VALRICO, Fla. — At Mulrennan Middle School in Valrico people pushed for answers—when it comes to what will be developed on land in Dover.
Back in 2010, Hillsborough County designated land—bordered by State Road 60, S. Dover Road, Turkey Creek Road, and Durant Road—as an "Energy Industrial Park" of EIP.
The goal was to turn a former phosphate mine and waste dumping ground into a site for renewable energy.
According to the current EIP's rules, landowners would have to build alternative energy facilities first, and then they would be allowed to build commercial, retail, and industrial spaces.
In 2023, the group that owns the eastern half of this land put in a request with the county to change those rules to allow them to build some of those other spaces before building an alternative energy facility.
It's a change that many who live in the area are worried about.
"There's just a general level of concern about construction. What's going to happen with the property [and] how it effects the aquifer? How it effects Dover road, [SR] 60, Turkey Creek [road], Durant [road]," said Bruce Ponti.
And others told ABC Action News that they fear this rule change will open the door to more changes.
"They're afraid that if they start that by changing that phasing that someone else could come along six months or a year later and change it again take more away," said Jane Martin.
We spoke to one of the landowners, Dennis Carlton Sr., who said the want to rule change so they can work with developers who may want to build different types of facilities first.
"There's an energy component to this, and the industrial side of it would give us an opportunity [and] we would demand that contractually that anybody that builds out there would have to put solar panels on the top of warehouses," he said.
He added that, as of now, they're not sure what would be built first—but went on to say that they are only planning to build on a small section of the land for the time being.
"We don't have any contracts; we don't have anything specific planned right now. The market will dictate what happens with that," said Carlton Sr.
The application for this rule change will go before the Hillsborough County Planning Commission in June and later before the county commission for a final decision.
