County and school board explore Backman Tract master plan for shelter, affordable and workforce housing

Charlotte County staff outlined options on Aug. 12 for the Backman Tract, a cluster of parcels between Veterans and Hillsborough that the county and Charlotte County Public Schools jointly own. Claire Dub, assistant county administrator, said the developable portion is the roughly 32‑acre middle parcel plus about 28 acres owned by the school board, with an 8‑acre triangular piece already serving utilities.

Dub said the county acquired the land in 1991, rezoned it as a Planned Development in 1992, and transferred parts of the acreage in later land swaps. County staff ran RFPs for large‑scale housing proposals; a 2020 bid from a developer called Palladium to build about 600 units at an average 80% area‑median income (AMI) failed because the developer "could not make the numbers work," Dub said, and the purchase agreement was terminated in 2024.

The county emphasized constraints and opportunities. The PD zoning currently allows government, school and residential uses but not commercial development without a rezoning decision by the Board of County Commissioners. Dub said utilities do not reach the developable interior parcel and estimated water and sewer extension would cost about $1,200,000. Recent appraisals placed the county portion at about $8.4 million with assumed density and roughly $6.5 million without density, she said.

County and school staff proposed two parallel approaches: design and build a federally funded special‑needs shelter and use master planning to position the rest of the site for smaller affordable and workforce housing projects. Dub said the shelter concept has received Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) support for design and is being sized at about 65,000 square feet to serve Charlotte County residents with special needs during storms. The shelter would be designed with generator capacity and specific functional requirements tied to the HMGP funding rules.

Carrie Walsh, the district's housing division senior manager (presenting for county housing), described differences between "affordable" and "workforce" housing: affordable housing targets households at about 80% AMI and below, while workforce housing covers roughly 80%–120% AMI. Walsh said tax credits, state and federal subsidies and programs such as Charlotte Home (a local incentive program) are usually necessary to make projects financially viable; she told board members many developers prefer projects in the range of roughly 70–100 units, not 600.

Board members pressed county staff on options: subdividing the site into smaller "pods" to match developer preferences, creating memoranda of understanding to give district or first‑responder staff preferential assignment, and pursuing 99‑year ground leases rather than donating land outright. Dub said she would bring the discussion to the county commission, recommend forming a work group to develop a master plan and pursue grants (including CDBG and state funding) for stormwater and site preparation, and return to both boards before any land‑use action.

Next steps: county staff will schedule the item with the Board of County Commissioners, pursue master‑planning grants and convene a work group; no land transfer or sale was authorized at the workshop.