Big-Box Opponents 'Slightly Encouraged' Vow To Stay Focused

Organizers with the citizens' group opposed to a proposed big-box retail and apartment complex development off Bloomingdale Avenue reacted positively — but cautiously — to a June 12 vote by the Hillsborough County Commissioners to move to delay the project 180 days.

• See Commission Seeks Way to Hold Big-Box Developer 'To the Fire'

"If it happens, it gives us another 180 days to continue to organize and get bigger and stronger," said Dan Grant, with Coordinated Active Neighborhoods Development Organization (CAN-DO), also known as, "Say No to Bloomingdale Big Box."

"Obvisouly, anything that slows down and stops the project we are suppportive of," Grant added. "We feel slightly encouraged."

Organizer Jerme Monette agreed.

"We're not against Walmart and we're not against development in general," he said. "We're opposed to this particular development on this particular piece of land. We're hopeful [Hillsborough Count Commissioner] Al [Higginbotham] has heard us and can get use somethig a little more safe and sane in our area."

Apparently, that message has not only been heard, but also internalized.

"At the community meeting, the residents used terms like 'bad faith' and 'broken promises,' " Higginbotham said, in reference to his June 11 meeeting with residents at the Brandon Community Center on Sadie Street, where project opponents filled a multipurpose room with a capacity to seat 450 people. "I got an earful yesterday evening from citizens who said this was a significant change. I felt the heat, and it was not pleasant."

• See Packed Big-Box Meeting Puts Commissioner in the Hot Seat
• See
• See Higginbotham Vows To Hear All Big-Box Questions Tonight (June 10)

The "change" Higginbotham referenced to commissioners involved the slide he presented the night before to residents. He contended that it highlighted the "Winthrop-like" development Hillsborough County commissioners had been sold on earlier on in the zoning approval stage, which is a far cry from the preliminary plans that were on display for review at the Brandon Community Center. Winthrop in Riverview, west on Bloomingdale Avenue, is a pedestrian-friendly neotraditional community, sold on its merits as a place within which you can live, work and play.

Higginbotham moved to have the commission invoke a rarely used zoning option — the Doctrine of Zoning in Progress — to halt approval of the development for 180 days. The matter passed 6-1, with Commissioner Victor Crist in opposition.

At issue are some 44 acres off Bloomingdale Avenue, for which the preliminary site plan calls for a 158,800- square-foot shopping center building — "including building and garden center" — on roughly 24 acres. The preliminary site plan, on display at the June 11 community meeting, notes also that another 23,000 square feet would be set aside for three restaurants, a bank and another retail building. Also designated was an apartment complex designed for 261 units.

"Ideally, it would be to turn the property into a park," Grant said. "County commissioners two weeks ago approved a sports complex for FishHawk. That's terrific, FishHawk gets a sports complex and Bloomingdale gets a big box."

Grant said his group wants to hear back from Higginbotham about the 8 a.m. June 11 meeting the commissioner told residents the night before that he had scheduled with the developer's representative.

Earlier in the day June 10, in a pre-meeting interview with Patch, Higginbotham said he had invited the developer, Redstone Properties, and its attorney, David Singer, to the June 10 community meeting, but that "Mr. Singer said it would not be advantageous to his client to attend tonight."

"Whatever type of development goes in there, we would like to sit down and talk to the developer and ask, 'What are the alternatives?' " Grant said. "On that land, what is the best fit and what is the best fit for the community."

Grant and Monette said they were heartened by the commissioners' June 12 action, and even more so considering that weeks earlier those same commisioners effectively said their hands were tied because of legal considerations, and that the residents' best move would be to meet with the developer's representative themselves.

• See Commissioners Say Plans for Bloomingdale Big Box Out of Their Hands

• See Residents React to Commissioners' Bloomingdale Big-Box Stance

But while heartened, CAN-DO wants to make three things clear, Grant said.

"We're standing by our request to meet with the owner and the developer, Redstone Properties," he said. "We'll continue to have an attorney do research on grounds for a [citizens'] lawsuit. And we'll have a steering committee meeting later this week to map out our next steps."

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• Commission Seeks Way to Hold Big-Box Developer 'To the Fire'

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• Higginbotham Vows To Hear All Big-Box Questions Tonight (June 10)

• Bloomingdale Big-Box Meeting at Brandon Recreation Center Tonight (June 10)

• Higginbotham to Bloomingdale: Let's Meet on Big Box

• Residents React to Commissioners' Bloomingdale Big-Box Stance

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