School officials object to two conditional plats; planning commission postpones Rolling Rock and Seville to Sept. 8

Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commissioners postponed action on two conditional plats after the school district said it could not certify adequate capacity or a legally binding mitigation agreement. The two items — Rolling Rock (file 1498214) and Seville Phase 1 (file 1494521) — were continued to a date certain, Sept. 8.

The school district’s representative, James Lipsey, told the commission that the county’s land-development code requires a certificate of concurrency or an executed proportionate-share mitigation agreement before a county may issue approvals that would vest development. “We are almost there, but we are not there yet,” Lipsey said. He read ordinance text and code sections into the record, including a county provision that a certificate of concurrency for schools will be issued only upon the district’s written determination that capacity will be in place or under actual construction within three years or, alternatively, the execution of a legally binding proportionate-share mitigation agreement between the applicant, the school board and the county.

Developers told the commission they were prepared to sign mitigation agreements. Trent Stevenson of Laredwell Consulting, representing DRB on Rolling Rock, said, “We are ready to sign the agreement from our end. If it is the wish of the board to continue this until September, we're okay with that.”…