Can we please not ruin this place?

You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little aggravated today.

I spent several hours Monday researching the Cardinal Farms proposal, and the more I read, the more aggravated I became.

I’m not much for hyperbole, so let’s just be blunt:

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This is the worst zoning plan I have ever seen.

Got it? The worst.

Take 143 acres in the middle of nowhere and build 600 homes. That is just brilliant.

Yet, that’s the proposal facing Citrus County commissioners on Tuesday. And, supposedly, this was THEIR idea.

Let me break it down.

When Citrus Countians noticed the Suncoast Parkway plans included an interchange at Cardinal, everyone assumed it was a mistake. Don’t you mean Grover Cleveland Boulevard? That road leads into Homosassa. Cardinal, while bookend by U.S. 19 and C.R. 491, leads nowhere.

Yet, that’s what the state did. Now we have an interchange at Cardinal.

Well, that leads to an interchange management area or IMA. The basic idea is to avoid what many have referred to as the Wildwood effect — hodge-podge stores and gas stations at the exit.

For reasons never fully explained, the county decided to include these 143 acres on the Cardinal IMA at the developer’s request.

Before we go further, if you haven’t been down Cardinal, please do so. Take a drive from one end to the other and let me know if a housing development near the parkway makes sense.

The property owner is Hamid Ashtari, a Tampa engineer. Ashtari was first going to buy the Betz Farm property for $6.6 million. Despite numerous extensions, he never came close to finalizing the deal.

His Cardinal Farms property has gone through multiple plan revisions. First it was to be a lagoon development, then a smaller lagoon development, then a mixed-use development with shops, restaurants, homes, and a hotel. Now, it’s just homes and townhomes.

In the middle of nowhere.

See, I can’t get that out of my head. Why in the world are we encouraging housing development in rural Citrus County? A toll-road interchange? Gotta be a better reason than that. I haven't heard of it.

It’s pure and simple urban sprawl. Sticking residential developments miles from the nearest basic service is counter to every single planning directive of the last 40 years. The developer says the homes will attract those services. Um ... That's urban sprawl.

All that development is going to require services, such as a wider Cardinal. Suddenly, overnight, we've turned rural Citrus into an urban center for no reason other than for some folks to make money.

Worse, though, is the nonsense I keep hearing that this will attract to Citrus County teachers, nurses, and other professionals who need affordable homes.

“The project would offer lower price-point housing options for renters, first-time buyers, and those with fixed incomes,” the company says.

That’s not a promise. It’s a projection. We have no say how these homes will be priced or who will buy them (or even if they’ll be Citrus residents). Citrus County does not regulate that.  Cardinal Farms is a normal housing development in the wrong location.

(I mention that specific point because I've heard a commissioner or two suggest support for Cardinal Farms expressly because it's perfect for Citrus County's work force. I would caution against such lofty expectations. If it's not in writing, it's a wish. Simple as that.)

Also getting my attention:

“Locating higher density residential development in the Cardinal IMA area allows preservation of the more delicate coastal areas. Cardinal Farms…is uniquely poised to provide this mix of residential product types with an immediate base of diners, shoppers, and employees to support the potential nearby economic growth desired.”

First off, I always enjoy it when developers threaten us with the worst-case scenario. Yeah, we could build 600 homes in the middle of farmland or force the building of 600 homes in “delicate coastal areas.” Got it.

And there it is: “...support the potential nearby economic growth desired.” The purpose of this development is to support more development. On Cardinal. A two-lane rural local highway. Again...why? How does Cardinals Farms, and the likely development to follow, make us a better Citrus County?

No one outside the developer is pushing for this. The chamber of commerce is silent, which suggests they’re not crazy about urban sprawl either.

Commissioners included the Cardinal Farms property in the parkway interchange zone when it had no business being there. Now they’ve got to find a way out without crippling our community with haphazard development.

(I'm not suggesting the plan is a lost cause. I'm sure smart minds can figure something out.)

At some point, we gotta say no to big development. That point is 600 clustered homes on Cardinal. Thumbs down all the way.

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