Welcome to the works.

In today's episode, we're taken to the skies with Hillsborough County Mosquito Control to find out how they combat the spread of disease and the rise of mosquito population.

So when it comes to mosquitoes, how exactly are we combating them in the sky?

Nobody complains about larvae.

They complain about mosquitoes, and specifically adult mosquitoes, female excuse.

What we do is we use a larva side product that attacks the larval and the swaps of the micro areas along the coast here.

Good evening.

Welcome to the June 11, 2026 Board of County Commissioners Comprehensive Plan Amendment Public Hearing.

The board will consider an application for rezoning and related applications for development of regional impact development order amendments, which will be considered concurrently with a related application for a comprehensive plan amendment.

Additionally, the board will consider the transmittal of comprehensive plan amendments to the state and agencies for review for amendments that are considered for transmittal this evening.

Please note that if these amendments are approved for transmittal, there will be a second and final public hearing for consideration of the adoption of the amendments.

So with that, uh give it the planning commission to introduce uh the first amendment.

Good evening.

Melissa Linehard for the record.

Good evening.

Good good evening, Erica Larson, Planning Commission staff.

I'm here to present HCCPA 26-04, located at Bird Island and Sunken Island.

This is a privately initiated map amendment that is small in scale and approximately 49.72 acres.

During the briefing on this amendment, planning commissioners asked about other islands without feature land uses.

GIS analysis identified seven islands, the majority of which are owned by Mosaic and the port.

Finally, the applicant has also submitted a rezoning alongside this amendment associated with Mosaics River View facility on a different mainland property, which is a part of the considerations later tonight.

This slide shows the general location map.

The site is in the rural area and within the limits of the Gibson Ton Community Plan.

This amendment is located in the southwestern Hillsborough County region, west of the Alafaya River and southwest of the Mosaic Fertilizer Plant.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has designated these islands as critical wildlife areas, home to thousands of birds during nesting season.

This slide shows the adopted feature land use map.

The subject site is outlined in black, and as you can see here, it is not classified.

There is heavy industrial to the northeast and residential one uses are east of the subject site.

This slide shows the proposed future land use change with the islands taking the natural preservation designation.

Next are the impacts.

No residential development is permitted, except our facilities determined necessary to serve a caretaker of the recreational slash environmental property, or for the compatible recreational slash educational development.

There were no objections received on the agency review.

However, we have a few comments of note.

This is not a part of the plan amendment and would be worked out by the EPC and the county in the future.

The water resources department noted that the area is outside of the urban service area, so potable water and wastewater services will not be provided, which is not a part of this request.

Finally, both Audubon and Port Tampa Bay are supportive of this amendment, noting the ecological importance of the islands, including the role as critical nesting habitat.

The port has noted that they have an easement to add spoil slash fill to the island.

For the consistency review, the proposed amendment is consistent with the following goals, objectives, and policies of the comprehensive plan on this slide and the next.

In terms of the future land use section, the amendment is consistent with requirements that new development and redevelopment avoid adverse impacts to environmentally sensitive areas and other significant natural systems.

Looking at the capital improvements section, the comprehensive plan limits infrastructure in the coastal high hazard area to specific circumstances, including restoration or enhancement of natural resources.

Given the islands' location with the within the CHHA, the proposed designation is in line with this policy direction.

Looking at the coastal management section, the county is directed to protect, maintain, and enhance the abundance and diversity of living marine resources within Tampa Bay.

Continuing on with the consistency review, looking at the environmental and sustainability section.

The plan's intent is to protect sensitive environmental resources, including wetlands, and preserve ecological integrity.

Finally, looking at the Gibson 10 community plan, the amendment is aligned with the vision established in the community plan and encourages the protection and enhancement of public lands for conservation and recreation purposes.

With that, the planning commission found HCCPA 26-04 consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the unincorporated Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan.

This concludes my presentation.

And the applicant is here and available for questions, and I'm happy to answer any questions as well.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Vanette Gadelia with Stern Sweeper Miller, 401 East Jackson Street Attorney for Applicant in the MISA Company.

We're pleased to work with the planning commission to place this natural preservation designation on these now unclassified islands, and we are here for questions.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, we're going to the public hearing.

We've got two individuals that have signed up for A1.

First one in person, Teresa Corden.

Is Ms.

Corden here?

Come on down.

And then we'll follow by Jeff Light Light Lighty, I believe, who's virtual.

Good evening.

I I apologize.

Which item are we speaking on?

A one.

Okay.

So I actually have kind of like a little special request to make.

I'm actually checked off to speak on all of the issues.

Specifically, it wouldn't, it would be like I think the third one, uh, the stack expansion.

Um, but what I'm saying pertains to pretty much all of excuse me, all of it.

Um, would it be possible for me to just listen to everyone's presentations and then well there's only one other only one other individual signed up for A1.

Okay.

And then we have one, two, three, four, five additional folks for um A2 through A4.

Okay.

So the comments to uh on this one should only be about A1, and then your comments for the other ones.

A two, three, and four will be combined.

So your comments can be to those at that time.

So I don't know if that helps you at all.

Could I wait to speak until then?

Would that be yeah, absolutely?

Okay, that's fine.

All right, yeah, let me go ahead and do that.

Okay, no problem.

Appreciate it, thank you.

Is uh Jeff Lighty on the phone.

Uh yeah.

Uh my name is Jeff Licty, uh, sanctuary manager for Ottoman Florida's coastal island sanctuaries.

For decades, Ottawa and managed Bird Island and Tuck and Island as the Richard T.

Paul Allifyabanks bird sanctuary.

Due to the abundance and diversity of birds that rely on the islands for critical nesting habitat.

The Allifyabanks represents one of the most important waiting for it recurries on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Each year, as many as 10,000 nesting pairs from 17 species of water birds depend on the sanctuary as a safe haven from raising their yacht.

And this includes five species listed as threatened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

These islands play a vital role in Tampa Bay, iconic water bird populations, including brown pelicans, Rosia Scoonville, Perrin, Ygrit, and Muller, given the importance of this habitat, Ottoman Florida strongly support the natural preservation mind use designation.

Thank you for your consideration.

All right, thank you.

Uh again, no one else is signed up for A1.

The applicant has an opportunity for a bottle if they want it, or they can okay so we'll defer the vote until after uh A2, A3, and A4.

So per the LDC, the related DRI amendments and rezoning 26-0436 will be presented and heard together in a combined public hearing uh as the rezoning relates to the DRI amendments.

So Mr.

Grady, do you need to introduce the first item?

Good evening, Commissioners.

Brian Grady, Hillsborough County Development Services.

Yes, uh I'll briefly introduce the three items.

Um the first item is agenda item.

Uh A2, this is uh DRI development order 26-0434, and this is a modification to DRI number 242 to allow the extent expansion of the existing uh stack system by 178.5 acres.

Uh relocate uh 14.28 acres into this uh DRI from adjacent DRI and update um the map H accordingly and development order uh requirements accordingly also.

Uh A3 is uh DRI DO 26-0435.

This is a modification to DR number 68 to relocate uh the reference 14.2 acres from this from that subject DR to the adjacent DRI, which is uh DRI 26434 modification.

Uh so extending the build out date and expansion dates and changing the subject DRI name and updating map H accordingly to reflect those changes.

And the final uh related item is uh is agenda item A4, rezoning PD 26-0436.

This is a rezoning from planned development, agriculture industrial manufacturing, residential single economy conventional six, and and unzoned areas to plan development to allow for the currently approved fossil gistment stack to be extended to the west and provide for zoning designations for the bird and sunken island sanctuary, which is associated with HCA HC CPA 26-04, the comprehensive plan amendment that was discussed earlier.

Uh regarding the rezoning application, uh staff did find this request approval.

Would note that there's an existing visual management plan that's being maintained and continued and enhanced as part of this modification.

Uh we did again find this approval, planning commission found it consistent in the hearing officers recommended approval, and we are available for questions on any of the three items.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Oh, I would also like the commissioners mentioned one thing.

We do have two revised uh changes to uh uh DRI uh development order 242, a couple of cleanup items, uh, one dealing with the water quality condition that EPC has reviewed and it has no objection to those changes, and we have placed those in the record.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh the applicant, I apologize.

If you could please square everyone in.

Some help out one left along.

Mr.

Greedy can be switched with before she speaks.

Ma'am, if you can hold off one second.

I I think before anyone else speaks, we need to uh swear everyone in if the clerk could please administer the oath.

Okay.

Please stand and raise your right hand if you're going to give testimony tonight.

All right.

Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

All right, thank you.

You may be seated.

Commissioners, again, Vanette Cadelia with Stern's Weaver Miller, 401 East Jackson Street attorney for the Mosaic Company.

Um we have quite a few mosaic representatives and experts in the room.

I think you see everyone behind me.

I know there are restrictions on the matters after us to try to save space because we had about 35 people here today, including experts and um staff of mosaic, including from the Riverview plant.

We have those folks here really to respond to questions that you may have.

We want to be efficient with our use of time.

We have a robust record already in the record for the three applications, including multiple requests for additional information from county departments and agencies, our responses, staff reports, the ZHM recommendation of approval.

I'm gonna just move in our resumes for our speakers for the DRIs, and also our presentation.

Here's who you're gonna hear from today.

Three experts on direct.

We have folks for rebuttal, of course.

Shelley Thornton, Mosaic Director of Land Use Permitting on why this extension is needed and the related state, federal, and local oversight and regulatory structure.

Shannon Gonzalez on project specific mitigation and conservation commitments, and Jackie Baron on community coordination and engagement.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Ms.

Thornton.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Shelley Thornton, and I am the director of land use permitting for Mosaic.

I have a bachelor's of science in civil engineering from the University of South Florida, and I'm a Florida licensed professional engineers.

I also have over 25 years of experience in land use and environmental permitting.

Excuse me, we cannot hear.

Mosaic was the first Fortune 500 company that was headquartered here in Tampa, and we operate the Riverview Manufacturing Plant where phosphate rock is converted into essential crop nutrients.

These nutrients are critical to achieving the crop yields needed to supply national and global needs.

In 2025, phosphate was designated as a critical mineral, recognizing that it is uh importance to national security, supply chain resilience, as well as economic stability.

It was specifically included because of its central role in food security.

Mosaic is the largest supplier of phosphate crop nutrients, providing on average 48 percent of the United States annual supply, and the Riverview facility alone produces roughly 18% of all phosphate fertilizers used in the North American market.

The Riverview Manufacturing Facility began operations in 1924, which means they marked their one year anniversary just two years ago.

The site includes the main manufacturing plant, which is shown here on blue.

Um blue, just north of the Allifyah River, west of Highway 41.

North of that is uh West Stack that is no longer receiving gypsum, and then the active East Stack that we are talking about here today is shown in green east of Highway 41.

All materials are currently moved via pipelines between the manufacturing plants and the East Stack, and we are not proposing any changes to that infrastructure or the amount of traffic that will be accessing the East Stack or site access locations.

We are requesting approval for a western lateral extension and a highly industrialized area of the East Stack for approximately 178.5 acres to provide the gypsum storage needed to continue plant operations for an additional 16 years.

The Riverview facility plays a major role in strengthening our local economy.

Riverview employs roughly 280 employees at the Riverview facility, and more than a thousand mosaic employees call Hillsborough County home like myself.

In 2025, Mosaic generated a major economic impact in Hillsborough County, providing nearly 150 million dollars in employees' salary and wages, more than 32 million dollars in payroll taxes, and almost 11 million dollars in ad valorum taxes.

As you can imagine, extending a fossil gypsum stack requires coordination across multiple regulatory agents on the federal, state, and local level with a number of different permits.

For a project of this scale and complexity, the only way to keep the permitting process on track is through frequent, proactive engagement with the agencies involved.

This slide is illustrating the table outlining all of the permits that were required prior to any construction to begin at the ESTAC extension.

The Clean Water Act 404 application was submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers on December 12, 2025.

However, we began early coordination with the Army Corps as well as the EPA in the summer of 2024.

Our environmental resource permit application is anticipated for the fall of this year.

However, we also began communication with them back in 2024.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, also known as NIPDE's application, will be submitted to the DEP in early 2027.

This permit governs the design and construction of phosphogisome stacks under FDEP's phosphate management system program, excuse me, and ensures compliance with those state rules.

In 2000, which was the last major update to DRI 242, the DO conditions mirrored those NIPDES requirements and were incorporated specifically to address monitoring, construction, and long-term maintenance of the GIP stacks.

The development order before you reflects those same conditions, and if approved, they will apply to the ESTAC extension.

One of the most significant components of the Riverview permitting was the effort involved with the multiple applications for Hillsborough County.

A pre-application meeting was held with development services on November 1st in 2024, followed by a series of coordination meetings leading up to final application submittal of January 12th, 2026.

This request includes a rezoning of approximately 400 1,400 acres to plan development.

However, only 178.5 acres covers new land disturbance.

It will be along the existing West Stack and because the remainder is already MPD.

Companion applications included amendments to DRI 242 as well as 68 and a small-scale amendment planned amendment for bird and second islands that you just heard about.

Thank you, Shelley.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Shannon Gonzalez, and my business address is 8306 Laurel Fair Circle in Tampa.

I'm a senior professional wetland scientist and AVP with Verdantis in Tampa.

I was born and raised here in Florida.

I'm a two-time USF graduate and a resident of Hillsborough County.

Throughout my career, I've worked extensively with federal, state, and local agencies, including Hillsborough County EPC, on projects involving environmental impacts and defensible mitigation strategies.

The proposed ESTAC extension was designed to minimize impacts by maximizing use of existing disturbed areas.

As this figure shows, the extension is proposed along the west side of the existing stack in pink, avoiding more natural areas, nearby residential and commercial properties to the north, east, and south, all shown in green.

This design also uses about 160 acres of existing stack, reducing the need for additional land disturbance.

These wetland impacts will be offset through mitigation bank credits.

The aquatic resources proposed for impact, uh, these features have altered hydrology, limited native vegetation, and poor connectivity to surrounding habitats.

They're very highly degraded systems.

Although they do meet the regulatory definition of wetlands and surface waters, they provide minimal ecological function in their current condition.

This directly informs the type and scale of mitigation needed to offset the wetland impacts.

It also highlights why the broader mitigation package is both balanced and environmentally meaningful.

One important part of the package is the release of declaration of restrictions over a small portion of the site, approximately 19 acres.

That limited release will be more than offset by the establishment of a 347-acre conservation area.

This results in a significant increase in protected lands.

The proposed conservation easement is just south of the Riverview facility.

Oops, I'm gonna back up one.

Just south of the Riverview facility.

You can see that in grade, orange, and green, just south of the Allafa River.

Um this location protects important estuarine and coastal habitats that support water quality, wildlife, and overall ecosystem function.

In summary, these wetland impacts will be offset through mitigation bank credits.

In addition, the conservation easement will permanently protect nearly all of the coastline between the Allafia River and Bullfrog Creek, as shown in this photo, which was taken just over the Alpha River looking south.

This represents meaningful lasting environmental benefit, especially compared with the relatively low functioning systems being impacted.

From both a technical and regulatory standpoint, the proposed impacts and mitigation are balanced, justified, and consistent with all applicable standards.

Thank you very much.

With that, I'll turn things over to Jackie Barron.

Hello, Commissioners.

I'm Jackie Barron, Senior Manager with Public Affairs, address 13830, Circuit Crossing Drive in Lithia.

From the global level to how we operate as a team on site at Riverview, centers around collaboration with our neighbors near and far.

These are just a couple of the pictures from events just last month, including the annual Progress Village Foundation Scholarship Brunch.

That is an effort started by the industry in collaboration with the community 40 years ago.

This year alone, we gave out 48,000 in scholarships and honor roll rewards.

I'm very blessed to be on that board.

From 2021 to 2025, we invested more than six million dollars in Hillsborough County.

Our partnerships range from very small to collaborations with major sports teams.

Riverview, as a site itself, has supported 57 different local organizations.

Employees routinely giving of their personal time and treasure, many of them here with us tonight.

Our operations at Riverview make it possible for us to contribute in a meaningful and lasting way to the communities around us and to be the kind of neighbor Hillsborough County can continue to count on.

We are always engaged.

And where this request is concerned, we have hosted two open houses.

They were very well attended, and led a few groups on tours of the GIP stack itself.

In closing, the zoning hearing master has recommended approval of the PD rezoning.

County staff found the PD rezoning consistent with the comprehensive plan and all applications approvable.

We want to share our heartfelt appreciation with the multitude of staff who consulted, reviewed, and worked with us to bring this request to fruition.

With that, Mosaic respectfully requests the board's approval for all applications, the PD rezoning amendments to DRI 242 and DRI 68, as well as the comprehensive plan amendment.

Thank you so much for your time tonight.

And of course, we stand at the ready to address any of your questions.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Okay, we have got nine individuals that have signed up to speak per our process.

We have proponent testimony followed by opponent testimony.

The sign-up sheet is not distinguish between the two.

So I'll just say, is anyone here uh in support that signed up to speak in support of the application?

If so, please come forward.

And please state your name.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Reverend Mack Ray Mangum.

I am a pastor of Victory AME Church, where we recently hosted an open house with Mosaic.

We were fortunate to be able to actually take a tour with Mosaic and the Gypsy stacks, and we were very impressed with what we were able to conclude with all of their expansion opportunities.

And also more importantly, even as a recent assigned pastor, I've seen a lot of work done in the community.

And so, in short, I do stand with support of them as they move forward as they continue to do the work in the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Anyone else in support that signed up?

Please come forward.

Good evening.

Good evening, Border.

Go on, Commissioners.

I am a long-time resident of Progress Village.

I'm also a recipient of the scholarship foundation that has started with Garden A back in the in the 80s.

I'm also a 25-year veteran mechanic at Mosaic.

I have the opportunity to raise my children in Progress Village to today.

And I see that this company not only stood for what they meant in our community, but also gave back to those that came from the community as well.

It seemed that it wanted to invest in me.

I sent me the school, paid me a wage to become a journal mechanic with millright certification.

Now I'm a mechanic for the company.

Three of them went to school, two went to Florida AM, one at North North Carolina AT, and one went to South Florida.

So I they have always been an impact in the community, so this expansion not only can give back to my community, but also give future employment to those that's coming behind me, not only those behind them as well.

So I ask that you take in consideration that how far this expansion can go beyond what we ask them.

Thank you.

Hi, sir.

Can you please say your name for the record?

Yes, my name is Devin Ray Sr.

All right, thank you.

Anyone else here in support?

Please come forward.

Excuse me while I put on what my daughter calls my old man glasses.

I got them on too, sir.

First off, thank you for your time and for allowing me to speak this evening.

My name is Jeff Ryman.

I'm a U.S.

Navy combat veteran.

I am a member of the Hillsborough County Veterans Council, a combat veterans motorcycle association or CVMA life member, a BFW life member, an American veterans member.

Besides being a proud U.S.

veteran, I'm also a longtime Mosaic employee and have spent much of my career working at and supporting the Riverview facility, where more than 20% of the workforce are veterans.

I also get to represent the company at local veteran job fairs and hiring events.

Mosaic understands the value veterans bring to the workforce, and this commitment reflects a broader culture of respect, discipline, and responsibility that carries over into how we operate our facilities.

Mosaic is committed to supporting veterans not only through employment, but through ongoing programs, partnerships, and community engagement.

I would ask have any of the commissioners heard of a thing called the final mile.

The final mile came about several years ago when my combat veterans association members learned that when a veteran passes away at the VA and is unclaimed, meaning they have no family or no one to claim them, the VA would deliver that veteran to the National Cemetery where the veteran would be laid to rest when the cemetery had the time.

No ceremony, no service recognition.

Since then, my combat veterans association has stepped in.

We signed a contract with both the James A.

Haley VA and the Bay Pine VA.

Now, if a veteran passes that is unclaimed, they're claimed by the combat vets, given a ceremony at the VA, and then escorted to the National Cemetery, where they're given an honors burial by branch of service.

The combat vets describe this as our commitment to ensuring that no veteran goes to their final resting place alone.

And when I brought this up to Mosaic, they immediately made a commitment to support the combat vets in the final mile.

And this isn't surprising.

Mosaic helps within our communities in so many different ways.

Food drives, buildings and stocking local food pantries, teeming with the Bucks, the Lightning, the Rays, and Echo to fight hunger through feeding Tampa Bay.

I am proud to be part of this company that gives back to our local community in so many ways.

The River Riverview facility pays it plays an important role in all of this, not to mention the main mosaic of the main mission of Mosaic and helping the world grow the foods that it needs.

And that is a huge statement.

This permit is essential to the continuation of the River U facilities operations.

These operations not only support us, the employees, but the community and the community.

This expansion is all about Mosaic continuing to operate safely, responsibly, and sustainable sustainably.

I respectfully ask for your support in this permit.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next in support.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Marlise Talbert Jones.

I stand here today, Commissioners.

I greet you all.

Um, Commissioner Myers, I want you to know that I did send a letter out to all of the commissioners, but yours kept kicking back, so be nice.

I mean, I don't know why I came back.

Okay.

Um I may have.

Okay, okay.

It's okay, ma'am.

Please continue.

I I stand here tonight to speak on behalf of um CAP, Providence Village City Council, and my personal experience with Mosaic.

Um Mosaic has been um the chemical plant is what we used to call it when we were children.

Um the place where everyone wanted to work because it was such a good job.

It provided for my family of nine.

My father was employed there and retired from there.

As I look out in the audience, I see a lot of childhood friends and family members that were and have been employed for at Mosaic for many of years.

So it's not just uh a generation now, it's the generation in the past.

I remember how the there was a close-knit family with the employees of Mosaic back in the day, Garnier, and um, as Devin stated, it it still is.

Um Mosaic has been a pillar in the community, whereas it has helped Paris Village and the surrounding areas because it wasn't just Parkins Village, we had family members that lived outside of the village that we were able to assist because of our parents and family members working at Mosaic.

Um, I as I stated before, I am on the board of CAP, which is the community.

I'm sorry, community, uh, I can't remember.

Okay.

So we're gonna say it's CAP, the Mosaic Community Initiative program, where we go out to where they come in and assist all kinds of agencies, nonprofits, the schools, and everything else in where there's needed clothing, uh, food, all kinds of activities and whatever is needed for the community.

I'm nervous.

Okay.

And as I stated also, I am on the board of Parkinson's Civic Council.

I have not always been on the board, and I am a recent uh member.

And we are growing.

We have been more active, and when I got on the board, I was introduced to mosaic family again, and it's been a great honor because I see them working and caring about the community.

Um they are always willing to ask, what do you need?

How can we help?

They are a family-oriented company, and um, of course, we have concerns about uh Egyptian POW, uh however they pronounce it, the POW, because it's been there forever.

However, there's a need.

I've been on several tours with them, and they've explained thoroughly about their process of being safe.

And I really do appreciate that because we that's what we live for.

We want to be safe, and they have been extensive what they're and open with what they're doing.

They have come out to the community on several different uh occasions at several lift locations and have informed us of their desire to expand and make sure that we were informed about what was going on.

So I just want to ask the board if they would definitely consider Mosaic's expansion on behalf of Progress Village, Progress Village Civic Council, myself and CAP.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else here in support?

Okay.

Uh the remaining speakers.

We have Teresa Corden, followed by Mark Top Good evening.

Um thank you for letting me um get up here and talk.

Um my name is Teresa Corden, um, as you guys already know.

Um I am a small business owner here in the Tampa Bay area.

I actually live in Brandon.

Um my address is 1018 Estate Wood Drive, Brandon.

Um I'm just a PTA mom.

Um I'm just uh a normal run-of-the-mills everyday citizen.

Um but I do have a few concerns about uh Mosaic expanding their stack.

Um I have done a little bit of research actually, and um, you know, to go forward to look like to agree to be able to say, yes, I fully agree with them expanding the stack.

I would actually like to go back a little bit.

Um so nine years ago, Mosaic requested that Manatee County rezone 3,500 acres of agricultural land and convert it to extraction.

This request was part of a larger phosphate mining development project that included opening three other mines across 50,000 acres of Central Florida land spanning three counties.

I would like to read a quote from an article that was written in December of 2016 after the request was made.

Um it's from an interview with this lady named Jacqueline Lopez, who was the uh Florida director for the Center of Biological Diversity at the time.

She says, We've asked the commissioners, and it's not just the Center for Biological Diversity and our partners in the litigation with the federal agencies, it's also residents of Manatee County, and frankly, it should be the residents of the destination sites of that phospho gypsum, like the community around New Wales and like the community around Riverview.

We're asking them to come out to this Manatee County meeting and to have the commissioners look them in the eye and say, yes, we're going to authorize 3,500 additional acres of mining that's going to be the that's going to result absolutely in the production of phosphogypsum, and that's going to be stored in your communities, and that's going to be your problem.

The expansion request was discussed in a BOCC meeting held um January 26, 2017, and it uh subsequently passed.

Um, eight years later, as of February 25th, 2025, Mosaic was given a green light to extend mining operations for another 14 years in Manatee County.

So they got the extension, and then they were also given an extension uh a year ago for another 14 years of mining operations.

Um I think it's the Four Corners mine.

Um this was despite a unanimous denial recommendation from the county planning commission.

So Manatee County, uh their commission uh said no.

Um skipped it today.

It is is it a coincidence that Mosaic expanded mining operations in Manatee County in 2016?

And then nearly 10 years later, we are debating whether we need to expand the Riverview stack.

I think it's safe to say this has now become our problem, as Jacqueline Lopez said it would.

How many more stacks will we expand?

How many more mines will we open?

How many more acres of land will we need to be destroyed before we start saying no?

Can we all agree at this point that there is no plan?

Mosaic does not have any answers when it comes to the future.

People have been asking for years.

They do not know what to do with the mess that they have created.

They blame it on the EPA and the federal government for tying their hands for making them stack the gypsum.

And um, in their presentation, they did mention that they are within compliance of all the rules.

Um, I've talked to Jackie actually, and she's done a really good job explaining to me like how good of a job they actually do with their plants, but still um it is uh a hazardous product that we're just stacking 300 feet high um uh over limestone.

So um, and uh also I question um, you know, they do a lot of community outreach and development, but um, what are what is Mosaic really spending on research and development to figure out what to do with all of the gypsum stacks that we have here in Florida because there's a lot of them.

Um, and and there's really no answers at this point in time.

Um, approval of the application to expand the Riverview stack here in Hillsborough County would all but seal a deal that was clearly put in motion 10 years ago, um at least.

We need to start viewing these kinds of requests by phosphate mining companies or any other ecologically destructive industries as connective tissue for a larger framework and not as one off random requests.

We need to start asking more questions about future developments and plans and what the consequences of those actions will be.

And we need to start demanding more oversight in communities to make sure the promises made by big industries are kept.

I am asking this board to deny the permit to expand the stack and any other zoning amendments that are attached to it involved with it.

Um to please go back to their environmental assessment and to take into account things that they failed to the first time, like the phosphody gypsum stacks themselves, like the human health and the environmental concerns surrounding phosphate mining, like the adequacy of the reclamation that they promise to do as mitigation uh for the damage that's going to be done.

I am asking that we request and require that mosaic and anyone else that wants to be producing fertilizer in Florida map the areas where they're going to be storing the phosphog, including the Riverview stack.

Um in the past, sinkholes have opened under the gypstacks, most recently in 2016 at the New Wheels New Wales processing plant.

Um and that repair actually took two years, and many of the residents around that area had their well waters contaminated.

Um Mosaic and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection did not immediately take responsibility for the contamination, instead saying that if residents did not have their water tested before the sinkhole opened, they could not prove the contamination was from the plant or from the sinkhole incident.

Um, how can we protect the residents of Riverview from these kinds of problems?

Um if we approve this expansion, I am asking that Mosaic commits to paying for the water, soil, and air testing of all the residents in the Riverview area or at least in the near vicinity of the stack, so that this will establish a baseline that one day, if the water table is found to be contaminated, we can determine if it has anything to do with plant operations or the stack.

I am asking that this county make open records requests to Mosaic for all documents related to any anomalous incidents in the Riverview plant.

Anomalies are basically sinkholes, they're caverns or holes that open within a stack.

But most importantly, anomalies are not always reported to the public.

When does mosaic or when does the DEP know that there is a sinkhole happening?

At what point do they become aware?

How long has it been going on before they actually realize it?

And then it also what point is the public notified.

Um there's a billion tons of toxic waste sitting on top of a Floridian aquifer and porous limestone.

It is only a matter of time before that weight and sulfuric acid causes a sinkhole.

Can Mosaic and the county sign a contingency plan that goes into place if and when a hole or anomaly occurs?

This plan should halt all operations at the Riverview plant until the source of the hole has been found and repaired.

There are ways to reduce our dependency on phosphate-based fertilizers.

It is actually one of the more researched issues among scientists because it has global implications.

The dependency of global food production on phosphate-based fertilizers was identified as a key issue affecting the future of the world's population.

It is an unsustainable addiction.

There are finite sources of phosphate on the planet, so once it runs out, that's it.

More research is needed, but scientists have discovered an enzyme that is one of the most promising candidates for regenerating inorganic phosphate for sustainable agriculture.

So that's something that maybe Mosaic can speak to a little bit more.

When I was reading about it, it was really interesting, but I only saw articles in 2022, and then I never saw another word about it.

So I don't know if it's really a viable thing, but um it sounded promising.

Um also another suggestion, and this is something that the county already does, um, and we could grow on a much larger scale is composting.

Composting solves two problems at once.

Um, it eliminates food waste, which is a large portion of the county waste stream, and it combines the yard waste and grass clippings to create fertile fuel for gardens and farms.

Many private businesses, community organizations, and schools already have composting programs.

Um maybe Mosaic can start a composting program in good faith.

I don't know if that's something they'd be interested in doing.

Um I just want to excuse me for a moment.

So I'm saying we have six minutes left for opponents, a couple of speakers I want to speak also, so just be mindful of that.

I'm I'm uh this is it.

This is this is the end of it.

I'm really sorry to anyone else who would like to speak.

Um but um there's already a bunch of organizations that do this.

Um the city of Tampa also does it.

So I've also uh read about a bunch of other cities and municipalities that nationwide have done it on a larger scale.

So it is something that's feasible, it's something that's it's not pie in the sky.

It's something that we could really look at as a solution to show that we you know we're ready to try to divest from being dependent on uh uh industrial fertilizers and at the same time letting mosaic know.

Um, you know, we've been doing this for the last 30 years that I looked into it 30 years back.

So if we just keep expanding, there's no future for any of us.

There's no answers.

So um thank you for everyone's time.

I appreciate everyone letting me talk.

Um that is it for me.

All right, thank you.

Uh Mark Topp.

Mr.

Top here.

If not, uh Kat Wiggins.

Kat.

I'm not talking about okay, thank you.

We got David Allen, Mr.

Allen here.

Okay, that's all the individuals that have signed up for A2, three, and four.

Uh the applicant has an opportunity for rebuttal.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, we have no rebuttal today.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

This time we'll go into board discussion.

Uh, this is on adoption of the CPA 2604.

Commissioner Myers.

Uh, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'd like to thank all those who have shared some comments with us.

We had four um in support and one against the the project.

But this is an opportunity, and I had the pleasure to tour um the stack in my heart just went to jumping so fast because I was so up so far up in the sky, just didn't know what to do out there.

But there were no wind, nothing blowing and all.

And this is a project that is in my district, and I'm pleased to say that I'm going to move for approval.

Oh, should we take them one at a time?

Yeah, this first one's on the CPA.

No, we have to add two separate votes.

CPA 2604.

Second.

Okay, we got a motion to approve CPA 2604, Commissioner Myers.

Second, Commissioner Wilson.

Commissioner Wilson.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, my comments are very brief.

I wanted to thank the applicant um for getting progress Village Civic Associations letter of support.

They might know that I will vote consistently no on any changes to historic progress village without their support.

So I'm grateful that you brought it in tonight.

I'll just briefly respond to the one dissenter that um I do understand that phosphate might not be ideal.

Um the the gypsum stacks exist from the late 80s, early 90s, Clean Air Act, where environmentalists won an emotional law that has now prevented them and created these probably unideal gypsum stacks.

Um every other nation basically does allow this to be um used in their substrate of the roads, which would cata which would um uh uh gr drastically reduce the cost of our roads if we were able to utilize this under the concrete on the line, but it's just until the federal government, which they do work hard on lobbying those changes, does make a change.

Uh, we're gonna have to continue to expand the gyp stacks until the federal government um is mindful and and makes that appropriate change.

So I look forward to supporting this item.

Thank you.

Okay, so we have a motion and a second.

Please record your vote on CPA 2604.

Commissioner Cameron Sapeta.

Okay.

Motion carried seven to zero.

Okay, can you have a motion on DRI amendments 260434?

260435 and rezoning 260436.

The second uh who's seconded?

Commissioner Cohen.

Um, don't see one in the queue.

Please record your vote.

Motion carried seven to zero.

Okay, thank you.

Uh going to the transmittal of HC CPA 2605 and HC CPA 2606, uh, consistent with how the board is uh procedurally handled similar CPAs, the presentations and public hearings will be combined for these two amendments.

Also uh we have 43 speakers that have signed up this evening.

Uh I would recommend we go to uh two minutes for each speaker.

Uh what's the pleasure of the board?

Move to approve.

Got a motion, Commissioner Myers, second commissioner Cohen.

Free speaker be given two minutes.

Please record your vote.

Commissioner Myers motion carries seven to zero.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Okay.

Any commission can introduce uh the both amendments.

Yes, I'm happy to do so.

Items B1 and B2 will be a combined presentation and it will be presented by Lily Lennihan.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Lillian Lennihan, Planning Commission staff here to present and combined HCCPA 2605 and HCC CPA 2606 presentation.

Both amendments are located at 18308 Dorman Road.

Both amendments are privately initiated and large in scale at approximately 190 acres.

For HCCPA 2605, the applicant is requesting to expand the urban service area.

And for HCCPA 2606, the applicant is requesting to change the future land use designation from agricultural rule one to five to residential two.

This is the general location map.

The site is in the rural area and within the limits of the South Shore Area-wide systems plan.

It is located north of Dorman Road, east of Boyette Road, and south of Lithia Pinecrest Road.

Here is an area of the site.

The site is outlined in pink, and the blue line indicates the existing urban service area boundary.

The site currently has some agricultural and single family uses, and there are single family uses and residential uses to the east, south, and west of the site, and more agricultural uses are found within the rural area to the south and east of the site.

Currently, the future land use designation is agricultural rule one to five.

This category allows for one dwelling unit per five gross acres and a maximum floor area ratio of 0.25.

This designation allows for the consideration of farms, ranches, feedlots, residential, neighborhood commercial offices, industrial uses related to agricultural uses and mining related activities.

Other future land use categories shown in this map include residential one, residential plan two, residential two, and natural preservation.

The applicant is proposing to amend the future land use category to residential two.

The residential two category allows for two dwelling units per gross acre and a maximum floor area ratio of 0.25.

This designation allows for the consideration of agricultural, residential, neighborhood commercial, office uses, and multi-purpose projects.

For HCCPA 2605, the proposed amendment would bring approximately 190 acres into the urban service area and require at minimum connection to public water and sewer.

And for HCCPA 2606, under the existing agricultural rule one to five future land use designation, the site could consider up to 38 dwelling units or approximately two million square feet of non-residential uses.

And under the proposed future land use designation of residential two, the site could consider up to a maximum of 380 dwelling units or approximately two million square feet of non-residential uses.

And during the rezoning process, commercial locational criteria may affect the allowable square footage for potential non-residential development.

The proposed amount uh proposed amendment will increase the maximum potential residential density and will not change the maximum potential non-residential intensity.

Both amendments uh received no formal objections.

However, there were a few comments from the following agencies, which are important to note.

Fire rescue commented that there may be increase in overall response times to the surrounding area due to the increase in residence and traffic patterns.

The agribusiness department commented that it had concerns regarding the need for major road upgrades.

They also mentioned that additional proposed development will further increase transit times and negatively impact the movement of perishable crops to coal store facilities and overly stressed livestock being transported transported to other locations.

And lastly, community community and infrastructure planning staff prepared um an initial traffic analysis based on the provided agency review summary and concluded that there is not adequate capacity to accommodate the additional trips generated by the proposed future land use change in the future scenario.

Um I do want to mention that the applicant submitted a letter stating they are willing to work through a mobility fee alternative satisfaction agreement with the county to assist in facilitating improvements within this area.

And though the request is related to several policies, the planning commission found the proposed amendment inconsistent with future land use section policy 1.1.10, which establishes the seven required criteria for publicly and privately initiated urban service area expansions and policy 3.1.2, which calls for gradual transitions of intensities and densities between different land uses as new development is proposed.

In conclusion, the planning commission recommends that both the proposed HCCPA 2605 and HCCPA 2606 map amendments be found inconsistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the unincorporated Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan.

This concludes my presentation.

I'm here if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

Can we have the applicant, please?

Good evening, Cammy Corporate with the law firm of Hill Ward and Henderson representing the applicant homes by West Bay.

One important distinction I want to make before we begin.

Ms.

Lillihan indicated that the planning commission found this request consistent and that it did not meet the criteria for expansion.

That is the planning commission itself.

The planning commission staff report that the planning commissioner staff, professional staff who's very familiar with your comprehensive plan, actually found this request consistent.

That's what their report was filed was a finding of consistency because they went through all seven criteria of the comprehensive plan required for an expansion.

And I'm here today tonight to present to you evidence that they were right in their conclusion.

First of all, criteria one is that we are adjacent and contiguous to the established urban service boundary.

The yellow area is the established urban service boundary.

The pink area is our site.

You can see almost the entire northern boundary is both contiguous and adjacent to the existing urban service boundary.

Any objective legal standard for those either of those two words is satisfied.

We are certainly contiguous.

Uh expansion areas to the south.

And you can see it's not uncommon to have gaps in between where the boundary is extended and where perhaps maybe property owners did not want to participate in an expansion.

And so it's not unusual to have portions of the proper of a project not be directly adjacent or not elect to uh participate in the expansion.

That doesn't negate the fact that we are in fact contiguous and adjacent.

The second criteria is that we must have developable land.

This is the subject site.

We do have some wetlands and natural features on the site, and I actually think they add to uh allow for additional buffering and screening uh to the surrounding neighborhood, and we largely will preserve all of those.

The rest is agricultural land that is available for development.

Criteria three is that the boundary is an extension of an existing development pattern.

Again, to the north and to the west, you see existing fish hawk.

Uh that is a suburban development pattern.

Uh to zoom in a little bit, these are the existing neighborhood services of gas, groceries, and restaurants that are proximate to the development.

These are the neighborhood services, retail and professional services.

You can see there's a great deal within close proximity of the site.

Here are schools and daycares adjacent to this or near the site.

And here are churches and public parks and services.

And here's an area that zooms out further, and you can see that in this area the predominant development pattern is suburban development with protected uh natural areas, and then yes, there is a pocket of rural development directly to the south.

Uh, but the surrounding development pattern is clearly suburban.

Criteria four is infrastructure is present or being planned in the future.

So there's an existing fire station within a half a mile.

We have sufficient capacity at our concur either in our concurrency service area or an adjacent concurrency service area.

We have park parks and recreation, we and we have water and sewer.

But that's nearly that doesn't tell the whole picture.

There is a lot of planned infrastructure, a lot of funded infrastructure out in this area.

We have widening of lithia pine crest with that 100 million dollars being programmed by FDOT for Lithia Pinecrest.

Thank you for your efforts.

All of you, but particularly Commissioner Miller on that effort.

We also have intersection improvements at Lithia Pinecrest and County Road 39.

And of course, we can't forget the one water investment, the 1.2 billion dollar investment in infrastructure right through this corridor.

So these infrastructure commitments are real, they're funded, they're coming.

The fifth criteria is that we have no findings of adverse environmental impacts or natural or historical resources.

All of the agencies reviewing that found that we have no significant wildlife habitat, we have no objections from EPC, and there's no finding of anticipated effect on historic resources.

Criteria six talks about data supporting the expansion.

You just went through this exercise.

You reviewed the population projections for the area, and it's been determined that there is a need for expansion of urban service areas during this plan horizon.

This is from your own plan.

These are the population projections showing the need for expansion.

And then these are the employment projections showing the need for expansion.

And then the last criteria is that we uh we can't compromise the efficient land use uh use of land and infrastructure.

I just showed you the infrastructure that's available in the area.

This is the utility infrastructure.

This is exactly where the air type of area your comprehensive plan directs you to make an expansion.

So these are the criteria, and everyone has been every single one has been satisfied.

So once you look through the criteria and say, is this appropriate?

Does the comprehensive plan say this is an area that should be expanded?

The next thing you look to is what would be the appropriate future land use category to assign to this uh development.

We are requesting R2.

Uh we thought that R2 was a thoughtful uh category to choose.

It was also consistent with the type of development that Homes by West Bay has done in this area and intends to do here, and so that is the criteria the category we selected.

Now, your plan says that if you expand the urban service boundary, you really should consider nothing less than four units the acre.

But we did not do that.

We thoughtfully chose R2.

And again, with respect to compatibility of that particular land use category, the planning commission staff report actually found this compatible.

It was only after a discussion by the planning commission itself, and I'll talk about that in a little bit.

Uh, did they change the report to inconsistent?

So, by your professional planning staff, uh, by the planning commission's professional standing staff opinion, this both the expansion and the category of res two are appropriate for this area.

And then this is only one hearing in multiple hearings of this process.

They'll wheel, there is a companion PD zoning that is on file right now, and that we're processing.

And what we know about that is we're already going to be below the two units to the acre.

We also are providing landscaping and vertical screening areas.

We are a minimum lot size of 60, uh, and then we will be clustering the development, and you can see that sort of on the plan where the natural wetlands provide some buffering and screening to adjacent development.

And so this is just the first step in the process.

We're asking you to transmit this to the state so we can get the benefit of their comments, you can get the benefit of their comments, you can allow us to go through the zoning uh process to make determinations about how best to address compatibility concerns through the rezoning, and then when it comes back to you, you'll have everything together for you to consider before you make your final decision.

Um we have our whole team here, we're here to answer any questions.

Wait, one more one thing, forgot.

Um, wanted to talk about the planning commission uh report.

An important thing to note during the planning commission meeting was that you have four representatives from Hillsborough County on the planning commission.

There were only two present for the hearing, unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances that they could not be there.

So we had two countywide planning commissioners who are not familiar with all the work that you've been doing.

They're not familiar with the fact that you updated your 2040 plan and that you directed uh your plan to be updated to allow for expansion.

They weren't they the others were not familiar with it.

The one thing in common several of them had, uh especially the most vocal, they'd only been on the planning commission since 2025.

So they were new to the process and they didn't know the history.

And I think I feel very strongly the vote was a four-three finding of inconsistency.

Had we had two countywide representatives in the meeting, I think the conversation would have gone very differently.

So just wanted to add that contest.

But with that, we'd respectfully request your transmittal.

Okay, thank you.

We'll go into the um public hearing.

Uh first three speakers.

Teresa Corden, followed by Kat Wiggins and then David Allen.

No, okay.

John Beckwith.

I'm speaking against it.

Is that what you want?

You want?

I'm calling you in the order you've signed up to speak.

Each person will be given two minutes.

We're gonna call your name.

Please come down again.

We'll start with Teresa Corden, followed by Kat Wiggins, and then David Allen.

Good evening.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you don't need this.

Hi, my name is Kat Wiggins.

I live at 1880 Boyette Road in Lithia, Florida.

Um, and I just want to talk a little bit about uh the life we have in Lithia and the horses, the agriculture, the livestock, things like that.

And we have the unique opportunity to have horses in our backyard.

Sorry, backyards.

This isn't just a hobby.

Much of the economy is stimulated by training, boarding, feed, and tax stores.

I've been in this area since the early 2000s with my horses.

And I used to ride down the road and things like that.

I would not do that today just because of the traffic we already have.

We are blessed to have in our community Cheeto Branch Preserve, which is a 5,500 acre natural reserve catering to horse community.

And it's wonderful that we can go there and ride.

Now I have to haul them there to just enjoy the preserves.

And you can kind of see as we go through them that we enjoy our lifestyle.

We love our horses.

And with more traffic, more things happening in this area, it's getting harder and harder to enjoy them.

And so I just wanted to say thank you very much for listening.

Have a good night.

This is gonna be playing.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh David Allen, followed by John Beckwith and then Leah Heyer.

My name's David Allen.

I've got 40 acres of land out there.

I've got a beef cattle operation out there, just south of Dorman Road, east of Boyette Road.

Been there over my family's owned it for over 70 years.

And my mom and my dad and my sister passed away here a while back and left me as a steward of the land, of course.

And I just I seen so many things going on out there and all, and everything, and I'm just I'm just concerned about things happening and whatever else.

And but the biggest thing that I feel that it is a lot of people, I think that every agricultural person out there with lot of a lot of land or large parcels wants to sell.

They want to make money.

Some of these lands, this one right here, this particular land right here went through a couple of hands of investors and whatever else, people died, and whatever else.

Originally it was gonna be a golf course.

That failed, whatever, but that's beside the point.

I just I just asked y'all, I plead with y'all that I'm a steward of the land myself.

I've got agricultural places or not agricultures.

Wildlife places fenced all so the wildlife can get in there and not be affected by cattle or anything like that.

And uh I'm not trying to put a feather in my hat, but I I love my land and I take care of it.

And uh another thing that kind of bothers me a little bit is the I've got land I want to give someday to my grandchildren, you know, to build a home on I can't do it because of laws that Hillsbrook County is the developing laws.

I'm not a big developer.

In other words, if my grandchild wants one house, I gotta go through a lot of stuff.

And I mean, that's beside the point.

I I know laws are laws and whatever else, and they can be changed and amended and all that, but I just asked y'all to do what's right and do what your heart says.

And I thank you for your comments, Mr.

Allen.

Uh next three speakers, John Beckwith, followed by Lee Hyer and Kathleen Lang.

It's my understanding that there may there may have been some folks that were outside of the room when we initiated the uh this item, but it this is a combined public hearing for both B1 and B2.

I'm calling the names in which individuals have signed up.

Um if you sign up for either one, you will be called.

So just be mindful of that.

Yes, sir.

Good evening, commissioners.

Uh thank you very much for letting me speak.

My name is John Beckwith.

Um software AI architect of Amgen.

Twenty years ago, I bought some uh bought five and a quarter acres of land.

Um south of uh where this proposed development is uh right.

I'll be overlooking you know the entire development.

Um I'm a software engineer, I love uh uh I have a vineyard, I have uh you know, gardening, bees, all that.

Now I'm not opposed to development at all and and growth because it's all inevitable.

But I just want kind of responsible development.

And I know a lot of people want to move down to Florida, the developers are coming in and they are providing a service that we need.

I just need we would just like to have responsible development because when I moved here, I'll not land part of the reason I did that was because it's one house per five acres.

And I know this is what's changing, and it'll be about six plus houses per acre.

So um in bullet form that I have right here.

Uh right behind right north of me will be the housing development.

My house sits um 12 feet up in the air, so I'll be looking over that.

Um I knew one day this would happen, but uh then there's a utility road that'll be right to the east of me.

And I'm hoping you know that that kind of stays a utility room, uh utility road and does not become something more if this was to go forward.

You know, ultimately, I would like it to stay one house per five acres and keep keep us in a more rules setting.

Um, but that's up to you guys.

Um the lady that came up here, I guess the lawyer for the for the neighborhood.

She did say something I like about the landscaping and buffering, because I would like to have some really good landscaping and buffering because I just back right up to everything.

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

Appreciate your comments.

Lee Hyer.

Followed by Kathleen Lang and then Clinton Childress.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, I'm Leah Heyer, and I'm here to talk um speak about the opposite in opposition of the future land use change of approximately 190 acres of agricultural rural one to five land.

As an adjacent property owner, this issue is deeply personal to me.

My husband and I have lived here for 23 years.

We chose this property because of the protection provided by the agriculture rural designation.

That's similar to what some of you may experience in the HOAs that you live in.

We expect the AR designation and our deed restrictions would offer us an investment back protection, allowing us to enjoy our modest retirement and preserve our biggest investment that we worked our entire lives to build.

This clustered housing will be our new reality if you pass this, invariably dropping our property value.

My question is who's responsible when that happens?

Um, how are these little guys 500 feet away?

Um, protected from the high density housing, selective compatibility policy 3.1.3 requires sensitivity to all surrounding development, not just suburban neighborhoods, ignoring adjacent horse properties, ag properties like mine, fails the compatibility test on traffic, lighting, noise, and chemical lawn care runoff.

We have no protections from that from where we're located in the proximity to that site.

Our sons were molded here, and now our grandson learns the same values.

Hard work and respect for the land and animals.

These are valuables that are intangibles that each kid needs.

I know this from teaching 30 years in the classroom.

The REST proposal is not part of a natural progression of urban growth.

It represents eroding into our rural character.

Not a thoughtful continuation.

Lithia remains or historical agriculture and rural community.

Even Chat GBT describes it as that.

I respectfully ask you to follow the comp plan.

Thank you so much.

Kathleen Lang.

Followed by Clinton Childress and then Jane Graham.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioners.

I'm here to oppose the expansion of the USA.

This amendment has a school a school capacity problem that data makes impossible to ignore.

The USA boundary exists to protect our schools from being overwhelmed by growth that arrives before the infrastructure to support it.

Objective 1.8, policy 1.8.2 requires all school types to operate at or below 100% of permanent fish capacity.

This is the adopted level of service standard for Hillsborough County.

As a recently retired teacher in Hillsborough County, I have personally seen how overcrowded schools lessen our educational quality for our children.

These policies make this a legal bar, not just a policy concern.

Policy 1.8.2.

Policy 1.4.2 prohibits lawful development when capacity is not available.

Policy 1.3.2 bars existing taxpayers from subsidized sprawl.

Policy 1.9.2 requires proportionate mitigation from the applicant.

No funded remedy has been identified for newsome's overcapacity condition.

Sorry.

The existing AR 1 to 5 designation allows approximately 38 new homes, fewer than 20 new students across all three schools, well within fish capacity at every level.

The comprehensive plan gives this board every legal basis to deny this amendment.

Thank you, maybe you can state your name for the process.

Thank you for your time.

Can you state your name?

Oh, Kathleen Lang.

All right, thank you.

Clinton Childress.

Followed by Jane Graham and then Leslie Martin.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioner.

My name is Clinton Shoulders.

I live at 5921 Falkland Replaced Lithia.

If you approve this plan, you will significantly increase the potential for flooding.

We have lived in Lithia for 26 years and witnessed the reality.

Lithia Fish Hawk, Little Fish Oak Creek borders our homes, and during heavy rainfall, it pushes to capacity and overflows.

Our soil is heavy clay that does not perk well.

And new construction with his elevated sites and asphalt will only shed more water onto our existing lower properties.

You can see here, I've got a map up here with a watershed, Alpha River watershed.

You can see where the homes and where there's buried.

So with the elevated things, concerned about flood.

Beyond our experiences, the Office of Emergency Management has officially flagged this proposal.

They found it does not align with the county's local mitigation strategy, specifically falling failing to meet goal areas two and three.

The site is an a FEMA high risk flood zone A and a surface water protection area.

The county's own analysis confirms the scale of development increases in pervious services, worsens runoff, and creates roadway blockages.

In emergencies, this compromises our evacuated routes, especially when the L Phi River Crest entraps us by flooding the Lithuania Prime Crest Bridge.

Furthermore, this proposal fails criterion seven for expanding the urban service area, which requires that we do not compromise the preservation of our rural agricultural land, yet this project does the exact opposite.

Our current infrastructure cannot support this growth.

We want, like you, quality of life.

This is why family has lived here for generations.

I agree with the speakers who have stood here today, and please do not approve this plan.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Mr.

Childress.

Uh Jane Graham.

Followed by Leslie Martin.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Jane Graham, attorney at Sunshine City Law.

I represent Preserve Rural Lithia, a not-for-profit dedicated to preserving Lithia's rural character and quality of life.

My client respectfully requests denial of both amendments and supports the planning commission's finding of inconsistency.

The urban service amendment has to satisfy seven criteria under policy 1.1.10 and fails each one.

But what sets apart this application is that it fails to meet the most basic threshold requirement of subsection one of being adjacent and contiguous to the established boundary.

Here you have two rural parcels that break the contiguity along the northern boundary.

And as a result, they're completely enclosed within the urban, they're enclosed.

The county staff and planning commission recognized and discussed significant infrastructure deficiencies under subsection four, such as increased fire rescue response times, concerns from emergency management, and lack of adequate road capacity, which cannot be resolved without fundamentally changing the character of the area.

The future land use map amendment increases the density tenfold and more than doubles commercial square footage.

Finally, nothing has changed in the area to justify these changes.

A land use map amendment based on your comp plan is a declaration that the growth and development pattern is no longer appropriate.

And here there's no such showing.

It was a rural area, it is a rural area, and it is deed restricted on the surrounding properties, so it remains a rural area.

The businesses cited, such as Outback and McDonald's by the other council, have been there for over 20 years and are several streets away, totally detached.

For these reasons, please deny.

And finally, any threat you hear about pursuing an agricultural enclave is irrelevant to your vote tonight because it's a completely separate public process.

I have some documents as well to share.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Graham.

Leslie Martin, followed by Lily Shu and Jessica Scott.

Good evening.

Good evening, commissioners.

My name is Leslie Martin.

I reside at 1405 Oxford Shire Court in Brandon.

The U.S.

helps residents continue having the freedom to choose between rural, suburban, or urban living by preserving and planning for a variety of lifestyles and community types.

This expansion replaces and harms the most scarce of these, rural living on agricultural scale land.

For years, I've wanted to live on Dorman Road or very near, precisely because of its rural character.

I've scoured real estate listings, waiting for a property to become available, and it's been a very long wait.

Right now, there are over 15,000 homes for sale in Hillsborough County.

That is not a shortage.

It's a high inventory market and reflects a pricing problem, not a supply problem.

Out of those 15,000 homes, only 236 are available on five or more acres.

Within this more targeted area of the map, which includes Lithia and Dorman Road, there are already 814 homes for sale.

Only 11 of these are on five plus acres.

That's just 1.4% of the market.

And of the 21 or more acre active listings in Lithia, five went pending in less than three months, and one in less than 24 hours, showing there's a high demand for these types of properties.

And finally, of the 161 acre or more properties that recently sold in Lithia, nine sold in less than four months.

In two weeks.

Thank you, ma'am.

Appreciate your comments, Ms.

Martin.

Lily Shu, followed by Jessica Scott, then Miles Scott.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Lily Zoo.

I am from Tampa Bay and currently a senior at Harvard University studying environmental science and public policy.

I am speaking in opposition today to the comprehensive plan amendment 2605.

First, the proposal demonstrates inconsistencies with future land use policy 110 number 5, which requires that the proposed boundary does not significantly impact environmental or natural features adversely.

And number seven, that it does not compromise the preservation of rural, agricultural or natural areas.

This site is not an isolated tract of vacant land.

It lies within a broader ecological landscape that includes Cheeto Branch Reserve, Fish Hawk Creek Preserve, Alderman's Ford Conservation Park, Lithia Springs, and the Alpha River watershed.

Maps confirm local conservation land to the north, left, and right, alongside state conservation lands to the south, less than three miles away.

This property also lies within the Alephea River Corridor Nature Preserve, which is a part of the South Hillsborough Wildlife Corridor.

This is a landscape specifically identified by Hillsborough County in the Southwest Florida Water Management District to connect habitats, support threatened species, and protect water quality, approving a tenfold increase in density, bisecting a wildlife linkage directly and significantly undermines these purposes.

It will severely impair species' ability to move between conservation areas and increase wildlife vehicle collisions.

Finally, the county emergency management office has already identified inconsistencies with the local mitigation strategy.

Much of Hillsboro County relies on natural stormwater storage and watershed functions, replacing open agricultural areas with higher density development, increases impervious surfaces, runoff flooding risks, and pressure on downstream water systems.

Cop Plan Amendment has demonstrated inconsistencies with the plans of Hillsborough County.

For these reasons, I respectfully request denial.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Ms.

Sue.

Thank you.

Jessica Scott.

Followed by Miles Scott, then Bill James and Billy James.

Good evening.

Jessica Scott, 18505 Dorman Road.

I believe in the future of agriculture.

Tonight, this room and the thousands standing behind Preserveral Lithia represent that belief in action.

What started as a few neighbors has grown into a movement.

Because agriculture isn't just the commercial farm.

The heart of agriculture has always been the family farm.

The applicant says that the site is logical simply because it sits next to existing suburban development on one side.

The reality is that on the other three sides, this site is anchored by a working living rural core.

The community is made up of horse boarding barns, cattle operations, family farms, feed suppliers, and vegetable producers.

This map is just a small sample of the ag network that defines rural lithia.

And I believe you can see it on this map here.

I have on the Elmo.

The board recently held an agenda item regarding fencing and loose livestock.

But we need to address the root cause.

As a livestock owner, I can tell you that even with the best management, sometimes animals will get out, especially during a drought.

In an ag community, this is a normal farm incident and only becomes a safety issue when you replace our rural character with incompatible high density projects.

This violates flu 443, which states that lot size and density of new projects must reflect the character of the surrounding area, as well as flu 5.11 regarding compatibility.

Res two is an entirely different way of life that is fundamentally incompatible with our ag community.

Deny these applications tonight and preserve rural lithia.

Thank you, ma'am.

Miles Scott.

Followed by Bill James, Billy James, and then Jessica Nickler.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Miles Scott, and I live at 18505 Dorman Road, directly across the street from this new proposed property.

What you're seeing on the screen is actual drone footage that I filmed of our neighborhood.

This is not some far away part of the county.

This is the property and the surrounding properties.

Actually, it is the surrounding properties just because it is illegal to film the property from the sky.

When you see this footage, the open pastures, the horses, the cows, and the space, it is exactly what the data tells us we're running out of.

According to the USDA's Census of Agriculture, Hillsborough County had nearly 250 247,500 acres of farmland in 1997.

By 2022, that fell to 201,000, roughly 46,000 acres lost in 25 years.

And the biggest parcels are going the fastest.

Farms of 1,000 acres or more drop from 47 to just over 28 in that period.

A 2024 University of Florida and 1,000 Friends of Florida report projects that the state will lose approximately 45,000 acres of farmland a year on its current path, with Tampa Bay among the highest risk regions.

This proposal represents one of those increments.

And it matters to real people.

Families like mine chose rural Hillsborough to keep horses and animals.

Uses that only work on larger scale tracks.

Every conversation like this makes that less possible for the next family.

When we look at the policies, FLU policy 1.1.10 requires that the USA expansion not compromise the preservation of rural areas, agricultural land, or natural areas.

This does the exact opposite.

It also requires an extension of existing development pattern, yet this site is bordered by rural land on all four sides and creates a 10-acre pocket of AR land isolated by residential properties.

What you saw on the screen is what the county is losing.

Please don't give away another 190 acres of it.

Help us preserve rural lithia.

Bill James.

Followed by Billy James and then Jessica Nickler.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is William James.

I live at 1910 Broker Creek Drive in Odessa, but I am in Hillsborough County.

I spent 25 years as a fire paramedic for the city of Clearwater, and I'm currently a chaplain for fire rescue in Clearwater and Pascoe County.

Because of that, I'm very plugged in to the fire service and the Tampa Bay area.

In April of 2023, a mobile home caught fire in Lithia.

It took fire rescue 16 minutes to arrive on the scene.

Sadly, a father and two children died.

You guys are possibly affecting people's health and life by this decision.

The president of the Hillsborough County Firefighters Association stated that they needed more fire stations closer to this area to reduce response times.

Now, as county commissioners, you're asked to approve 280 more homes in this area and expect to get better response times.

Common sense will re prove that response times will be longer and could affect human health and death.

You don't have to take my word that 280 more homes are wrong for this area.

Your own planning commission voted it inconsistent with your growth rules.

Your fire department won't even increase response times.

Your appointed experts have told you that this is wrong and the dealt and development in the wrong place.

Be responsible to your master plan.

You adopted, be responsible to the experts you appointed, and most importantly, be responsible to the lives.

I say the lives of the families in Lithia.

Please vote no on this.

Thank you, sir.

Billy James.

Followed by Jessica Nickler.

We have Tiffany Willis, who's virtual, and then Kathleen or Kathleen's already signed up.

Then Dana Gandalfro.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is William M.

James, and I live at 19108 Broker Creek Drive.

I'm not here tonight to offer another personal opinion about this application.

I'm here to talk about findings.

Emergent emergency response times will increase.

That's not my opinion.

That's the conclusion of your own fire department.

Existing infrastructure may not be adequate.

Significant upgrades may be required.

Not my opinion.

It's the conclusion of the water resource department.

There's not enough roadway capacity to handle additional traffic.

This development will generate.

County Road 39 and Lithia Pinecrest Road are already operating beyond capacity.

This project will make the conditions worse for agricultural operations.

Not my opinion.

Conclusion of the Agribusiness Development Department.

This application is in susistence, as we have heard over and over again with the comprehensive plan.

That's not my opinion.

That's the conclusion of the own uh planning commission.

Think about it for a moment.

These aren't objections of activists, neighbors, or people who simply don't like road.

These are findings of the very department and professionals this county relies upon to evaluate public safety, infrastructure, transportation, environmental impact, and long-term planning.

When nearly every reviewing department raises serious concerns, and when the planning commission finds the application is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan, the burden should not be on the citizens to explain why this project should be denied.

Explain why it should be approved.

And that burden has not been met.

Your staff has warned you, your planning commission has warned you.

Your comprehensive plan points out points you in the right direction.

Tonight I ask you to follow the evidence, your own policies, and follow the recommendations of the record.

Deny this application tonight.

Thank you.

Preserve Rural Lithia.

Thank you, Mr.

James.

Jessica Nickler.

Hi, uh, my name is Jessica Nickler.

I live at 11508 Fountainhead Drive.

Um, I'd like to ground my opposition in the legal standard.

This board is required to apply under the comprehensive plans legal status provision.

An applicant must demonstrate a significant change in circumstance to justify a future land use change.

I'd ask this board what has changed on Lithia Pinecrest Road?

Because the record tells a clear story, and it's not one of improvement.

In January of 2013, the Hillsborough County MPO's own crash severity reduction report flagged Lithia Pinecrest Road from Bloomingdale Avenue to Boyette as one of the highest severe crash corridors in the entire county, with a crash severity rate of 107.67 crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

And that was 13 years ago.

By 2017, widening was already being debated.

By 2019, the Bloomingdale HOA was demanding action, citing over 300 accidents per year, some fatal.

Today in 2026, the road carries 30,000 vehicles a day on two lanes and is ranked among the top four most congested roads in Hillsborough County.

Lithia Pinecrest Road currently services over 300 or 30,000 vehicles a day, far exceeding its current capacity.

Adding further residential density before necessary infrastructure improvements are completed, is not managing growth.

It is intentionally compounding a critical infrastructure deficit.

Approving this amendment would add more demand to the infrastructure that has been broken over a decade and shows a clear pattern of unfulfilled promises.

I urge this board to deny this application.

Thank you.

Tiffany Willis is virtual, followed by Dana Gondolfo and Natasha Doman.

Yeah.

Good evening.

Yeah.

Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Please please uh state your comments.

Okay, perfect.

Good evening, Commissioner.

My name is Tiffany Willow, and I'm a fortunate relation of Hillsborough County resident.

I have owned my home for more than 22 years.

This isn't just where I live.

This is where my children have been raised and where they have learned the value of hard work where they raise and show cattle, and where our family has built a life, deep-rooted in this community.

Tonight, I ask you to remember that this decision is more than just numbers on a page.

It's about whether the promises made by our comprehensive plans still matter.

Family choose families choose to live in this area because of its rural character.

We accept the trade-off that come with the country living because we believe that the county's vision would protect it.

We trusted that one home per five acres met one home per five acres.

Little by little, those promises have been chipped away.

And we've already absorbed additional growth.

We watched more developments get approved while roads become more and more congested.

Our schools become more crowded, and our emergency services are stretched thinner.

Lithia Pinecraft is already struggling to handle the traffic that we have today.

And adding hundreds of additional homes on Dorman Road doesn't solve this problem.

We know it magnifies them.

And let's be honest, the widening, it's going to be many more years to come.

At some point, we have to ask when is enough enough?

As every rural area is act to absorb just one more development.

Eventually, there won't be any more rural Hillsborough County lots of protect.

Growth is inevitable, but responsible growth is a choice.

You have an opportunity tonight to honor the vision that the residents relied upon when they invested in this community.

You have an opportunity to protect families, farmers, and future generations who call this area home.

Please don't let this become another example of decisions being made for the community instead of with a community.

Thank you for your time and for your considerations.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Dana Gandalf.

I live at 5917 Falconwood Place.

I don't live on Dorman Road or Boyette Road or those.

I live in Fishhawk Phase 1.

Um purchased in there and bought a beautiful property look um which is located directly adjacent to the boundary of the parcel under discussion.

My property was purchased bordering the preserve and wetlands and rural area for a substantial premium at the time, so as to ensure privacy and natural surroundings.

The potential loss of proper of privacy, solitude, and property value is a of magnanimous concern to me.

As mentioned by Mr.

Childress, the creek flows right behind my home.

During hurricanes and severe storms, the creek overflows its banks quickly.

The tree roots are located on the surface of the ground.

As many have mentioned, traffic on Lithia Pinecrest has become a massive quality of life issue.

We have to plan our lives around school sick schedules and traffic.

Vehicles are detouring on Browning and Dorman roads to avoid gridlock, creating dangerous conditions on some state substandard roads.

As has also been mentioned, when I purchased my business in 2005 at Bloomingdale and Lithia Pinecrest, we were told definitively that that road would be widened from Route 60 all the way down to 39, and still nothing has occurred.

I personally witnessed EMS vehicles unable to leave, get out onto Lithia Pinecrest from the station that appreciate your comments.

Natasha Doman, called by Lisa Wolfson, then Robert Wolfson, and then John Hire is virtual.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm a current law student and member of this Tampa Bay community, and I'm here in opposition of the proposed comprehensive plan amendments 2605 and 2606.

As you sit here tonight facing the community you serve, it is evident that the residents of Lithia have voiced strong and consistent opposition to these amendments.

Growth and development are important, but not when they come at the expense of your responsibility to the people who already live within the established boundary.

When proposed action diverts limited resources away from existing neighborhoods, it becomes necessary to question whether this direction aligns with the county's stated goals and obligations.

This county has outlined several strategies and objectives, including creating a quote, more livable and desirable community.

What the lithia community is asking for is simple.

Direct care, attention, and resources towards that established neighborhoods that are already in need of support rather than expanding the size and scope of an area that residents overwhelmingly wish to preserve.

The density increase of tenfold from 38 to 380 units is incompatible with the surrounding properties and directly undermines the expectations and long-standing character of this rural community.

Furthermore, these amendments also contradict the county's own community plans, which emphasize protecting rural character and agricultural uses in Lithia.

The reality is that these proposed amendments not only ignore the direct wishes of your constituents and adopted policies, but also as fiscally irresponsible to the county and those who rely on its services.

The SWIFT report and planning commission have both noted that there are existing deficiencies in local schools, transportation, traffic conditions, and other services such as fire and EMS response times.

However, rather than addressing these existing deficiencies within the community, these amendments would just exasperate these issues by requiring the ma'am.

Please state your name for the record.

Natasha Doman.

Lisa Wolfson.

Okay, second go forward.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Lisa Wolfson, 1833 Lithia Town Road.

So I have a unique perspective that I'd like to share.

For 10 years, we lived just north of the subject property, and we had an extremely active wildlife corridor that ran down one side, one side and behind our home.

The animals followed the creek past our home and onto the subject property.

We observed deer, bobcat, otter, and in one night we saw a Florida Panther cross the road and head towards the subject property.

This is an overview of the wildlife corridor in pink that follows the Little Fishhawk Creek onto the subject property.

You can see the Panther sighting in yellow there.

There are 11 Panther sightings by people that I know personally.

Their encounter emails are all on file with the BOCC portal.

The pathway of the siding starts at the Allifire River, passes through the subject property, and then onto Cheeto Branch and Alpha State Park.

I had a second encounter of a Panther while I was riding my horse in Cheetah Branch Preserve.

So I've actually had two.

This is the FWC's photo-verified Panther sightings in our area.

If you're not lucky enough to catch them on your camera, they do not include them on the map.

So there's a lot of missing sightings here.

These are the actual photos that go with the FWC Panther photos, uh, Panther sightings, rather, I'm sorry.

So this is the FWT.

I'm sorry.

This is the F DOT's Panther Corridor model.

The Black Trail is the primary Panther Corridor.

The subject property is located at the center of the primary corridor.

These are just pictures looking out our back window when we lived on the north side of the property.

This is the wildlife corridor.

So this is currently there is a uh a pond that's immediately north of the subject property.

There's current nesting sandhill cranes.

There is a game trail.

Thank you, Ms.

Wilson.

Good evening.

Hello, uh Rob Wolfson, 1830 Lithia Town Road.

The uh Hillsboro Metro planning for the transportation states that Lithia Pinecrest is a wildlife corridor.

This further emphasizes the importance of following the comprehensive plan protections of wildlife.

Panthers have uh 200 mile territory, which is critical for genetic diversity to avoid extinction.

If the five acre minimum plan is upheld, the wildlife and panthers will still be able to traverse the farms from one preservation area to the other, as illustrated by the many sightings in Lithia Ranch.

A high density housing subdivision would create a barrier and eradicate this corridor.

We live one mile from the subject.

There are just five homes between us and the subject, honoring policy 1.2.1 of the comprehensive plan would maintain the rural character surrounding the subject.

The proposed density increase does not meet the definition of compatibility per chapter 163.31649 because the abutting homeowners will be negatively impacted directly or indirectly by another use or condition.

Comprehensive plan policies 5.2.5 and 5.2.6 agriculture and agriculture support uses are prioritized in rural areas, and high density housing is considered incompatible.

In addition, the county supports the Florida Right to Farm Act, which protects agriculture operations from encroachment by incompatible uses.

What goes on in that area, everything around us.

We love this neighborhood, and really hope you guys find this uh inconsistent.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Wilson.

Ms.

Wilson.

We got John Heyer, which is virtual, followed by Hayden Richardson.

Oh, you're present.

Go come on down.

Then Hayden Richardson and then Lucero Montalvo.

We have two for you all already.

Oh, okay.

Um not both, but it's the other way we have life.

Uh-huh.

You're good.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm John Hire.

Uh picture's worth a thousand words, and we have plenty of them here for you to see.

And rural lithia, agriculture is intertwined in our daily lives.

Our rural land offers opportunities not found in many places.

All photos, courtesy of lithia residents.

The freedom to spread out.

Kids are blessed with room to explore and learn.

We cherish our animals.

Most of the time they're better than people.

Goats and so many goats and their cute kids.

Winners of the most personality are our donkeys.

Yes, these are llamas.

Oh, and yep, even alpacas.

Our fine fettered friends, our moo crew, and the cattle business is very common in our community.

The loyal and luffy farm dog.

Even a sheep farm.

Charming farm stands and bake stands.

Country back roads.

Gardens nurtured by green thumbs.

Our abundant wildlife.

Lithia's unique rural character.

Many working farms.

For the love of horses, if you know, you know.

God blesses rural lithia.

Thank you, Mr.

Hyde.

We got Hayden Richardson, followed by Lucero Montalvo, and then a Logan Hire.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Hayden Richardson, and I live on Browning Road, which runs parallel to Dorman.

The comprehensive plan is supposed to protect agricultural and rural residential land to meet the needs of our diverse population and support the rural communities.

This expansion rezones working rural land as a residential subdivision, reversing the county's own growth containment strategy.

If it weren't for these rural properties in our area, I wouldn't have been able to pursue my passion of raising and showing dairy goats.

My parents knew how much I desired to get more involved in ag, so they did what any parent would try to do find a new place to live to pursue my passions.

They found a home not far from this development site on Browning Road.

Since moving there, I have been able to grow my herd to 13 showgoats, in addition to housing some chickens and cows on property.

If it weren't for the opportunity to live in the rural community, I would not have been able to take care of my animals properly.

I have been there for every birth, every illness, and every injury.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you, Ms.

Richardson.

Lucero Montalvo.

Logan Hire, Mia Stutzman, and then David Byington.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Lucero Montavo, and I live on 1832 Dorman Road.

I'm south of the proposed homes.

I want to start saying that I moved to Dorman Road in Lithia about three years ago to live my dream with my husband to raise our children on rural land, keep chickens, teach my children about what it means to work the land, and that dream is worth fighting for.

Furthermore, this application fails to meet the fundamental requirements of your own comprehensive plan.

FLU policy 1.1 point dictates that any amendment to the urban service boundary must be adjacent and contiguous to the established USA.

This side is neither.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Logan Hire.

Followed by Mia Stutzman, David Byington, and Amanda Brown.

Good evening.

Actually, we're gonna just do slides.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

That was just a case.

All right, good evening.

How are we doing?

My name is Logan Heyer.

I'd like to dive into some issues that are worth discussing for sure.

So objective 2.2 here, uh, which is supposed to protect vulnerable users.

Uh, the expansion of USA will not be bringing in any of those services for those users.

You know, children are at risk uh daily when traffic gets congested over on Fish Hawk Boulevard and Lithia Pinecrass.

Cars reroute and reroute off those major roads, and then they definitely cut through the back roads like Dorman and Browning.

Most of them are speeding and trying to uh pass a lot of the traffic there.

So it puts children and family at risk that are riding their bikes or horses along the roadside or even playing in the front yard at risk unnecessarily.

Um, you know, according to FDOT, based on vehicle reports, Lithia Pinecrest is a high volume artillery road that lacks the appropriate shoulder width.

This is not safe with over 20,000 AADT.

You know, according to uh FDOT, Lithia Pinecrest is already operating at an F rating at both daily LOS and peak hour LOS.

Lithia Pinecrest shoulder width should be at least five feet wide.

You know, in addition to that, the majority of Lithia Pinecrest is already operating at an E or F rating for bicycle or pedestrian LOS, and this chart shows that.

I know we don't have time for looking at that, but if you do look at these pictures, though, uh it clearly doesn't comply and it is unsafe.

You know, according to FDO Green Book, Lithia Pinecrest is just simply not compatible with the expansion.

Expanding USA violates the objective of protecting neighborhoods from cut-through traffic and unsafe speeds because any crash or construction, and honestly, with the regular uh traffic with the density it is already now.

Lithia Pinecrest diverts vehicles from Browning, Dorman, and Boyette, and it causes uh harmful impacts to the roads and residents.

Thank you, Mr.

Hire.

Heard that.

Mia Stutzman.

And then David Byington and Amanda Brown.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um, my name is Mia Stutzman.

I live at 18917 Boyette Road in Lithia.

Um, my 10 acres is adjacent to the subject property and comprises approximately 50 percent of the western border.

I'm a Florida native, and both my husband and I graduated from Brandon High School.

We bought our first and only home in Lithia over 30 years ago because we wanted to live and raise our future children in a rural atmosphere.

Our kids grew up building tree houses, riding four-wheelers, and camping, all on our property.

My neighbors and I have barns, as you've seen many pictures, uh barns, tractors, and livestock.

Our land also provides important open land for wildlife.

This is the character of much of lithia outside of Fishhawk.

Future land use policy 3.1.2 requires gradual transition of intentions and densities.

The planning commission staff report notes that the density of the rural area surrounding the site to the east, west, and south is approximately one drug one dwelling per 7.6 acres.

That's 0.13 houses per acre.

The staff report also notes that the R2 property north of the site is 1.62 dwelling units per acre.

Allowing two units per acre is more dense than anything built around it, 20% higher than the Fish Hawk Ranch development to the north, and more than 10 times greater than on the other three sides.

While the request is not for ultra-high density, the transition would not be gradual but profound.

This is the last large tract of land between the urban and the rural area at this location.

So it is critically important that the transition be properly managed.

Perimeter walls are discouraged by policy 3.1.2.

Berms and landscaping cannot fully mitigate the noise, traffic, pet, and lightning impacts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Stutzman.

David Byington, then Amanda Brown, and then Brenda Feewalks.

Good evening.

I'm here to address one of the most fundamental responsibilities of our elected officials, and that's public safety.

Furthermore, FLU policy 1.1.10 explicitly requires that any proposed expansion to the USA must undergo a strict fiscal and capacity analysis for fire and rescue, assuming ensuring it does not compromise the efficient provisions of public services.

This proposal fulfills this proposal fails those requirements.

Please let me remind the board when emergency management explicitly explicitly stated about this development regarding emergency response delays.

Delays and I quote, beyond evacuations, daily emergency response may be hindered by congestion with limited routes, slowing fire, EMS, and law enforcement times.

Even the counties are in emergency experts do not support this project.

The human heart and brain suffer irreversible damage or dies within five or six minutes without intervention.

While station two is nearby, a single medical transport pulls out rescue out of zone for two to three hours due to standard hospital transport and drop-off times.

From January to January to June 1st of this year, rescue two handled 554 calls, 343 transports.

They're already pushed to the limit.

When they are tied up, the next closest units from station 27 or station 7, over six miles away.

That is a fatal delay.

The safety infrastructure cannot support this, and I urge you to uphold your public safety policies, deny this application.

Thank you, Mr.

Bellington.

Amanda Brown.

And then Brenda looks like Feewalks, then Joanna Bradshaw and Susan Swift.

Good evening.

Hello, uh, my name is Amanda Brown, and I am here in opposition to this application for urban expansion, and a request that you find the item inconsistent with our comp plan.

There is simply no data-driven justification to approve this application.

Future land use policy 1.1.10 states that requests for urban expansion must meet specific criteria under policy 1.1.6.

Specifically, data must support the need for expansion to provide for the projected population.

To satisfy this rule, the applicant provided a mere 42-word response stating that the Florida BEBR forecasts county population growth of over 350,000 residents by 2045.

Well, a single broad statistic for a huge county does not constitute a data set, nor does it demonstrate a localized need for expansion.

The applicant offers no analysis proving that an existing densities cannot accommodate this growth.

Meanwhile, the actual data provided by county staff and reviewing agencies proves that this added density will strain infrastructure and impact our quality of life.

Emergency management noted risk to response times, explicitly stating that this application does not align with county emergent emergency management goals.

Additionally, our local high schools are over capacity and our surrounding roads cannot handle the traffic.

You've heard it all before.

Urban expansions should be directed away from rural areas.

Development should be limited, low density, incompatible with rural character.

Adding 200 plus homes would inject hundreds more daily vehicle trips into a two-lane rural quarter with no capacity improvements, either funded or scheduled.

This is from a you can see Lithia Pinecross is only slightly funded up to Fishhawk, not near this property.

Not only is this road, Dorman is increasingly being used to bypass Lithia Pine grass.

You can see it's not meant for high density development.

Not only is traffic bad on a good day, but imagine an accident or a need to evacuate.

During times when Lithia Pinecrest experiences road closures, we are limited on alternate routes.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Next up, we have Joanna Bradshaw, followed by Susan Swift Virtually.

My name is Joanna Bradshaw.

Like the famous Christmas movie or Ghost Visit Ebenezer Screws, I stand today as the ghost of the present.

The same builder, West Bay, built my community in Lithia like they are trying to present today.

I am barely five miles from today's proposal.

My neighborhood has 60 foot lots, just like the proposal.

But when the community began, owners were told it would only be 250 homes.

Today we're nearly a thousand, and we're still not done selling or building.

Why does West Bay need to build, as their lawyer said, 380 homes instead of the approved 50?

Why?

There are 268 homes in Lithia, just Lithia, for sale today.

That doesn't include the 72 affordable houses that haven't yet broken ground, nor the 200 plus MI homes that are also in the phase to begin breaking ground.

Lithia isn't lacking inventory.

So I close by asking why.

Thank you for your comments.

We have Susan Swift virtually.

If I if I can.

That's why she's can we confirm that we have Susan Swift on the line?

Do I draw on the line?

Swift, are you able to hear it?

Okay, we'll come back.

We have Michelle.

She is online, but she's not yet straight.

Okay.

We'll have Michelle Bronner next, please.

We'll come back to Susan Swift.

Followed by Rebecca Scott.

Good evening.

Michelle Bronner.

I live on Dorman Road.

I had a speech prepared, but everybody's already said everything I was going to say.

Um, what I do want to make sure that everybody's aware of is this is not a suburban location.

You cannot walk to the schools, you cannot walk to the McDonald's, but you can walk to our feed store where we buy the feed for the horses, and you can walk to the timber and cattle company to buy your hay and get your fence boards.

This is not a suburban area.

Lithia is not part of the expansion area.

Lithia is not part of the two studies, it's already being conducted.

Um, on the um Plan Hillsborough website, I found this sustainable growth survey that was done in 2021.

And on it, 91% of residents agreed the county should limit or discourage development to protect ag and environmental environmental lands.

Most residents do not want to move to a new community.

But when thinking about relocating the residents' desire to move to a more rural area to raise families and to have space.

Tonight.

This is the area.

She totally leaves out all of the deed-restricted HOA large rural properties.

We have that is Dorman Road neighborhood, that's Dorman Um Ranch.

We have Lithia Ranch, we have Hammock Oaks, we have Doe Creek Reserve that are all to the south of this property that are all large lot residential development.

No one in that area has two homes per acre.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next up we have Rebecca Scott followed by Erica Taylor.

Good evening.

I'm Rebecca Scott.

Are you at it?

18935 Dorman Road in Lithia.

And I'm not sure what I need to say now.

It seems to me that you all should all be convinced that you should vote this down.

Can you speak into the mic, please?

Sure.

I can try.

Thanks.

I figured I was pretty loud.

I'm sorry.

That's great.

Um, so I'm gonna skip right to the back and tell you that on your urban service area, the county website states that it's an efficient growth management tool.

And it's more than just an urban service area, is more than just a boundary on a map.

It's a strategy that gets a greater return on your tax dollar by focusing new growth and redevelopment in areas with existing or planned infrastructure.

Further states that the USA directs growth where it makes sense.

It doesn't make sense here.

It's a foundation to enhance the quality of life and protect choices.

Proactive planning for the future and goals that achieved.

Choice of urban, suburban, and rural living options in Hillsborough County.

So this is our right to maintain a rural living option, which we all dearly love.

Provide your urban service areas should provide fiscal responsibility infrastructure with roads, schools, and public safety.

We all know that Lithia Pinecrest is an F, has been since before 2003.

I see staff studies all the way back here where year after year you're going to improve it and have not.

Well, if you want to develop some more, take it where they need it and where there's already the infrastructure to support it.

Um preservation of natural environment areas, open spaces, and ecosystems.

In other words, I'm not a very good speaker, but I will tell you that your urban service area as a growth management tool.

If you use it that way, there's nothing wrong with it.

If you go by what you say it is and what you need to use it for, it can work.

Thank you for your comments.

Next up, Erica Taylor, followed by Chelsea Feisman.

Um I think the first one.

I need it like this.

Is there any way to keep it like this so I can change it?

Because I have a video.

It is what I have a video to play in this presentation.

Okay.

Okay.

So what did I need to do?

I just start from beginning.

Is that what I click?

That okay.

Please state your name for the record.

Erica Taylor.

Um, this bottom picture is a video of fire rescue having to weave around traffic just on Tuesday night.

Road capacity already causes issues for fire and rescue delays, transporting and perishable goods and livestock.

Expansion and density increase would further harm these departments.

Expanding in the USA and increasing density will add will add even more cars to an already constrained and overburdened network where other areas have access to multi-lane roads, highways, and multiple access points.

Why are we considering any development along the two-lane Lithia Pinecrest corridor when it is pulling similar traffic counts compared to other areas in the county with four-lane roads?

Data shows over 25,500 cars traveled along Lithia Pinecrest within a 24-hour period, while Bell Scholes captured just 2,000 more, and Fishhog Boulevard was over 18,600.

Data shows Lithia Pinecrest has had an F rating total level of service for years, and expanding the USA goes against so many objectives and policies that the comprehensive plan is supposed to protect.

This community shouldn't be subjected to more congestion just because this is a great and desirable community to live.

Lithia Pinecrest has kept up with Bell Scholes volume capacity since the data was recorded in 2015.

More homes than the volume of cars has grown in Lithia, but still no road upgrades.

Approving growth during a decades-long construction period is unsafe and violates maintenance and safety policies.

Lithia Pinecrest widening and intersection upgrades at 39 plus additional resident residents will further strain the infrastructure issue.

Bell Scholes Road was upgraded in 2024 and hasn't had any major developments yet.

144 homes have been added right along Lithia Pinecrest, and there's more that are already approved that feed onto Lithia Pinecrest.

The current and future residents don't deserve to be forgotten about anymore.

This is an image of several you see cars that are blocking the yellow lanes, cars going around.

Thank you for your comments.

Yes, ma'am.

Next up, Chelsea Thysman, followed by William Irig.

Okay.

All right.

Do you want to hit it for you?

Just evening.

My name is Chelsea Thysman.

My family's been in this county for over 130 years.

A lot has changed in that time.

The USA helps residents to help to have the freedom to choose between rural, suburban, or urban living by presenting and planning for a variety of lifestyles and community types.

The USA expansion at Dorman Road isn't warranted because it doesn't address any real housing need.

Expansion into rural land removes that freedom by eliminating the rural option.

The 2000 census reported almost 2,000 people and 800 housing units in the Fishhawk area.

By 2020, there were almost 25,000 people there and 7,700 housing units.

Over 20 years, that's a hundred, that's a thousand one hundred, eleven hundred percent population growth, and one hundred and seventy percent housing unit growth.

Approving this expansion without infrastructure repeats the same inequitable inequitable pattern, objective 1.3 warns against.

1.11.

Criteria number two, expansion should address population and employment growth.

Data shows expected expected growth and employment are west of the site, yet seek expansion here rather than addressing those data supported areas.

The projected employment map shows that there are no new jobs targeted for the lithia area.

Thank you.

Therefore, no need for more homes and added commuters to Lithia Pinecrest.

You can skip that one.

Okay.

Had this area been essential for expansion, it would have been identified within the two study areas for evaluating future growth needs.

Its absence indicates that it goes against policy 1.1.10.

Criteria number six in expansion at this location, neither planned or nor justified.

Florida does not have a housing shortage, but the county does have an extreme shortage of rural properties on five plus acres.

The proposed expansion destroys the very housing type that is scarce.

22.

Thank you for your comments.

Next up we have William Hyrig, followed by Teagan and Zoo Zealie.

Good evening.

I'm William County.

I reside at 18232 Lithia Ranch Road in Lithia.

Because you've heard it already so many times, but I will just sort of outline that you've got a very big change in density of a property that's going to have a material impact on uh strained infrastructure already.

And uh we really lithia pinecrest really can't support any more uh traffic.

Dorman Road is a substandard two-line road, as you've seen with pictures, it doesn't even have lane markings, uh, doesn't have any um uh shoulder, and it's it's just not an area for this type of project.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up we have Tegan Zaley, followed by Sue Zielee.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Thank you for having us.

Uh my name is Tegan Zaley.

And I want to start by asking when does so-called progress start becoming destruction?

Regardless of what the maps show, as people have shown with their drone footage, when you actually take a drive to the area in question in HC CP8 2605 and 06.

The proposed amendment does not fit the lay of the land nor the feel of the current community.

Yes, it's a slower-paced life that many don't understand, but part of that life and that misunderstanding is in the type of youth that this lifestyle creates, who then turn into our next generation.

Our rural and agricultural way of life teaches responsibility, time management, money management, work ethic, respect, and resilience that no classroom or education system could ever come close to producing.

All of these things are things that we need as adults when we enter the real world.

The youth that grow up in these agricultural communities are our next leaders, entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, and farmers.

Farmers, the people who keep food on my plate and yours.

When you take Agland and turn it to residential, you give families fewer opportunities to raise their kids in this amazingly educational and real world environment.

Families that you represent tonight.

Our lives and everyday way of life are literally in your hands.

Thank you, Commissioners.

All right, thank you.

Sue Zaley, followed by Melissa Sharmer, and then Ronald Papion.

Good evening.

Good evening, Commissioners.

I'm Susaly, 6411 Red Hawk Lane, and I am here to speak in opposition of the CPA 2605 and 06.

Um the property in question is surrounded by the Florida Ecological Greenways Network.

Converting this land to higher density would fragment and degrade the ecological function.

Which these would clearly have adverse impacts that are inconsistent with the comprehensive plan's environmental protection quality policies.

The Florida Ecological Greenways Network is a statewide conservation priority.

Converting it to suburban density would fragment wildlife corridors, disrupt national natural systems, and eliminate 190 acres of open space and habitat.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

You can't get it back.

The expansion would cause clear environmental damage and alter the travel pattern of wildlife.

This area is encompassed by wildlife and provides a safe place for them to live.

Florida's ecological system is fragile and under enough threat already.

It's our job to protect it, not destroy it.

A lot of people don't realize how important our this system is, but it maintains life for everybody, for all of us.

So we need to protect it.

And also providing an interconnected system within the development is not enough, and it's not safe.

It would increase human wildlife interaction, and then you've got more risk of attack, capture, killing.

It just not consistent.

So I just implore you to please reject these proposals.

Don't transmit it.

The CPAs do not fit into the nature of the surrounding areas, and the current infrastructure cannot handle it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Melissa Sharma.

Melissa here.

And then Ronald Papion and then Levon Kendrick.

Good evening.

How do I uh here?

Okay.

Good evening.

I'm Melissa Sharma, and I live in the Fish Hawk area for more than 20 years.

Um 22.

If we'll show that one.

All right, I'm just gonna go.

Twenty years ago, it's hard to imagine that you were able to commute from Fishhawk down to I-75 in less than in around 20 minutes.

But since then, thousands of homes have been added, but transportation improvements have struggled to keep pace.

This issue before you, not whether growth will eventually occur, is the issue is whether infrastructure should come first.

I don't know if I'm on the right side.

Yes, goal to.

Uh my Tedford, 2025 Newsom graduate, honor student and Girl Scout Gold Award recipient, regularly rode her bike to school.

Between seventh and tenth grade, she was struck by a vehicle five or six times.

Two of those times were within a crosswalk.

That's five or six times she was hit by a car.

And none of those times anyone stopped to help her.

This is not a failure of one student.

It is evidence of a transportation network that is already struggling to safely serve existing residents.

Approving additional development before these safety deficiencies are addressed, moves us further away from the county's vision zero goals.

The comprehensive plan.

Sorry, the county is already investigating similar resources to improve lithia pine crest because current conditions are inadequate.

That alone demonstrates the need for an additional capacity and safety improvements.

The comprehensive plan emphasizes multimodal transportation options.

However, heart service in Fishhawk has ended.

Without this transit service, residents are forced into their vehicles, increasing congestion on road already operating under significant pressure.

It is the wrong time to increase residential density.

I live in Fish Hawk, uh, two miles from Newsom.

Thank you, ma'am.

Appreciate the comments, Ms.

Sharman.

You got Ronald Papillon, fellowed by Levon Kendrick, Ronald Mezzer, and then Gary Taylor.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name's Ray Papion.

I live in Hillsborough County.

I'm a retired master sergeant with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and a retired senior master sergeant with the United States Air Force and the Air Force Reserve.

You uh, you know, when you hang up those uniforms, you think that the battles are behind you.

And I'm here tonight asking my elected officials to help me protect my quality of life.

That's the reason we're we're all here is to help us protect our quality of life.

I know you're not you guys probably know what I'm gonna say because I I've emailed you several times about this, but for the public record, local government, municipalities, cities, counties, it is most directly responsible for taxpayers' daily quality of life, covering essential services such as police, fire protection, water sanitation, and local infrastructure.

There's four tenants in there for the public record.

Uh public safety, police fire, infrastructure, utilities, community services, schools, park, blah, blah, blah, and regulations, which deals with zoning, and it also deals with licensing and all that.

Nowhere in there does it say use taxpayer money for a seasonal sport team stadium, but that's another night we're gonna talk about that.

It also doesn't say that you sacrifice any of the tenants here to meet one of the tenants.

This is sacrificing all three of the other tenants to try to meet one, which is gonna be inadequate.

It's gonna be inadequate at best.

I've been in a lot of places, I ate a lot of sand.

Sometimes I didn't agree with why we were going, but I feel that we improve those people's quality of life.

I worked the midnight shift.

I kicked indoors with deputy grusso putting drug dealers away and closing drug houses.

I know in that neighborhood, we increased those people's quality of life.

I got paid to do it, and hell, I enjoyed doing it.

Kicking that door, I just it's just please help me protect my quality of life.

Lavon Kendrick, then Ronald Messer, and then Gary Taylor.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm Lavon Kendrick.

About eight years ago, my husband and I purchased our small farm in rural Lithia.

We came from Fishhawk.

It's a place where we spend time with our children, grandchildren, raise cattle and chickens, and grow our own food.

Moving from Fishhawk, we poured our hearts in restoring our property, believing it would be a little slice of paradise.

Since we moved to rural lithia, we have seen multiple subdivisions spring up, such as Hawkstone, Channing Park, and now the new Skyhawk.

It's already a nightmare on Lithia Pinecrest Road and on Boyor Boyette Road.

Now we understand now we understand a new West Space subdivision for the potential of 280 homes maybe on the horizon.

I can imagine how many homes potentially built there with a minimum of two vehicles.

If they had teenagers, that's more.

That's 560 additional vehicles.

If West Bay has allowed the limitation to impose the restrict sizing conform rule setting allowing one house per acre.

We oppose expanding urban service area, brings water and sewer to the land that is rural.

We need to continue to choose our own lifestyle.

Once rural is taken away, it can never be put back.

I ask each of you to come and experience our already overcrowded road congestion community.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and please save our neighborhood, our home and our land and our animals.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Kendrick.

Ronald Messer.

Followed by Gary Taylor and then Susan Swift if she returned.

Good evening.

Good evening, Board of County Commissioners.

You've heard from all these fine folks, and now you're going to hear from me.

My name is Ronald D.

Messer, and I'm a lifelong resident of Hillsburg County with five generations right here in Brandon, Florida.

I also served 20 years in the uniform in the Florida Army National Guard, deploying multiple times to Afghanistan and other countries in support of a global war on terrorism.

Over my lifetime, I've seen this great county change tremendously.

Once flowing cow pastures and nature preserves have turned into concrete jungles and Soviet-style apartment complexes all over my community.

The traffic congestion is unbearable in Brandon and out near Lithia because of the influx of the new residents flowing into Hillsburg County daily.

Lithia Pinecrest Road is our two-lane thoroughway connecting Brandon to the rural areas of Hillsburg County.

And this board of county commissioners continues to creep out to the country, approve overdevelopment, and destroy our ecosystem and our southern way of life.

In regard to this proposal, I demand that y'all terminate this tonight.

The once beautiful open lands to be turned into more condominiums.

Let me remind you that it's a one to five ratio.

One single family home per five acres, not this two to one that we're discussing tonight.

Approving this proposal will lead to a worsening already overburdened congested pothole ridden roadways that just never get the proper maintenance because of the incompetence of this local government.

Hillsburg County government, we demand better from our elected officials.

One billion dollars of our citizens' tax funds for the new stadium.

That's for negligence at best and criminal at worst.

We're here today to remind you that you work for us, not the other way around.

Again, I implore this board to stop rezoning our sacred rural lands and handing over our children's futures to the greedy land hustlers.

Again, thank you for this time in this matter, and I'll see you on 20 through 2030.

And only together can we clean up this mess.

Thank you, sir.

Gary Taylor.

Is Mr.

Taylor here?

And then uh and then last speaker, Susan Swift, if she returned.

Good evening, sir.

Uh Carrie Taylor, Bryant Road in Lithia.

A squirrel was sitting on a bench with a jar of walnuts when a monkey happened to buy and fancied some of the walnuts.

And being a generous squirrel, he allowed him to take one.

But when the monkey ran his hand down into the jar, he didn't take one walnut.

He took five.

And when he went to pull his hand out, much like this proposed development, it just didn't fit.

Now there's a singer by the name of Joni Mitchell who wrote a song with a verse that I know we have all heard.

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

I believe when the county planners designated one home for five acres, they did so with a vision and a desire.

And those of us that are here tonight, we share that division, and we share that desire, which is to protect rural lithia.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Did Susan Swift uh return?

If not, or yes, I'm here.

Oh, you're here?

Okay.

Well, please please go, Miss Swift.

I've been here.

Welcome.

Thank you.

My name is My name is Susan Flift, and I'm an AICP certified planner.

Speaking on behalf of Preserved Rural Lithia.

My seven-page report is in your package.

It details the many reasons and substantial evidence for you to deny these two applications.

Bottom line, application 2605 is inconsistent with the goals, objectives, and policies related to urban growth policy, urban service areas, urban expansion areas, and the state statutes on urban withdrawal.

This application would lead you to believe that these are nebulous planning concepts, but the county's plan specifically describes the characteristics of the urban expansion areas and policy 1.1.10.

This application does not meet six and the seven criteria, and new growth should not be on the backs of rural lithia, and moving this line would really be a terrible precedent.

The plan provides procedures to expand the USA and objective 1.3.

This application is not following them, and the planning commission's recent expansion studies excluded this area.

This application also triggers six of 13 for all indicators as they are called in the plan amendment requirements of the Florida statute.

Application 2606 is both incompatible with the surrounding properties and inconsistent with other policies in the plan.

The request from AR to residential two would allow an extreme increase from 38 units to 380.

This is inconsistent with numerous policies that limit density to gradual transition in order to protect rural areas and family farm.

In no dictionary or interpretation would the words gradual transition mean a tenfold increase in density.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Swift.

Appreciate your comments.

That closes uh public comment at this time applicant has an opportunity for three minute rebuttal.

Good evening, Commissioners.

I know that you have a difficult decision ahead of you.

Um there were a lot of issues that were addressed.

One thing I want to briefly comment on are some of the agency comments that were brought up.

We had the emergency management department that's responsible for hurricane evacuation commenting on flooding.

We had agribusiness commenting on transportation infrastructure, and we had fire and emergency services comments that were based on the assumption that we were two and a half miles away from a station.

They used the Dorman Road address, not the lithia pinecrest address.

They didn't realize we were half a mile away.

So those comments come in very early, and it's the planning commission staff job to review and distill those into an overall decision and recommendation.

And again, the planning commission staff found that we did in fact meet the criteria.

I just want to go back to this aerial again.

You can see that there are wildlife corridors in this area, and we acknowledge that.

And recognizing that there is a rural, I would ask that you respect me, please.

Um, I respected you.

Um, there are large lots uh to the south, and those are protected by deed restrictions, so there's no real threat of any further encroachment.

And then you have to ask yourself state law requires that you plan for growth, and you have a comprehensive plan that has seven criteria.

And there were a lot, there was lots of testimony about that and whether the criteria were met, but again, your planning commission staff, who is the steward of the plan, found that this met all seven criteria, that it's adjacent and contiguous to the established urban service boundary.

The fact that there is a gap does not lessen the contiguity or the adjacency of this project project.

And then probably most importantly, no one really acknowledged the public infrastructure investments that have been made.

There are public infrastructure investments that are planned and being made.

And every time you seek to uh amend the comprehensive plan to expand the urban service boundary, it's going to be up against rural development.

And if you're not going to do it in a court or on a site that is in a suburban development pattern where significant infrastructure is being approved, then essentially you're not going to expand it anywhere.

And I know it's a really difficult decision, but we would ask that you at least vote to transmit these amendments tonight, allow us to do some work on the zoning, and then when it comes back to you for final decision, you can take the totality of the proposal into consideration.

And please state your name for the record.

Sorry.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, and thank you to all of the speakers.

I'll I won't say that I'm going to be brief tonight, even though we've been here.

There was a lot of comments and a lot of questions that I want to clear up before in one thing that I saw before the chair has to do his um typical statement, which is that tonight is not the not vinyl vote.

Tonight is simply the vote to transmit it to the state.

Land use is very complicated.

I understand it's I didn't know that land use of charges attorneys charge so much money until I got involved in this process, but now I understand why.

Um the last vote will be in a couple of months if it proceeds after the state um provides its comments.

And we did that because that type of heavy development has no business being developed out there near the rural areas, which happened a significant amount between 2018 to 2022 until this board changed.

And I believe that we denied that because we understand that that type of density has no place.

No one's ever asked the question, that that apportionment hasn't been changed.

We have a unique planning commission that was set in 1997, when the population was about half of what we are now, even though their population of the city of Tampa only represents about 21% of the entire population of Hillsborough County, they have the exact same representation of you that live in the unincorporated area.

And the reason that that vote went down that way, and in my opinion, this board rightfully denied their vote of consistency, is because the city of Tampa loves density.

They love it.

They believe that you should all be riding public transit all the way from Lithia all the way to the city of Tampa.

They talk about it all the time, and that is how they vote.

In this situation, you might think that the vote of inconsistency was for you.

No, it was against you because this type of density is far lower than anything that they would ever agree to, and you had a situation where you didn't have enough attendance, which this board is going to have to address at some point from your unincorporated representation.

But make no mistake, if this was extremely high density, they would have voted consistent on this planning commission, and you would be in here arguing for us to deny it, which I believe we would because that high density has no place.

Unfortunately, this board has no control over the apportionment of our planning commission.

It was uniquely created by the state's legislature, and they're the only one that's going to fix it.

And I do mean to make sure that that happens next session so that you have better population representation.

I'll move on from that.

I won I wanted to address the access on Dorman Road.

That's not a normal access, right?

Or is it, or is that just an emergency access that staff is predicting will be required?

Commissioner, at this time, that reference to the zoning app rezoning application, the access proposed on Dorman Road is proposed as emergency accessible.

Okay.

Well, so that's not something we'll hand um handle today.

I would just say that for information purposes, this board has decided that if the community doesn't want that access, the developer doesn't want that access, then um we we make those decisions when we handle the rezonings.

Um the average first-time homeowner now in America, we're faced with very difficult decisions now, is encroaching on 40 years old.

Um, for about 270 days, this board before before um our arrival in 2022, they had a moratorium on increased in densities, they constricted the home inventory, home home prices exploded, and now we're here in a situation to where when I was 28, the average first-time homeowner was um 30 years old.

Fast forward only about 14 years in the future.

I'm 42.

That age gap is now 40 years old and only increasing.

So I don't know what we're gonna do.

I don't want my kids to live with me forever, no disrespect.

My son's gotta go.

Um so it it's really challenging.

Um we're we're not we're not just flying by night here, we're trying to make um a lot of decisions.

I want to address the urban service area that was mentioned um so much tonight, and and Miss Linehardt, you know, this is absolutely no disrespect to the planning commission staff.

I just understand that things are where they are.

Um on March the 10th, this group um might be interested to know on March the 9th, the Planning Commission sent us a letter.

We received it on the 10th, and they had some questions about the urban service area, some questions that I've been asking, um, which are simple things like what is the empirical criteria of where the originally employed to evaluate and support the establishment of the 80% 20% urban service area ratio in 1993 when this urban service area was put into place and never changed.

The 80% 20% rule is that this is only a guiding mechanism.

This is not the Great Wall of China that says that nothing can be built in and nothing could be built out.

I made the point to Commissioner Hagen, who has been here um for the longest of all of us, at no point I've ever found in history, and he agreed with me, and at least in his time.

Have they ever ruled in the 20% outside of the urban service area?

It's only been used as a whipping stick of 100% in.

If it's out, I'm ruling against you because you're outside of the urban service area.

They asked what empirical data is currently used to evaluate the impact of the 8020 ratio.

What is the impact of manipulating the 80-20 ratio, for instance?

What if it was 90 in and 10 out?

What happens if you decreased it 7525?

The results would concern you.

The responses given to each of these inquiries and discussions or that followed that illuminated there are substantial gaps in the agency's knowledge relative to the origination of the ratio, the measurable impacts of this ratio that guides the entire urban service area, the empirical impacts to be expected from adjusting the 80-20 ratio.

Basically, this was an acknowledgement that they lack the resources and critical knowledge to accurately apply the urban service area.

Another way of saying this is that the commissioners, both here and on the planning commission, are for those of us that also ate sand.

I appreciated that analogy, is that we are operating in the dark, making us openly susceptible to friendly fire.

That is exactly what's happening right now due to the failures of the urban service area, which were put in with good intentions and then never really provided any measurable outcomes.

It's very challenging and it leaves this um board with a lot of issues.

Um this land use code that is being asked for today.

This is what confused me.

When I first saw the uproar about this comp plan, I thought somebody was coming in here asking for res four or res six.

I would have voted no to it.

I was very surprised that it's residential too.

Miss Leinhart, when we expand the urban service area, what is the lowest land use code that the planning commission staff applies?

That's a great question.

Um, for we have policy um language in the plan that says four units an acre, so residential four would be the minimum, and that's considered a suburban future land use category.

Air go, everything below residential four is a rural land use category.

In fact, um, can we get confirmation that the rule two and rule one categories are often referred to um throughout the course of our growth as what is considered a transitional land use code to act as a natural tapering between the urban service area and the rural lands.

Is that correct?

For residential one, that is certainly a rural future land use category.

It's shown in table 2.2 in the future land use section.

For residential two, it was coupled with W VR2 and RP2 as a semi-rural future land use category.

Um we have some remnant RP2, like in the Fish Hawk area, but W VR2 will be gone, um, will be eradicated from the um future land use map very soon.

Um, but that leaves residential two as semi-rural.

Okay.

So it's a bridge between the two suburban and rural.

And and I guess I hope that you guys are seeing that this is a challenging issue, but if this was if this was more suburban, um I would have said no today, but this is literally acting as was intended, which is a natural tapering and buffering between the rural areas and the urban service area.

Um I'm I'm getting I'm getting close.

I know it's late, but there were so many questions.

Umwater was said so much, that's all handled in the engineering of the zoning, correct, Mr.

Gormley?

Yes, that's correct.

And the engineering of the site post zoning would be the analysis for the stormwater review.

And some of the um complaints that I've received from developers and largely ignored is that they say that we have some of the most strict stormwater engineering requirements in the entire state of Florida.

I know that you're not the engineer, but it's something that's been said to me repeatedly.

But we live on the bay and we need very significant stormwater management techniques.

So they're there.

Um as it comes to land conservation.

Our environmental land acquisition and protection program in Hillsborough County currently manages almost 64,000 acres.

We are one of the highest land conservation counties in the entire state of Florida when it comes to our own local program.

That doesn't include all of the other state and federal, which bumps us up to about over 80,000 acres of conserved land in Hillsborough County.

If you asked any of the environmental groups, they would argue that our county actually is one of the best at preserving and conserving environmental land in the and it's almost all predominantly in the eastern Hillsborough area.

Where I'm going with this is that we're left in a very challenging situation where our planning commission is for some reason voting for four-story apartments near the rural area, but they're voting against one of the lowest density asks in this situation, residential two, right near the rural area.

It seems to me that the planning commission errs, not staff, um, the planning commission staff got this right in this in this situation, are acting counterintuitive to what our goals are supposed to be, which is keeping density far away from the farmers.

And my my last um I want to clear up one thing that was said, but one of the speakers said that they believe this would be six plus homes per acre, but this is gonna be less than two homes per acre after we harvest um water conservation and stormwater needs.

I I don't believe as the the applicant said that they'll be able to get um even the two acres that they're applying for.

Um the other challenge for this area that I I'm gonna call the city of Plant City and ask why their planning commissioner voted against this when the city of the cities can do what's called annexing, and you are pretty close to the city of Plant City.

They've been annexing South down 39 and cramming Section 8 housing onto it, four-story, three-story apartments, encroaching down to the lithia 39 line.

This board does not have the legislative authority to prevent a city from annexing.

So while their city is annexing south to our rural areas and doing four-story apartments, for some reason their planning commissioner voted to voted on a density that's one-tenth of the dance density they're approving just a couple miles up the road.

It makes absolutely no sense.

Um I want to briefly address and then I will um close, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you for entertaining this.

There's just so many people and so many questions tonight.

It was said that we should ignore any concerns about agricultural enclave that are represented.

But you should know that we are only a quasi-judicial body, and we can be overridden by actual judges, and it happens.

It just happened to this board on Tuesday, we had to handle that same issue.

There is a a lot of land far away from you, near where I live in in Odessa, that two of the commissioners were worried and wanted to see it proceed into the urban service area, and we wanted to lock that down higher than this, but lower than most areas at residential four.

I felt like it was good because there was a bill coming through the pipeline called the agricultural enclave, which was mentioned earlier.

And I was worried what that might become.

Well, we just received a briefing that while we voted no on residential four, there is an extremely high likelihood that this board is now going to be superseded by the Florida's legislature, who has now passed that bill into law after we voted no, and automatically entitled that land potentially to residential 20 four story section eight housing, and we have no legal authority to stop that from happening if that property owner goes forward.

So you have to be very careful at looking a gift horse in the mouth, is what I'm going for here.

And tonight I'm going to be moving for approval and voting yes because tonight is just moving us towards the state's ability to offer their points of view to where we can have all of the package and vote yes or no in a couple of months.

But this is a very dangerous thing that we just warned the Odessa community to be careful about fighting.

And I would hate to see something similar bite the community of Lithia within the next couple of months if it goes awry.

So I will yield, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you for entertaining.

Is that a motion?

Uh Commissioner Wilsto.

Yes, it is a motion to transmit to the motion to transmit CPA 2605 by Commissioner Wilson.

Sign Commissioner Myers.

Commissioner Myers, you're next in the Q.

Oh, I don't know.

Okay.

Commissioner Cameron Cepeda.

Yes, uh, first of all, I'd like to thank everyone that came out to speak tonight.

Thank you very much.

And um I really love the great presentations and especially like the aerial drone footage.

That was really awesome.

Um especially, you know, hearing about of course that we'll there will be uh more demand demand on the infrastructure in the area.

But um what was really concerning to me also was the fact that emergency vehicles have already been seen and uh having dip difficulty getting through the traffic that is already there.

So um and there are for those reasons I will not be supporting this.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh I don't see anyone else in the queue.

We have a motion uh to transmit CPA 2605 by Commissioner Wolstool, second Commissioner Myers.

Uh please record your vote.

Motion carried five to two, Commissioners Miller and Cameron Sepata voted no.

All right, can we have a motion to transmit CPA 2606?

Move to approve.

Motion Commissioner Myers.

Second.

Sign Commissioner Cohen.

Uh please record your vote.

Motion carried five to two.

Commissioners Miller and Cameron Sapeta voted no.

All right, finally, we need a um motion for resolution for the transmittal of CPA 2605 and CPA 2606.

Move to approve.

Motion, Commissioner Myers.

Second.

Please record your vote.

Motion carried five to two, Commissioners Miller and Cameron Sapeta voted no.

Okay, with that, thank you everyone for coming to this down this evening.

Now we're adjourned.