PDC Day!

Happy Thursday.

Man, this past week has been insane. Lot's of traffic on the social media page from the posts last week about the sand mine operating without SWFWMD permits. I have also been extremely busy with the full time photography job as we are now in spring and in the busy season. One more photography conference in April and my schedule should be back to "normal".

Before we start, let me give an update on my code complaint with the County regarding the sand mine. I had a phone call from code enforcement who will be looking at my complaint. This complaint was over the 4 parcels to the north of the site that appear to be the active mine. They called to verify if I was ok that my name and address be listed publicly, which is required by law.

I confirmed that, so they will begin their investigation. Will keep you posted.

Not a lot going on in county government recently. With an extra week between meetings (next week), there is not a ton going on.

So today, we are going to talk about the PDC meeting that is happening this morning.

The first one up this morning is Corta Lecanto 486. They are asking for additional signage to be allowed on the buildings to Longhorn Steakhouse and Sprouts grocery store. This came before the PDC a month or so ago and was asked to be continued.

Basically, they want to add more signage than is allowed by the LDC. They want bigger signs and want more square footage so that traffic can identify it better.

For Longhorn, the LDC allows 121 square feet of signs space. The proposed main sign is 81.9 square feet, which allows only 39.1 square feet for signs elsewhere on the building. They are asking for an additional 81.9 square feet on the west side, 69.7 square feet on the east side and 69.7 square feet on the north side for a total of 303.2 square feet. That exceeds what is allowed by 182.2 square feet.

For Sprouts, they are allowed 228 square feet of total signage. The main sign on the front is proposed to be 226.7 square feet. They are requesting four additional signs that are each 21.1 square feet and one sign on the east that is 152.9 square feet for a combined 464 square feet, which exceeds what is allowed by 236 square feet.

For both of these sites, they are in the new plaza area being built next to Target.

Once again, we are here with an applicant asking for an amendment to the LDC, this time to allow more signage. On the surface, it does not appear to be a big deal... however, setting a precedent could be a bad thing for the rest of the buildout of 491. If the PDC/BOCC approves this, what happens down the road when the other tenants want bigger signs? Pretty soon, we will have 486 full of large retail signs... looking like SR50 and 200 which the BOCC did not want to happen when they approved these sites in 2023.

Might be too late for that.

The second application is for Hampton Hills, LLC (Citrus Hills) to add to their development. This one is interesting. They have a parcel that is separate from their Citrus Hills DRI. They want to add this parcel to their DRI and build it out as part of Citrus Hills.

They are asking to allow up to 6 units per acre for this 5 acre parcel. That would be 30 homes/townhomes/apartments etc as the DRI allows mixed uses across it. However, this suggests only single family homes for this parcel. They place a wall/fence around it to incorporate it into the Citrus Hills project. They would also run utilities through there as well as the roads. The buildout will be the same as Citrus Hills Parcel C, through 2054.

The problem here... The parcel to the north and to the south of this parcel have existing single family homes. Now, this will allow potentially 30 homes in the lot next to existing single family homes? This is similar to what they got approved on Scarboro Ave a year or two ago.

Seeing that it is only two homes surrounding it, I do not see much pushback from the public. I assume that it will be approved and allow Citrus Hills to expand by 5 acres.

That is it for today. Have a great rest of the day!