LUTZ — A proposal to build a K-8 private school for up to 1,000 students on 24 acres of semirural land has drawn sharp opposition from residents, who are urging Hillsborough County to reject it.
The county is weighing whether Apex Academy can be built at the southeast corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Holly Lane. A hearing officer has 15 days from the June 15 land use hearing to rule on the special-use request.
About 30 residents in red shirts turned out to oppose the project, which would include a freestanding gymnasium, a garden center, a private wastewater treatment plant, a wellhead and water system, a fire tank, play areas and sports fields.
Their shirts and the dozen or so signs along Holly Lane carried the same message: “Keep Lutz Semi-Rural.” The road snakes around Lake Booker before connecting to Lutz Lake Fern Road.
The Naidip Foundation, a nonprofit that says it focuses on “Education, Youth Empowerment, and Environmental Conservation,” is seeking the county’s approval to build the school. Mark Bentley, who represented the foundation, said it would “provide an educational opportunity unique to Hillsborough County.”
No residents spoke in favor. Among the opponents was Micha Seal, CEO of the five Watermelon Swim schools, including one at 19509 Dale Mabry Highway. The proposed academy would sit between the swim school to the south and Christ Cumberland Presbyterian Church to the north.
Residents warned the school would worsen traffic on Dale Mabry Highway, which they said is already congested, especially during the school year. Travel times to nearby businesses, hospitals and other schools are already long, they said, and would only grow.
Holly Lane, currently a small, rural residential road, would require significant improvements under the proposal, according to the project documents. They also call for a 20-foot landscape buffer along the eastern property line, next to Holly Lane.
Another resident pointed to the Lutz Community Plan, created by the community in 2011 and adopted by the county. Lutz is unincorporated but was founded in 1913. The plan designates the area west of U.S. 41 and east of Dale Mabry Highway as rural, with single-family homes on half-acre or larger lots, and the resident argued the academy does not fit. The plan, in section 3.1.3, defines compatibility as “the characteristics of different uses, activities, or designs which allow them to be located near or adjacent to each other in harmony.”