A Charlotte County property owner is one step closer to finding out if he'll be allowed to turn his vacant land into a commercial shopping area. William and Laura Fischer own roughly 40 acres on Burnt Store Road .
For years, it's sat empty with the only grass swaying in the wind and wildflowers guarding the gate.
William Fischer said when his neighbors started talking about certain things lacking in their community, a light bulb went off.
"We thought there's this property over there, [it would be a] much better use of this property than a sitting blank or putting more houses there," Fischer explained.
So, he and his wife began the process. They needed to rezone the land to commercial general and have the future land use designation changed from Burnt Store Limited Development to commercial.
In Tuesday's county commission meeting , many people spoke during the public input portion supporting the idea. Only one person spoke out directly against the project. Here are a few examples of what people living along the Burnt Store Corridor had to say:
- "Unless there is some motion forward, we're never going to get anything."
- "The fact of the matter is, I think most of the residents in this area are retired. We are not spring chickens. We do not want to drive 8 to 10 miles to go get a half gallon of milk, nor do we necessarily only want to shop at Dollar General."
- "It would be very nice to have the option to see what businesses, what the market would bear, and what businesses that would decide to come into that area would bring to us."
- "There's no guarantees that we're going to get a Publix. But we need something. There's really no services to us except for the Dollar General and sometimes it's just not the best quality that you want."
- "We don't need another housing development. We need services."
- I can assure you I know the Fischer's. They're not going to put up a dirty bookstore. They're not going to put up a triple x video or strip club or anything like that. I know these people. I know these people. It ain't going to happen."
Listening to the county meeting, it seems there are two main issues commissioners are working through. One is the traffic that could be caused by increased commercial development. County staff are asking the Fischers, and their team, to come back with an updated traffic impact study.
"[Commissioners] found [it] did not sufficiently address the amount of traffic that would be generated on Burnt Store Road in the vicinity of Peppercorn Drive. The expert, the traffic expert, who did the study actually used the highest standard that is required by the Florida Department of Transportation, but staff still felt that that was not sufficient," Dr. Mary Ellen Kiss explained. Kiss is a member of the Burnt Store Corridor Coalition .
"There were conflicting opinions about the validity and the outcomes of that traffic study that was done. So, we need to work that out with them" planning and zoning official, Shaun Cullinan, said.
The other problem is the commercial general zoning request. C.G. has a long list of potential uses with little to no oversight from the local government. Planned development, on the other hand, would allow for officials to have more of a say in what kinds of businesses are brought to the property.
"Part of our job is to help protect the public and make sure if this is what they're looking to get, that we can make sure that those are the types of things that'll get," Cullinan explained. "P.D.'s, we can work with the applicants to restrict them to the uses that they're truly looking to put in there, but not allow some of those things that neighbors and other and residents may not like."
Fischer explained what he'd like to see, including urgent care, business office space, a local market and a coffee shop.
"There seems to be this apprehension by the commissioners, which understandably, maybe they've been burned in the past where someone said, 'I'd love to put x, y, z here', and then they flip it or they put something totally different there," Fischer commented. "Just logistically, I think that would be very odd for someone to promise something to everyone and then basically go back on their word and still live in the same neighborhood."
Overall, the Fischers ended up one step closer to turning their land into commercial space.
"The board put a condition on the future land use map amendment. The applicant needs to make some changes to their traffic study and come back. So, they continue the commercial general rezoning to a time uncertain. So, we'll be re-advertising that whenever we work through those issues and get it back on to the the commission's agenda," Cullinan said.