The 105+ acre Taylor Morrison community comes one step closer to breaking ground.
City commissioners took up two requests at this week’s commission meeting, both regarding the Futch Planned Development District. The first request was a comprehensive plan map amendment request. The second was a request to rezone the property from Hillsborough County Agricultural Single Family-1 (allowing one housing unit per acre) to Plant City Residential-4 (four houses per acre). Although the Residential-4 future land use designation is being requested, the developer, Taylor Morrison of Florida, plans to build 200 single-family detached units or a gross density of 1.9 units per acre.
The site is a 105+ acre parcel located south of Midway Rd., east of Charlie Taylor Rd., north of Swindle Rd. and west of Polk County and in close proximity to Varrea, a mixed-use development planned in northeast Plant City.
The developer’s proposal includes allowing up to forty, 50-foot wide single-family detached lots (or 20% of the built lots, whichever is less), allowing five-foot side yard building setbacks for lots less than 60-feet wide and allowing for garages to protrude more than three-feet forward from the main structure where garages that protrude more than five feet shall be limited to 20% of the built lots. Additional plans for the development include plenty of open space, three different park facilities for residents and clustered wetlands and stormwater ponds.
Speakers who made the case in favor of the rezoning included Robyn Baker, senior planner in the Plant City Zoning Department, Mark Hudson, executive planner at Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission and Alexis Crespo, AICP of RVi Planning.
“We want to work within the bounds of Plant City’s northeast master plan and maintaining the character of Plant City,” said Crespo. “We understand that Plant City doesn’t want to look like the rest of Hillsborough County.”
To battle monotony, Taylor Morrison will offer 11 home plans in the community, each with several different elevation options, some of which incorporate a craftsman style facade.
“We believe this will be a good partnership between the developer and the city,” she said.
Not everyone attending the meeting supported the rezoning.
Longtime Plant City resident Corky Findley expressed her concerns about possible traffic congestion caused by the increase in population. “I object to all of this,” she said. “We’re like caged animals in a zoo with nowhere to go.”
City commissioner Bill Dodson heard enough to vote yes to the proposals. “It’s not exactly what I would’ve preferred as far as lot sizes for the entire community but they did agree to place larger 75’ lots abutting the property’s larger lot neighbors which is helpful to those who live on adjacent parcels of land,” he said. “This is a significant improvement from where we started.”
In addition to these measures to accomadate residents’ concerns, the applicant also agreed to preserving a large number of trees and clusters of trees throughout the site, per Plant City’s zoning code. Plant City city manager Bill McDaniel said the property owners walked the parcel with city planners, who helped determine which trees would remain on the property to better adhere to the city’s tree preservation ordinances. Hillsborough County’s population is growing rapidly. Plant City officials are taking a measured approach to growth.
“I think it’s easy to drive around and look at the accelerated growth in our county,” said McDaniel. “We’re not anti-development, you need growth to thrive as a community but as a commission we’re seekers of quality over quantity.”
