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FishHawk Seeks To Add Land

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

Updated: 10/22/2007 07:22 pm

LITHIA - Developers of the massive FishHawk Ranch community are looking to expand again.
Newland Communities has requested a Notice of Proposed Change with Hillsborough County in an effort to add 70 acres to the 4,000-acre residential development. Newland needs to rezone the property from Agriculture Single Family Residence to Planned Development.

The new acreage would be used for houses approved as part of the FishHawk Development of Regional Impact.

The company also is requesting permission to use a 2-acre site, previously earmarked for a fire station, for multifamily residential, office and limited commercial construction. Newland also wants to use a 1-acre site near the FishHawk town center, previously set aside for a library, for other construction. Company officials have not decided what to do with that land.

Pam Parisi, marketing director for Newland, said the developer was not required to build a fire station or library site as part of its DRI approval, and since then the county has decided to build those facilities elsewhere.

The fire station will be constructed next to a county sports complex under construction off FishHawk Boulevard. The county is searching for land for a library along FishHawk Boulevard with more space than the original 1-acre parcel, Parisi said.

Newland's requests had been scheduled to go before the Hillsborough County Commission in November, but because the county Environmental Protection Commission has questions about rezoning on the additional 70 acres, discussion before the commission has been postponed until January, said Elaine Lund, community planner for the county.

EPC wetlands division Director Bob Stetler said the agency's outstanding issue is alignment of a road into the new 70-acre parcel. Newland proposed running the road through a significant wetland, but the EPC rejected that plan.

Developing the additional land would not add more houses to the number approved or require new access roads, Parisi said.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or at yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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