Residents: Leave Mine Alone

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 4, 2007

SYDNEY - The pits and ruts that pock much of the old Sydney Mine are hidden from public view.

High, tree-covered hills provide a veneer for the former phosphate strip mine and hazardous waste dump that once operated on this 1,754-acre tract.

Active gopher tortoise burrows dot the hillsides in some areas. Dense ferns grow wild in others.

Residents to the south and east would just as soon leave it to the tortoises, coyotes, bobcats and hawks that have taken up residence there. It adds to the rural ambiance of the area, they say.

The developers who purchased the land last year have a different vision, one they hope the Hillsborough County Commission focuses on when it hears their proposal.

The county commission will hear the Sydney Mine proposal at 6 p.m. Aug. 16 in the commission chambers on the second floor of the Frederick B. Karl County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Sydney Mine Development Corp. is asking the county for text and map changes to the Comprehensive Land-Use Plan that would allow a village with 2,500 homes and a commercial center to be constructed on the property south of State Road 60 and east of Dover Road.

There is no other viable economic use for the property, said Carter McCain, a Tampa attorney representing the property owners. "It's heavy industrial, abandoned property that could be recycled. We could put it back into the stream of commerce," he said.

Unlike the sweeping swaths of open pastureland and orange groves that have been converted to dense subdivisions in Brandon and Valrico, this land is different because of its previous industrial use. The village plan, McCain said, is a way to bring it back onto the tax base and use it as a buffer between intensely suburban development to the west and rural land to the east.

The land-use designation would go from AR, or Agricultural Rural, allowing one home per 5 acres, to RP-2, or Residential Planned Village, allowing two homes per acre. The designation also would allow the property owners to build a village center that would create jobs.

Plans also call for a 320-acre manmade wetland that would serve as a filter for stormwater runoff and an environmental amenity, McCain said. The developer also would donate 26 acres for elementary and middle schools.

That's just too much in the wrong place, neighbors say.

"That density doesn't belong here," said George Niemann, who lives south of the old Sydney Mine and is spearheading the opposition.

By clustering, Sydney Mine Corp. could leave some large swaths of property undeveloped but put six houses on each acre of developed land, Niemann said. "This is not the place for it. People moved here for a reason. They wanted a rural type of lifestyle and they want to keep the rural character."

"I've seen fox, bobcat and gopher tortoise on the property," said Rob Agrinzonis, whose back yard abuts the Sydney Mine berm off Dover Road. "When I bought this lot, having no backyard neighbors was a selling point."

Nancy O'Connor, who has lived in an unair-conditioned house on 8 acres off Durant Road since 1967, calls McCain's argument in favor of development hogwash. "We've got guinea hens, goats and cows," she said. "It's rural, and that's the way we want to keep it."

She believes the proposed development will bring more traffic and worries that if the developers tear down the berms around the old mine, the area will flood.

The county Planning Commission, the agency charged with promoting and coordinating Hillsborough County's long-range plan for development, also opposes the project and will recommend rejection when the developer goes before the county commission.

Planning Commission member Melissa Zornitta disagreed with McCain's argument that some 19,000 acres in Hillsborough, mostly in the rural Balm and Wimauma areas, are designated RP-2, so his client should get the same.

Zornitta, who reviewed the Sydney Mine development plan, said her agency has a policy that prohibits any more village designations in rural areas.

"The comp plan says 'no more, that's enough.' There is a policy that says RP-2 should not be expanded outside the urban service area," Zornitta said. The urban service area is where the county supplies utilities such as water and sewer service.

The Sydney Mine property lies east of that urban service area.

"We looked at the unique character of this site as part of our overall analysis," Zornitta said. "We recognize it's old mine land and it has unique characteristics in line with the village designation. But, ultimately, when you weigh that with the compatibility of the surrounding area and the infrastructure it needs … it was not the right thing in the right place at the right time."

A nonprofit agency that promotes smart growth and sometimes intervenes to protect natural areas and fight urban sprawl agrees with the Planning Commission's take on the project.

Allowing a large-scale suburban development in an area considered rural by many neighbors would undermine the concept of an urban service area, said Charles Pattison, president of 1,000 Friends of Florida.

He said residents opposing the development should petition the county for a community plan that would outline how the area should look and could limit suburban encroachment.

The developer wouldn't be doing the county any favors by creating a transitional zone between suburban and rural, he said.

"We would want to know how much more capacity there is available inside the county's urban service area," Pattison said. "We always would prefer to see those areas developed first. If a big part of the property is rural, it would undermine the urban service concept and open the rural area to further development."

Residents are right to be concerned, said Pattison, whose Tallahassee-based group promotes "wise management of growth and change."

"The community that has already established itself there has a vested interest in maintaining the area," he said.

"We understand the concerns over big development," McCain said. "The beauty of property this size is that we can address many needs and desires."

Under the county's rules, the property could be developed with about 350 homes that use septic tanks and wells. There are restrictions around the area deemed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site because a plume of contaminated water lies under the property, so the use of wells could be limited.

If the designation is changed, the developers plan to bring in water and sewer lines and build town homes, apartments, single-family homes and a village center with retail and commercial space. A separate commercial area with room for a supermarket would be located along S.R. 60.

McCain said his clients also would commit to do reclamation work in Turkey Creek, to the east of the Sydney Mine property, removing sediment to improve the creek's flow.

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