We’ve been following the Lutz working committee that’s contemplating future development of the Dale Mabry corridor from Van Dyke Road north to the county line and the latest news is downright discouraging, though unsurprising.
Last April Hillsborough County planners recruited a committee of 30 people from the ranks of local property owners, residents and developers, and gave it 10 months to revise rules for development.
The group has produced a preliminary proposal, which sounds like a stinker. This thing could easily be a curtain raiser for extending the mess that is Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa all the way through Lutz to the Pasco County line. This entire exercise is beginning to look like a kill-the-Lutz-Community-Plan-party for the short-term benefit of whom? Who else? Certain property owners and developers, some of whom just happen to serve on the committee.
One of them is Norm Tyson. The fish wrapper characterized him as particularly eager to maxicram his property with commerical density. This bit of disingenuous claptrap was wrapped around his name.
“Dale Mabry in Lutz is no longer a sleepy community. Where are your farms, your orange groves? Where is this rural community? It’s not here, and if you think it’s here you’re asleep.”
We decided to get out of bed, grab a camera and head to Lutz. Here’s what we found.
If that ain’t rural, we’ve never seen rural.
We naively suggested that the committee try to balance competing interests by applying principles of New Urbanism to the overlay district so that property owners and developers might prosper without trashing the area for residents who still enjoy its rural qualities.
Forget that. This committee seems determined to develop in the usual way. So much so that Denise Layne’s head almost exploded. Layne, who is the executive director of the Coalition 4 Responsible Growth, suggested bagging the whole committee thing and letting property owners go case-by-case to try and get their development ideas approved.
Amen, sister