Hundreds of Lithia residents dressed in red filled a Hillsborough County meeting room to oppose a 280-home development planned near Dorman Road and Lithia Pinecrest Road, pressing commissioners with questions as the controversial project keeps moving forward despite the pushback. The proposal from Tampa-based developer Homes by WestBay would bring the single-family community to roughly 190 acres in a stretch of rural Lithia that has long been dominated by agriculture.
The scene was captured by FOX 13 Tampa Bay, whose reporter Blake Devine covered the dispute as nearby neighbors voiced opposition to the plan and county commissioners fielded a barrage of questions about its scope. According to the station's earlier reporting, Homes by WestBay submitted its application in June for the project, which sits north of Dorman Road and west of Browning Road in what has historically been farmland.
What the Land-Use Change Would Actually Allow
At the heart of the fight are land-use amendments known as HC/CPA 26-05 and 26-06, which would shift the 190-acre property out of the county's Rural Service Area and into its Urban Service Area, according to Citizen Portal. That reclassification would raise allowable density from one home per five acres, or about 37 total homes, up to two homes per acre — an eightfold jump that Tampa Bay Business News notes has become the central point of contention in the case.
The change has also exposed a rift inside county government itself. In April, the Hillsborough County Planning Commission voted to find the Urban Service Area expansion inconsistent with the county's Comprehensive Plan, yet county Development Services staff later recommended approval with conditions, per Tampa Bay Business News. That disagreement between the county's own advisory board and its administrative staff has become a talking point for residents who argue the project runs counter to long-term growth guidelines.
Organized Opposition With a Track Record
The resistance is being organized by Preserve Rural Lithia, a grassroots group that packed hearings in red shirts and has noted it previously helped stop two other local development proposals, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay's earlier coverage. The group's objections center on cumulative strain on infrastructure, particularly high school overcrowding and traffic congestion along Lithia Pinecrest Road, as reported by Tampa Bay Business News.
Those concerns have some backing in county data. A Hillsborough County School District review completed in June found that while nearby elementary and middle schools have adequate capacity, the area high school does not have sufficient capacity under current conditions, per Tampa Bay Business News. Separately, county transportation staff estimated the 280-home community would generate roughly 2,500 additional daily vehicle trips and would require roadway changes, including a new entrance roundabout on Lithia Pinecrest Road.
Road and Sewer Upgrades Still Years Away
Some of the infrastructure residents worry about is technically already funded, just not built yet. The Florida Department of Transportation programmed $100 million in May toward widening and safety overhauls along 7.5 miles of Lithia Pinecrest Road, part of a corridor project Hoodline previously reported is expected to cost more than $300 million in total. The county also broke ground in April on a $1.2 billion “One Water Campus” wastewater project in Lithia, a regional plant designed to treat 56 million gallons per day and support growth through 2050, as Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the sewer groundbreaking.
Those projects are years from completion, and residents have argued the timeline mismatch leaves existing roads and schools to absorb new development long before the upgrades arrive. The Dorman Road fight also isn't Lithia's first this year: in February, commissioners voted 7-0 to advance a separate project allowing more than 100 homes on active strawberry fields despite neighborhood objections, a vote Hoodline covered in its report on the strawberry-fields plan.
Countdown to a Final Vote
The Board of County Commissioners voted 5-2 on June 11 to transmit the Dorman Road amendments for state review, teeing up a final adoption vote scheduled for Thursday, August 13, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay's reporting on the transmittal vote. That timeline means the outcome residents have been organizing against for months could be decided within days of their latest show of force at the podium.
Whether Thursday's vote follows the Planning Commission's inconsistency finding or the Development Services staff's recommendation for conditional approval remains to be seen. For now, the dispute stands as another test of how much say rural communities in eastern Hillsborough County retain over their own zoning as the region's growth pressures continue to build.
