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Board denies Polk Town Road rezoning amid wetland and downstream concerns
Summary
The commission denied Thomas Cornelison’s request to rezone a Polk Town Road parcel from AG2 to AG1 after neighbors and commissioners raised environmental concerns about springs, wetlands and downstream effects.
The Santa Rosa County Board denied a request Thursday to rezone a 28-acre parcel on Polk Town Road from AG2 to AG1. Thomas Cornelison (speaker 6) told the board his intent was to make smaller, more affordable lots on what he called a parcel that had been disturbed by past dirt-pit activity.
Neighbors (speakers 18–22) told the board the site contains a natural spring and a creek that flows downstream, and they warned that adding houses could harm water quality for downstream livestock and wetlands. Speakers said the front of the parcel had been scraped for dirt in prior operations, limiting farming potential, but they argued that environmental constraints made the parcel a poor site for multiple houses.
Cornelison said he did not plan large-scale clearing and described plans for roughly seven-acre average lot sizes. Commissioners reviewed zoning-board recommendations (a 4–3 denial) and, after discussion, moved to follow the zoning-board’s recommendation. The Chair (speaker 4) announced that the motion to deny passed and the request was denied.
The board did not adopt any mitigation conditions; it denied the rezoning application as presented.
