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Council clears first reading to rezone 22.7 acres east of AdventHealth; applicant to record deed restrictions and preserve community garden
Summary
On first reading the Zephyrhills City Council approved rezoning roughly 22.72 acres adjacent to AdventHealth from multifamily/PUD to general commercial and received staff assurances that the hospital-maintained community garden will be retained and that deed restrictions limiting certain C-3 uses will be recorded at second reading.
The Zephyrhills City Council on Sept. 22 approved on first reading an ordinance to rezone about 22.72 acres of land immediately east of the AdventHealth hospital from City R-4 multifamily residential and PUD to City C-3 general commercial.
William McCaw of the planning and historic preservation department told council the parcels are largely vacant or used as an unpaved hospital parking area and a community garden. "If you haven't been out there, it is really gorgeous," McCaw said of the on-site community garden. He said the hospital and local volunteers maintain more than 50 small plots and that the applicant's conceptual site plan retains the garden area.
Planning staff recommended approval and noted two environmental and traffic issues that will require further work before any construction: an ecological report identified evidence of gopher tortoise burrows and a moderate chance for sandhill cranes on the site, and staff said there is a traffic "hot spot" at Gaule Boulevard and Daughtry Road that will require a final traffic study prior to construction.
McCaw said the applicant volunteered a package of deed restrictions that would prohibit a range of uses if the rezoning to C-3 is approved; he read a draft list during the meeting that included hotels, automobile repair and sales, gas stations, big-box retail, pawn shops, craft distilleries, bars and independent office/fleet operations. McCaw said the voluntary deed restrictions will be recorded simultaneously with the ordinance at the second reading.
Council members asked for a copy of the recorded restrictions and for staff to distribute a final version before the second reading; planning staff agreed to circulate the language. Public works Director Shane LeBlanc described ongoing coordination with the hospital on a safer pedestrian crossing and said the hospital has committed to an engineered plan that could include ADA-accessible flashing pedestrian signs (often called RRFBs or similar pedestrian-activated flashers). "We're working behind the scenes with them to make sure it's a safe intersection," LeBlanc said.
The first reading of Ordinance No. 1508-25 passed unanimously. Planning staff and the applicant will return with recorded deed-restriction language, final traffic and species-specific surveys, and engineered crossing plans as part of the project review prior to any building permits or construction.
