Changes to Hickory Hill recommended.

BROOKSVILLE — In their much-awaited staff report released Thursday, county planners revised earlier recommendations on how much land the developer of the proposed Hickory Hill subdivision must set aside for open space areas, buffers and wildlife preservation.
Planners also set new parameters on how much land Sierra Properties LLC should set aside for transitioning the area from urban to rural.
Compliance with the new modifications would make the plan comply with the county’s comprehensive plan, according to the report.
Planners spent the past month meeting with Sierra representatives to tweak the original plan, which the county found not to be in compliance. In reality, the entire planning process has been going on since last summer when the county received its first set of plans for the 1,750-home community with three golf courses in Spring Lake.
“It was a long, involved process with numerous meetings,” said Paul Wieczorek, a county concurrency coordinator. “It’s a complex issue and we feel it’s been given its due in terms of research and time.”
Even with staff recommendation, the Hickory Hill project is expected to take several months.
Planning and zoning commissioners will review this latest plan at their Monday meeting and decide whether to approve it and send it off with their blessing to county commissioners, the ultimate zoning authority.
County commissioners will then decide whether to transmit the proposed plan to the state Department of Community Affairs for another review and recommendations. Then, it’s back to county commissioners for another look and final approval.
The revised staff report calls for the developer to provide a 1,320-foot transition zone between the east urbanized side of the project (near Interstate 75 and State Road 50) and the rural west side, in Spring Lake.
Inside that zone, which more firmly delineates the change from urban to rural, there is to be a 200-foot buffer along the west and south. Planners are also asking for a 500-foot transition zone with a 100-foot buffer to the north of the property.
Planners recommend 60 percent open space (with no development) within the western transition zone, with the entire project maintaining 40 percent open space.
Sierra will also be required to specially design a wildlife habitat migration plan, approved by the county and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
That wildlife plan will preserve high quality habitat land and connect with wildlife corridors on the site.
Scores of people who live near the proposed development have criticized the project, saying it will destroy their rural way of life and lead to congested roads not built to handle the traffic.
Initial reaction from the developer’s representative was positive.
“It looks like the things we’ve been talking about with the staff, we’ve been able to accommodate them to a large extent,” said Jacob Varn, an attorney representing Sierra.
For example, county planners are requiring that lots in the more rural parts of the development be a minimum 2 acres.
That fits in well with current plans, Varn said.
Varn also said he intends to work with the county to preserve habitat areas.
“In my opinion, we’re going to make it better than what exists there today,” he said. “You’ve got so much of the area converted to pasture that what I hope we end up with — with buffers and new vegetation — we’ll end up with a site that is in better condition than it is today,” he said.
Varn said the developer has gone “above and beyond” current development requirements.
“We’ve set new standards in the county,” he said.
But Varn agreed that the process leading toward final approval is many months away.
“This is a long way from being over,” he said. “In many ways, it’s the first step of many to come.”