minute, right? Oh, that was three?
Okay. Thank you. That went fast. At any rate, we hope if no matter what he builds that he keeps his promises. Thank you. Thank you. Next.
Hello everyone. My name is Bill Gillis. I live at [address removed]. I've been sworn. If you look at that map up there And you look at the top right corner Where Mr. Sheer pointed out um I believe that's whale KK. I had a conversation with Swift Mud just two days ago. Let's see. Yesterday as a matter of fact. Um about that swale because
we were not sure which way the water was supposed to flow in that swell. What I was ex what was explained to me was that swell From the north. Flow south And correct, Mr. Sherrill was correct that it flows into a swell behind our homes and into the pond behind our homes. And then out that outfall number three. However, the s that ditch uh swale k on the side of
that last house actually is an overflow swell that runs south towards Elvernon Drive to a culvert that has been crushed for years and it's a county road. Calvert. We've been promised for years. We've had several conversations with the county about it. Never got repaired. Same thing with outfall number four, which we repaired a few years ago because the walls were actually built out of the shores of the ponds, and they've
they've uh deteriorated to the point where there are were no walls. So we went ahead and built walls on that Uh outfall Uh I think twenty seventeen, somewhere along there. We had flow, it was slow. The problem is, and again I'm going to point out the county, Mr. Scherer was doing the right thing a few years ago when he was trying to maintain the ditch that all this runs into, all our culverts run into. The county stopped him.
At the time where he was stopped All those the those culverts were flowing fine. If the county hadn't stopped him, The water would not be backing up into the next two culverts. and flooding our ponds. And probably plugging them because I've lived there since 2009, and we never had this issue until the last two years. The ponds drained fine. So the
county has some culpability here. I would ask you to uh Look at the fact that what Mr. Shearer is asking is to triple the capacity of what his property has been approved for, almost triple. Fifty-five compared to nineteen. individual homes again individual homes are compatible to the area. Multifamily are not. Now my last question is Is the appeal
process the same as it was in twenty twelve?
County
Attorney. Okay. I'm not going to ask your legal questions to be a good thing. Oh, I didn't know it was
a speaker. All right. Thank you very much. Next.
Good afternoon. My name is Renee Whitehead. I live at [address removed] and I have been sworn in. So to echo many of the concerns of my neighbors, we have the flooding, we have traffic issues. I won't go into too much detail on it, but I do want to also state the petition that was mentioned. I have the hard copy signatures here. Can I turn those in?
Motion to receive file. And second. Second. All in favor? Aye.
Thank you.
Aye.
I sent an email to every commissioner here today and in that I gave the change.org part of the petition that had five hundred and sixty
Can you turn off your phone please?
That had 560 signatures and what I just turned in was 124 signatures physically signed by neighbors who were very concerned. One of the big things I want to talk about is traffic. You will hear probably later on that Alvernon is a dead end road and there's not much traffic. A traffic study was done, but it was not done on Alvernon. It was done at St. Lawrence and Little Road. The traffic on Alvern is crazy. As my neighbor, Mr. Van Diver, said there are so many cars that come out of patricians the River Chase
neighborhood is so densely populated. If we add 55 townhomes or any number of townhomes in that number range, we are going to have approximately 110 more cars on our roads. Another concern of mine is if this does go through or anything goes through when he is going to build on this property, the machinery that is going to be coming through to build these homes is going to tear up Alvernon. When River Chase was built, it tore up Alvernon and all the homes on Alvernon were assessed and had to pay to
fix those roads. What is going to happen when these roads get torn up again? And it's not just Alvernon. Saint Lawrence, Rhone, Sacramento, Nile, it's all the incoming and outgoing roads. Um the main ingress and egress I foresee this being a risky situation. If we ever had to evacuate, I see that it will be a problem with that many people in there. Um nobody's mentioned wildlife, but I will mention it. That's a big thing for me. All those trees there, there are coyote, deer, there's
so many animals living in there. The more we rip out, they're going to come into our communities. So there may be nuisance issues. I just feel that the flooding that he's shown is not accurate. The flooding that Mr Van Diver stated is accurate. It's the Anclo River backing it up and where it's flooding, he showed a picture of my backyard and the drainage area and it is still flowing around it but it's still going into the ditch going into Anclo. That's not the cause of flooding on Alvernon
and it's not just Alvernon that floods, it's that whole neighborhood and Riverside Village. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you.
Sorry to interrupt. No, you're no you're okay. Uh just for the the sake of the s the speakers, I want to make sure that we're all on the same page here 'cause they mentioned about any trucks or any clearing that may happen.
I have a note here.
Yeah, I was gonna say currently That's sown to have it has the entitlements for how many homes staff? Staff. I want to just want to hear from staff. can I I just want to make sure, since that comment's been brought up a couple of times, they do have entitlements now that they could come on there.
So they have a preliminary development plan approved for 19 homes. However, under the current zoning, which is 4.6 dwelling units per acre, they can have 55 site-built detached homes.
So currently it would be 55, up to 55.
That's correct, because it is 4.6 per acre under R2, the current zoning.
Without coming in front of the board and doing this, that
is
a correct statement.
So and I'll say something about the roads. Um just so you know how it works with the roads when um They'll take a f there'll be a photo taken of the roads and and their development process cannot and correct me if I'm wrong, staff. They c they have to leave the roads in the same repair as when they started. So if they tear up the roads I believe they have to repair the roads. Yes. Okay.
And Commissioner Starkey. They you uh staff had mentioned that they're entitled to fifty-five single family units. And so basically they're just converted to townhomes?
Yes, they under the current zoning, which is R two, they can have fifty-five single family detached homes. Okay,
so let's finish public comment, then we'll come back to us. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Rainey Ruthig. I live at [address removed]. I have been sworn in. My main thing is the I've been to four of the planning meetings, I've been to all of them. Um my question is his uh his plotting and his land keeps changing. So he keeps talking, I understand he can have 55 um homes currently. He's I think his website says um he's going to build 18 and his lot size is eight by two hundred on
his own website that I looked at. So he talked about um his current planning with all that. He is going to have a thirty-five foot pond. And then he said he's going to have eighty eighty to eighty five foot I believe um on the front where his road is gonna build. That to my math is already at like a hundred and uh twenty five or a hundred and thirty five. So is his Town home's only gonna be eighty five foot wide. And then he also talked about on the back of
River Chase that his home's gonna be sitting 90 feet off the backside of River Chase. So if his lot size is only two hundred feet, where is he getting all this land to continue to build? And then he did promise to all this buffer land. Currently there it is a very wooded area. I walk it usually every morning at five o'clock in the morning with my daughter because it is the only time that it can pretty much guarantee that I'm not gonna get ran over because I have large flashing lights on and it's so well traveled all the time. Um
So we walk it, we see the wildlife, we see the water, and we haven't had rain, a significant amount of rain, probably at least in two weeks. Um I looked this morning with the anticipation of coming to this meeting today. There's still standing water on that pretty much the whole area at some point in time behind River Chase and Alvernon. The whole area is flooded. Well, I wouldn't say flooded, but a large amount of standing water. So I live on a pond. My pond is low right now compared to where it usually sits. So
I don't see how they say my pond draining into that and he still has standing water on his property. It's just some of the things I would like to bring up today. Thank you.
Madam Chair, c could I get her name just to make sure I got it off got it marked off?
Rainy
Ruthig.
Yes, ma'am.
All right. Uh if there's another speaker they need to line up behind this woman. All right. Thank you.
Hello. Um thank you for having me here today.
One second, please. Yes. Um this gentleman then will be the last public speaker on this item. Thank you. I didn't sign my name.
That's okay. You can speak after her.
Thank you.
My name is uh Paponday Newman. I live in River Chase. I was uh sworn in earlier, uh [address removed]. Um I am actually one of those homes uh right over there on the the River Chase end, and I just want to bring the River Chase perspective. Uh I've I we built our home on River Chase uh way back in 2009. Uh actually before that. We've been here in this neighborhood for fifteen years. Uh we've had multiple attempts to build on that property,
don't have a problem with development. I'm the president of R HOA. I've been the president for six years, and we've, you know, had to deal with um issues and letters of uh people developing or wanting to develop. Now uh This is going to affect us adversely. Of course, you've heard from the traffic, you've heard about the flooding. I'm not going to reiterate all that. But a lot of people are not considering, well, the people who live there, like myself. Uh if this is a two-story, I don't have a problem with single-story, like everyone else said, which
this was approved for. But if this is a two-story, um uh c townhouse, whatever they want to call it, um i it's g they're gonna be just directly in my backyard. And again what the lady uh previously said um beforehand uh I'm going to be having a ditch probably. I don't even know. There's not enough room for these measurements or what he's talking about for building. I I don't see how you can fit all that. in in in that allotted space and then have
trees and then have a ditch And then have my pool, which by the way, those pictures were my backyard with the with the drainage. With the pool property. Yeah. Yeah. It was my backyard. But um that was my pool. Um so um which really doesn't drain it's the drainage is just for the pool, it's not for the That's the But um Like they said before, the drainage is not coming from our homes. Um if that's the case then what he's gonna put up is gonna cause
massive flooding because there's more rooftops, there's uh uh you know, there's just gonna be tons of homes. Uh another situation w a lot of people are not considering because we live on River Chase. Can I get one more minute or no? Yes.
Yeah, yeah one more minute.
We live on River Chase. Southern Oaks is right above there and a lot of us who live on River Chase, we really don't take a lot of us take Southern Oaks to go to Starkey Boulevard. Okay, because it's another outlet. if you're going that way, that route, and that's gonna cause a lot of traffic. Uh people don't think about that. It's not just Alvernon. It's gonna affect Southern Oaks and it's gonna affect traffic. And we have lots of homes as you can see there, very tightly close knit homes with lots of children
there, and the traffic now is unbelievable. We try to get speed assessments and and speed bumps in that area due to the uh the the people speeding. It's just gonna cause massive again. I'm not against 19 homes. But the fifty five
Th it would be disastrous with that many people there. And of course for I appreciate all the flooding and all the the sewer that he's gonna fix and all the the sewage issues that he's gonna take care of, but it's just gonna add problems to our subdivision. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
Yes, how you doing? Uh I was sworn in. I didn't sign the paper. I didn't know I was supposed to sign it.
Just
name an
address.
Uh my name is Henry Nocha. I live at [address removed]. All right. I The math don't add up as far as how he says he's gonna build. You know, he's ain't uh ninety feet in the front. 35 foot ditch and then uh he's gonna use the ninety ninety foot buffer. from the other people. Did he ever ask the other people if he could use their their space
because I moved in over here because I like the peace and quiet. And not that much traffic. Now if he's putting nineteen homes, I don't have a problem with that. But if he's put in fifty five homes, you're talking maybe at least two or three kids. Per house. All right, you know how much noise that is is in the backyards? Now the people on the back of his house They d they're not gonna have a say on whether How much noise the people
are going to be making? I mean I don't think you know, uh that would be like me saying, you know what? I want to go to New York, but I'm gonna use your car. Or me telling my neighbor, Rainey, you know, I got too much sun in my house, so I'm gonna build the w a wall up on top of your house. to block the sun from mine. You know, I uh Th it just don't make no sense to me.
Uh what street do you live on?
Uh Oakley. Lane.
Oklawaha. Okay, thank you.
Yep.
Okay, um uh the rebuttal please.
Barbara Wilhite for the applicant.
Property as as your zoning administrators already said has a maximum of 55 units. That's where the 55 comes from. It was keeping the same density, not changing the density it's allowed under the zoning now. That's where that number came from, that's where that cap came from. That being said, through this process, my client has looked more and come up with the concept plans, looked at more of what he thinks he'll achieve there, and he would be willing to take that number to 45. Which would cut his maximum density that's allowed currently. As far as two-story versus one-story,
the homes can be two-story, the townhomes are two-story. I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding about attached versus detached. Attached allows an efficient use of this property, opens up the green space, allows for common amenity right now. The zoning district allows pools with the current zoning district allows pools within five feet of the property line. We won't have any pools for every home. We won't have a driveway for every home. We're gonna have a central pool. So instead of having a whole bunch of h houses lined up on
that southern boundary, with pools five foot from their five foot and then their pool, which is ten foot between pools, We are not having pools. And the I'll have a Mr. Sheer come up and go over the measurements again, but the measurements are correct. Um what he says is correct. The um The res the land use is res nine and the zone the property's been zoned MF1 before. It's a much better a use of the property. It allows for
more open space. The homes are commonly maintained. River Chase was not developed by my client. That was the Orsi family with Mr. Gustavson as their engineer. He also designed Thousand Oaks, as you'll recall. And so by allowing by having townhomes instead of the homeowners in River Chase who pay their home association to chase them around and make sure that their deed restrictions are followed. The homeowners association
in this project will pay their homeowners association to maintain the project. So it's automatically maintained as opposed to a single family detached setup where you pay your homeowner association to chase everybody else around and try to get them to comply. With that, um I think the uh the the proposed project is is makes sense. I think the density is correct, I think the number of units is correct. We can drop that to forty-five. But I would let like for uh Mr. Henry to talk about traffic. And then I I know you've heard heard more
about drainage and we can have our drainage um engineer come back up and talk about drainage again if you'd like. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Steve Henry, Linkson Associates, 5023 West Laurel, Tampa 33607, and I have been sworn. Uh your land development code requires that you do a timing and phasing analysis when you have 50 PM peak hour trips. In fact, this one only has 29. So we're not even required to do a timing and phasing analysis. In addition, the code looks at whether a project has five percent impact on a road is kind of your general idea of the study network. This project has less than one percent of the capacity of Little
Road. But Be that as it may. I just coming here. My client went ahead and and and uh commissioned us to go ahead and do the analysis. So we have done the analysis, we've looked at it, we've looked at Little Road. Uh Little Road does operate at acceptable level of service. We've also looked at the intersections at St. Lawrence, Lawrence, and both north and south. They operate at acceptable level of service. And one of the questions that came up was, you know, whether the turn lanes at St. Lawrence and Little Road are adequate. We actually did look at the southbound left. That left
turn lane is adequate to accommodate the existing traffic, background traffic, and the addition of this project traffic. In addition, we looked at the northbound right turn lane. Based on those volumes, it is not warranted. Um and that's based on both the existing background plus this project would not warrant a northbound right turn lane. And then finally, we talk about traffic and the impact. As is indicated, the project is currently, or property is currently, allowed 55 single family homes. They would actually generate about 55 PM
peak hour trips as opposed to town homes, which is about 29. So this would actually be a reduction over what the current zoning would allow with 55 single family homes. That concludes my presentation unless you've got any questions.
Uh well I have one question. Um the something that I've I've seen in this neighborhood for a long time. And um There uh if we could put the map of the neighborhood up, there's a a little like spite strip misc uh unconnected. Place there at the end of Amazon. Um and you're you're a traffic guy, but it it's always bothered me that For anyone anyone in this community that wants to get out to start the Boulevard Um
they come down and they go through River Chase. And up. And I I've just been a real proponent of connectivity And it's just a shame how how this Area has developed in this disconnected way. I know previous commissions stubbed out all the roads to the north. And um Uh Jack when we had the hearing on uh Um With the park property. Um you know, i it w they went through it all the all
the mistakes in my opinion that prior commissions made that allowed for a disjointed transportation network in here.
But if you look here at Amazon And Anaconda, those are supposed to connect and they haven't connected yet. Um but I don't know, I guess I'm making a comment more than I'm asking you for I can
answer that.
Yeah.
So that is off site, but my client owns that property and he'd be happy to convey that property to the county. But that is a county decision. Does the county want it, not want it? He's fine either way, but he it is off site from this project, but he does own that strip, so
Okay. Well that would be great. Thank you.
Um Barbara, while you're up there, I have a question for you. Um and I listened to the planning commission meeting. Um So so right now you can build how many houses?
Under R two it's a fifty five.
And so would the concrete pad coverage be more? Or less than with the townhomes.
More.
So it's less Coverage. now than what they could build.
Impervious areas. Right.
That's correct.
I just want everyone to really let that soak in. Um also I just went d on Google Earth and went down River Chase and Patrician Drive and I see a lot of two story houses. And this has come up to us before. But you know we don't res we don't say I can't recall a neighborhood where we say we're restricting you to one story houses that I see one story next to two story all over the county and
it's it's very common so I'm sure we're not sure. You all have noticed that too. So um
Madam Chairman Mariano. Those are some of the things I was just gonna bring up and I and I appreciate obviously everybody being here today. You know, those are the reasons they asked some of these questions because I I was not aware, again, they were allowed to have fifty-five homes. So you're stating now that your your client is willing to bring it down to forty-five?
That's correct.
Okay, from the fifty-five which is on the application.
That's correct. Okay. We can do that in the deed restriction. We have extraordinary deed restrictions. Never done any deed restrictions like this before for a project. County Attorney's Office helped us with them. Um but yes, we'll do that to forty-five.
Okay. And as Chairman Stark you mentioned a second ago, uh yeah homes can be two story. Um These are the townhouses are planned to be two stories, not three stories, correct? Two
two stories.
Okay. Okay. So you're not gonna get any additional height than somebody could actually build a home on today. Unlike an apartment complex that Lily could not have height restrictions of being three, four, five, six stories, that's a possibility, correct, Mr. Nandas? Nandez?
That's correct.
Okay. So these are in your In your deed restriction you're willing to say no l taller than two stories?
That's correct.
Um I think that's it for me. I just wanted to make sure that I just wanna make sure that everybody was aware again that they could literally go there tomorrow and then you would have possibly smaller lots and smaller l It's more a lot sizes and you could have smaller, skinnier homes and a more and uh and actually cause you more issues and actually possibly be more traffic 'cause we're allowed to put more homes there. So and listen, I appreciate your comments. If they were to say t if they were this were to come to meet it today and it was literally only zoned for, you know ten
homes or twenty homes. my thought pattern would be totally different. But they're actually in almost in essence downzoning from what they Currently can have. And not upzoning in reality.
Commissioner Starkey.
Yes,
Commissioner Fitzpatrick, then Commissioner Mariano. Thank you. So I have met with the community regarding other um projects and they had mentioned the flooding. So I did go out there and I drove by and I at first I when I went I drove by I saw the concerns of the flooding on that property. It looked there was standing water. Um when I When and I the applicant had met with me, he brought me the letter from Swift Mud showing that there were structures
that had failed. And I do know the community has come as well to mention about the flooding concerns. So him taking the initiative to I believe it was about six hundred thousand dollars he would invest to fix the flooding concerns in that area. I think he's willing to work with the community. In essence, and also looking at the project, there's forty-seven homes butted up to the back of this in which he could technically
put forty-seven single family homes butted right next to each other. And again, he is showing the greenery between. And also with Swift Mud. And I know the concerns of flooding. One he is gonna fix the flooding for Riverside Village Four
And with that
So also with Swift Mud, you have to keep they have to keep the water. on their own property, so they do have the retention problems to continue having the water flow on their property and it would not become an issue where the water would be draining back onto the roads. So
Okay, um this is in my district, so oh go ahead,
Commissioner Mariano. Thank you. Um I got a few concerns as four. When I when I listen to the The rear buffer the ditch being cleared out for drainage and all. It sounded to me like the rear buffer wasn't gonna be there. But do we have standards we have to have, Denise? The bit buffer's gonna be there and what is it?
It's residential to residential. Yeah. When do you buffer residential to residential?
So there's not gonna be no buffer then.
Well
there is a buffer.
He agreed to put one in, but he doesn't have to.
Yes, they're agreeing on a buffer, but the land development code would not typically require A buffer.
Okay. All right. Now when we look under the finding of fact, I've I've heard several times with this guy Well the this developer can come in and build fifty five homes, right? Well you just started again it's D zoning. So help me understand when I'm looking at the finding effect, item number nine. What it says the Board of County Commissioners, the Planning Development Department have approved the following plans in their subject property. Going down to C Uh see on March ninth it says Pelomy Development
Plan, Construction Plan, and Stormwater Management Plan in report for nineteen single family detached dwellings and associated infrastructure. Is that just a small portion of it?
No, um what I'm what that is stating is that that is what they actually have in-house. The other question is what can they have under the current zoning? So under the current zoning, which is zone R2, it's 4.6 dwelling units per acre. If you multiply 12.03 acres by 4.6, they can have 55.33 something units. What they came in for a preliminary development plan in for, which is what is in your finding of fact number nine, is they came in for a d preliminary
development plan and they got it approved in 2019, which is for s 19 single family units. So they could just Had this zoning up We we would not be sitting here today, for example. They can come in for a preliminary development plan, which is sta under staff approval for fifty-five single family detached homes, which is what they can have under the current zoning under R two, which is four point six dwelling units per gross acre. Okay.
So this is a reduction.
And ditches are getting cleaned. And culverts fixed.
Okay. All right. Can I get a motion? Says District Four. I know, but we just changed the maps.
Uh well But
maybe that goes into effect yet.
I think it goes into effect after the meeting, doesn't it? Yeah, after the meeting. I
don't
know.
And originally going with all of the flooding issues that were addressed and for the fact that with Swift Mud he's gonna have to not only he's gonna fix the flooding issues that are across the street from him, and he has to contain all the water that is on his own property and for the fact that fact that there's forty seven homes butted up to his property, I would do a motion to approve for the forty-five homes.
And it's not multifamily. It i it's um it's not apartments, it is a town home.
to do that. Do we
have forty five fifty can I second?
You can second.
I'll s I'll second that. Okay.
I thought I heard a second.
No, there wasn't a second. Okay, uh all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. So
fall for it in the other direction just to you need to get in the habit of doing that again. Any opposed?
Oh, any opposed. I heard five, so I didn't. Okay. It's getting late in the day. All right. So um all right, and I I do want our staff to go out there and look at all those culverts and understand that system. Um okay, Mike? Karbala? I I re I recall Mike Garrett doing some work out there in one of those ditches and um and then I recall what the other engineer said, what I think Mr. Gillis said that there was some work being
done in a ditch and Swift Bud stopped him. So uh never got finished.
I'll verify the maintenance responsibility and what we should be doing out. Yes ma'am. That would be good.
And Mr. Mike Carbala, can you just double check the right turn lanes on Saint Lawrence and Heritage Lake Boulevard, please?
Yes, if it needs a right hand turn, please.
Thank you.
All right, we're gonna move on to
One.
You're back.
127? 126?
126.
126.
No.
No?