Park Expansion?

Last week the commissioners got together and talked about strategic planning. They heard a presentation from the consultant hired to do the growth forecasting models. You can read the first part here.

Today, we are going to talk about the last part of that presentation... parks.

Here is the slide that was presented.

This slide shows how many acres are projected to be needed to meet our 2010 Level of Service and the Comp Plan. According to the consultant, we needed an additional 108 acres of park space in 2025 to meet the 2010 LOS.

Obviously, we are past 2025 now, so we are short on park space. We will need 367 additional acres by 2050 to keep up.

Several months ago, Commissioner Barek floated the purchase of a property in her district on the river. That was 40 acres or so and has access to water. Her vision was that it provided some recreation opportunities with the water as well as opportunities for events/weddings. There could be revenue opportunities from the rentals and whatnot, similar to current county buildings we own like Citrus Springs Community Center.

The purchase would have been made using park impact fees. These fees can only be used to expand parks. The board largely ignored it and focused on Pirates Cove.

The board has now seemed to focus on the sports complex idea. They have started the feasibility study for the property we have in Homosassa. The idea here is to create more sports fields to help the local youth leagues who are bursting at the seams. They realize we need more space.

I wonder if the commissioners and school board members from 2004 wished they explored the idea that Mike Hampton proposed back then to partner with the county and school district to build a sports facility. I do not remember all of the specifics, but it would have included outdoor soccer/football fields, a gym and baseball/softball complex.

One location floated for this was Betz Farm. Hampton also purchased property on 44 next to what is now Racetrack at 44/491. That property was sold after this idea fizzled. It is now being turned into hundreds of homes and retail center.

Speaking of Betz Farm.

We need more park acreage according to our consultant, why not Betz Farm? It is over 325 acres and would get us very close to what we would need by 2050. We already own it, why not turn it into a park, as it was originally intended when it was gifted to us by the Tamposi Family for development credits?

I have written about this in the past... I have found a way to cancel the contract. The problem here is that few commissioners are willing to push for that. Commissioner Barek will absolutely vote to cancel it. Commissioner Finegan would probably go along with it as well.

Good luck trying to convince Commissioners Davis, Kinnard and Bays.

Remember, it was Kinnard's idea to enter into the addendum on the contract in April 2024 that allowed James Dicks to hold off the closing UNTIL he got whatever approvals he wanted. We were told by Kinnard back then that "Developers want to develop. This will close quickly".

Here we are, 22 months later and no closing. Remember, they also refused an extension request from a previous buyer because it was taking too long. Now they are stuck waiting for Dicks to get whatever he wants to do approved, unless they try to cancel the contract as I suggested a few months ago.

Speaking of the plan. Have you seen what it will look like?

This is what is posted on the Dix website for Betz Farm. The large section to the right is the Betz Farm area. Dicks has purchased the lots to the west of it all the way to Citrus Ave. Those new areas will include a proposed 40,000 sqft of commercial space, 300 apartments and 24 townhomes... in addition to the 1400+ homes in Betz.

Interesting that he made the purchase already and closed without the agreement that it closes only if he gets approval for his project. I guess he is confident with how this will go.

The crazy thing with all of this... WE OWN THE PROPERTY.

When have we ever let someone go to the PDC and then the BOCC for approval of a project where we own the land that they are trying to get approval for? This entire process is unheard of here. The benefit is that since we own the land, there are no issues with "by right" development. He has no "right" to the property. We can deny it for any reason we want because it is ours... at least that is how I understand it. Normally developers are bringing projects for land they own and they have certain property rights. Here... they have no rights. The county owns them.

However, if we do deny it... guess what? He still has the contract on it. The closing ONLY happens if he gets whatever approvals he wants (or if he decides to close). Again, why did we do this addendum? I warned them of this that day, but no one listened. Here we are.

If it is denied (or if he desires), he can go to the City of Crystal River and see if they would be willing to go through the process to annex the property into CR city limits. That would mean higher property taxes for the proposed residents, but also more revenue for CR.

But more importantly for Dicks, this would take Betz Farm away from the BOCC. CR would be the ones deciding on the application and the potential approval, NOT the BOCC.

All the more important we get out of this contract before we lose control of the process.

And aside from the development aspect, we are doing a greenprinting study which will likely lead to a creation of a land trust which will be tasked with identifying land to buy for conservation.

Why sell something we have that will work for that and then turn around and buy something else? Help me make sense of that.