Hernando delays Bourassa Boulevard townhome vote amid growth concerns

The south side of Bourassa Boulevard between Blanket Street and the power line easement won a temporary reprieve as Hernando County commissioners delayed a vote on 72 townhomes, but the fight over how fast the Weeki Wachee area should grow is far from over. The proposal covers 9 acres, and even with the postponement, residents who packed the meeting faced the reality that the project could return once road and access issues are settled.

The board’s delay left the development in play after the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission had already trimmed the plan from 110 units to 72 in a 3-2 vote. Neighbors argued the county should have rejected the project outright, saying the corridor was losing its small-town character and that mature trees mattered more than development money. Commissioners Brian Hawkins and Steve Champion countered that personal preferences could not override private property rights, underscoring the county’s recurring tension between neighborhood preservation and land-use pressure.

That tension is especially sharp in the corridor west of US 19 and east of the Suncoast Parkway, where the planned 872-acre Lake Hideaway lagoon community is set south of Hexam Road, north of Bourassa Boulevard, west of Sunshine Grove Road and east of US 19. The Bourassa site sits close to that wider development wave, making road design, traffic flow and access points central to whether the townhomes move ahead.

The board also rejected a county-funded survey on whether Mud Creek and Mud River residents wanted a manatee protection zone. Commissioners called the idea unnecessary and too expensive, saying local boaters already behaved cautiously and that signage could be a cheaper response. Champion said there was no real issue to study, and the board unanimously turned the proposal down. The vote followed an earlier 2025 split over a year-round Mud River manatee protection zone, and Bay News 9 reported that Hernando County recorded nine manatee deaths in 2024, including two caused by watercraft.

Not every land-use request met resistance. Commissioners unanimously approved a rezoning for an upscale Italian restaurant on Cortez Boulevard, where the site includes a closed Salvation Army thrift store at 15464 Cortez Boulevard in Brooksville. The approval came with a condition for an additional entrance from Arizona Street, a traffic fix that fits a corridor already under pressure from Florida Department of Transportation work on SR 50/Cortez Boulevard, including widening from west of Buck Hope Road to west of Jefferson Street. Together, the three decisions showed a county trying to manage growth, environmental concern and commercial reuse parcel by parcel, road by road.