Brooksville residents packed a July community meeting after learning that roughly 600 acres of the Sand Hill Scout Reservation could be rezoned and ultimately sold off. What was billed as an information session quickly morphed into a heated neighborhood showdown over open space, traffic, and the future of a camp that many locals see as part of the county’s DNA. By the end of the week, the proposal was in the county’s planning pipeline and on local TV.
What Planners Put On The Table
At a July 14 public information workshop, Coastal Engineering Associates outlined a proposal to rezone about 604 acres of the reservation from recreational use to a planned development district. The change would allow the landowner to sell pieces of the property to public agencies or private developers.
As reported by the Hernando Sun, Coastal senior vice president Donald Lacey told the crowd that any sale proceeds would be used to fund scouting programs and improvements at the camp. The site plan shown at the meeting carved out a large northern section as the area that could be marketed, while a smaller green section would remain dedicated to scout activities.
Neighbors Push Back
Many residents said they felt blindsided. Earlier notices, they argued, made it sound like only a much smaller portion of Sand Hill was in play, and several people said they had always assumed the donated camp property would never hit the market at all.
FOX 13 Tampa Bay covered the workshop and highlighted residents’ worries about more traffic on rural roads, new development pressure, and losing a major swath of local green space. Planners at the meeting pointed out that a court judgment confirmed the council’s ownership of the property in fee simple, but that legal clarification did little to cool neighborhood anxiety in the room.
How It Landed At The BOCC
The Sand Hill property has been a recurring flashpoint for years, and parts of it have already gone through the county’s zoning process. Hernando County records show that in September 2025 the Board of County Commissioners approved a 52-acre Public Service Facility Overlay District so Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative could move operations onto a portion of the camp, a step documented on the county’s Legistar site.
That zoning precedent, along with filings that have been on the county docket since 2024, helps explain why the new 600-acre proposal must now march through Planning & Zoning and the Board of County Commissioners before anything is finalized.
Legal And Funding Questions Linger
Questions about title, donor intent, and camp funding have followed the issue since the council first floated the idea of marketing hundreds of acres in 2024. The Tampa Bay Times reported that year that the council was considering selling roughly 500 acres of Sand Hill.
Local reporting, including coverage in the Hernando Sun, has noted a 2023 quiet-title action and a 2024 judgment affirming the council’s fee-simple ownership of the property. Opponents counter that cleaning up the legal paperwork does not erase concerns about road capacity, school impacts, and habitat loss if large chunks of the camp eventually turn into homes or other development.
What Happens Next
Rezoning petitions in Hernando County go first to county planning staff, then to the Planning & Zoning Commission, and finally to the Board of County Commissioners for a vote. County materials spell out the hearing calendar and what applicants have to submit along the way.
The county’s Planning & Zoning webpage posts agendas, staff reports, and contact information, giving residents a place to dig into application packets and analyses before the hearings. Officials at the workshop said the written comment sheets collected that night will be forwarded to county staff as part of the formal review.
Neighbors Gear Up For A Fight
Residents at the meeting were invited to submit comments for the record, and several said they fully intend to show up at future public hearings and contact county commissioners directly. FOX 13 Tampa Bay footage showed neighbors promising to watch every new notice and pack the room when the case returns in front of county boards.
Supporters of the rezoning argue that selling land that is not heavily used could pay for upgrades to the core scout areas that remain. Even so, the politics of signing away hundreds of acres of a long-standing camp are far from settled.
From here, the Sand Hill fight will unfold through public files, staff reviews, and a series of formal hearings. Whether the plan is scaled back, revised, or rejected will be decided inside that county process. For documents, master plans, and hearing dates, residents can check the county’s Legistar docket and the Planning Department’s online materials.
