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RV Center Near I-4 Intends To Expand

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

DOVER - The proposed expansion of a recreational vehicle super center near Interstate 4 will transform an old strawberry farm and several rural homesteads into a storage and office area for the growing RV business.

Several landowners have applied to the county to have their properties designated as a Planned Development, allowing expansion of the Longview RV Super Center just north of I-4 off McIntosh Road.

All the properties are south of Pemberton Creek, the dividing line between an up-and-coming commercial corridor near the interstate and rural homes farther north.

The Hillsborough County planning staff asked the landowners to pool their rezoning requests under one Planned Development umbrella so the project could be reviewed all at once instead of piecemeal.
Land planner Linda Pearson of Diaz Pearson & Associates, which is representing the landowners, said she has heard no complaints from neighbors.

The 31-plus acres off Gore Road and east of McIntosh would be transformed into space for temporary RV storage and sales, and a training building for salespeople, Pearson said.

One home would be built on the property, where the RV center owners would live during the winter months.
County Planner Susan Mariner said the county Environmental Protection Commission initially was concerned that the Planned Development proposal did not address protection of wetlands along the edge of Pemberton Creek. But a new plan submitted last week addressed that by leaving a large buffer of trees on either side of the creek.

Pearson said she held a neighborhood meeting to explain to residents the plans.

'It was all very positive,' she said. 'We heard no objections to the rezoning.'

Rural residents came out in force in 2005 to fight plans for a feed store just north of where Baker and Pemberton creeks merge. They worried about encroachment into their rural neighborhood, saying that even though areas near the interstate were quickly turning commercial, they wanted to keep such development and traffic it would generate at arm's length.

Although McIntosh is considered a failed road near the interstate, meaning it carries more cars than it can reasonably handle, Pearson said the changes being proposed would not add so much traffic that the landowners would have to make road improvements.

The rezoning request is scheduled to go before the county's zoning hearing master at 6 p.m. Oct. 1.

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

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