BROOKSVILLE — Brookridge residents who want a wall between their homes and the Alliance commercial development next door will have to settle for a covered chain-link fence, county commissioners said April 28.
Commissioners told a packed chamber they would direct staff to monitor the developer’s work and pursue legal remedies if obligations aren’t met, but said the county won’t pay to build the wall residents have demanded for six weeks.
“This is not going to be popular, but I don’t think a wall’s going to be built unless you guys build it,” Commission Chairman Jerry Campbell said. “I’m just trying to be real with you.”
Commissioners spent nearly two hours on citizen comments and responses, with most speakers from the Brookridge 55-and-older community echoing arguments from the previous meeting. They want a solid, opaque barrier between their backyards and the reverse frontage road where construction continues on a hotel, a gym and other commercial buildings.
Gladys Moore of the Brookridge board of directors said an Aug. 31, 2022, meeting at the Brookridge clubhouse left residents expecting a 6- to 8-foot opaque fence in the buffer and stores no taller than what they had been shown in renderings. Lot 10 has since been sold for a three-story hotel that will look down into Brookridge yards, she said.
“A hotel is certainly a larger structure than we were led to believe would be built in the Alliance,” Moore said. “The hotel alone should be grounds for requiring a tall privacy fence.”
Promises of additional landscaping ring hollow during a water shortage, Moore said, with new plantings already dying.
Resident Jeanette Fatiga said commissioners are supposed to look out for the people who elected them.
“I’d appreciate it if you would help us in any way possible,” she said.
Resident Rose Knight asked why the developer is allowed to keep revising plans and adding buildings while residents see no enforcement. Others cited concerns about noise, lights, lost privacy and vagrants along the fence line. One speaker said homeless people would shower at the gym once it opens and might try to enter Brookridge. Another drew applause by suggesting the county pull money from its budget to build the wall.
Board response
Commissioner Brian Hawkins, who wasn’t on the board when Alliance was approved in 2022, said he has walked the entire Brookridge perimeter and understands residents’ frustration. But a county-funded wall would mean every county taxpayer covers it, he said.
“The solution is where the problem exists,” Hawkins said. “Working together — not only with this board but with the community — we can find a solution with the builder.”
County Administrator Jeff Rogers said the developer has agreed to install a mesh covering on the chain-link fence in the landscape buffer to increase opacity, with work expected to begin within two weeks. The county also has worked with the company on Dumpster pickup times and silt fence issues at the construction site, he said.
A county-funded wall is not an approvable expense, Rogers said, and would require a municipal services benefit unit, or MSBU, to assess Brookridge property owners.
Commissioner Steve Champion said the county holds a bond on the project and won’t release it until the work is done correctly. He and Commissioner John Allocco said Brookridge’s single entrance is itself a problem for businesses and emergency vehicles, and a secondary entrance should be considered. The commercial buildings, once up, may serve as a buffer themselves, Champion said.
Commissioner Ryan Amsler pressed for legal review, saying he doubts the developer will meet the 80% opacity standard for the landscape buffer in the next several years.
“If we’re going to go through years of the residents coming to us, pleading with us to fix this, it seems really smart to direct legal to come up with a solution,” Amsler said. “I don’t have a dog in the fight except for the residents’ concerns.”
Senior Planner Michelle Miller said the only approved deviation on record is a September 2023 amendment that reduced the buffer from 35 feet to 20 feet. No deviations were requested with the original 2022 approval.
Campbell said the bond will be held until the landscape buffer reaches 80% opacity. He said Development Director Omar DePablo will work with the developer and the Brookridge board, which he expects will resolve most of the issues.
In other action
Commissioners approved resolutions proclaiming May 3-9 as National Correctional Officers and Employees Week; May 6-12 as National Nurses Week; and May 3-10 as National Travel and Tourism Week.