LECANTO, Fla. — Plans for a new housing development have been put on pause.

What You Need To Know

  • Citrus County Planning and Development Commission (PDC) have voted to pause construction of a new development called 'The Crossings'

  • 'The Crossings' is a proposed large-scale residential-commercial project located off County Road 491, offering housing for teachers and government workers
  • The 207-acre plot sits off of Lecanto Highway, but it’s a project that has received backlash from local homeowners
  • Commission members have said the plans for the project are too vague and want more answers before making any recommendation to county commissioners

Earlier this month, Citrus County Planning and Development Commission (PDC) voted in favor of temporarily stopping 'The Crossings' development because the developer said he needs some more time to answer questions about it.

‘The Crossings’ is a proposed large-scale residential-commercial project located off County Road 491. It would offer more housing for teachers and government workers. The 207-acre plot sits off of Lecanto Highway.

But it’s a project that is getting some backlash from neighbors.

“The development itself doesn’t sound horrible, but it’s going to be literally in my backyard and that’s my concern," said Cheryl Howard.

Howard lives on King B Street, which neighbors the site of the proposed development. She says she and her family moved to Citrus County for the comfort of wide-open space, an idea that might now be in jeopardy.

“We came from Collier and Lee County which has a huge population down there. It’s kind of overtaken by out-of-staters," said Howard. "We wanted to give our kids a chance to have a little bit more space and freedom.”

The 207-acre development would sit next to the Lecanto school complex north of the emergency operations center. It would provide about 400 single-family homes, 300 townhomes and 300 apartments — but butting up right next to Howard’s property.

“Our animals are 20 feet away from the property line and they’re going to be 10 feet on the other side and that’s going to interfere," Howard said. "We have a slope in our yard on the backside of the property that slopes, and I’m concerned about their water running off, their ran runoffs. We already have our own problems with washouts.”

Being on Howard’s property, you can see what she means. The family is secluded on their very own farm.

“I think it will really impact our peacefulness, our little slice of heaven. I call it that. We came here to build that for our children and I think that would really impact that,” says Howard.

Howard says she’s not against the idea of development, just this location in particular may not be an ideal fit.

“Animals, agriculture, schools, they’ll all be affected by it," she said. "It’s just, like I said, fine to have a development come to our area. We need some nice homes, but this is the worst spot to pick.”

Some commission members have said the plans for the project are too vague and want more answers before making any recommendation to county commissioners.

No date has been announced to revisit the issue.