The corner of County Road 540-A and Harrell’s Nursery Road could be bulldozed to make way for a hospital.
The Polk County Planning Commission was scheduled to hold a rezoning hearing on July 6 that could have determined the fate of plans by Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. to build a hospital on 29 acres at 6015 Harrell’s Nursery Road, a plot currently zoned for homes. The hearing was rescheduled for Thursday at a later date.
Laura Coyle is one of many residents within a 500-foot radius of the property who received notices in a letter from Polk County about the proposed project in their residential neighborhood.
Along the main road, there are two schools: George Jenkins High School and Valleyview Elementary straddling the former citrus grove like bookends and drawing students from multiple subdivisions as well as many generations.
Zooming out further, the acreage now zoned Residential Low-2 density is surrounded on two sides by subdivisions containing single-family homes, including Highlands Ridge, Chatsworth, and a third subdivision, Eagles Pointe. A fourth subdivision, Hickory Ridge, exists across the four lanes of County Road 540-A to box in the 29 acres with houses and schools.
In response to the outcry from neighbors, a spokeswoman with HCA emailed a prepared.
“We appreciate the community’s interest in our zoning request and we want to clarify that no decision has been made regarding the future medical development of the land,” said Debra McKell, director of media relations for HCA Healthcare’s west Florida division.
“We are now working through the rezoning process in cooperation with the county as a first step,” she said. “Our intent is to help support the growing healthcare needs in the area and this is a goal we will be prepared to discuss at a future public hearing.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the community to provide additional access to needed medical services,” McKell said.
Erik Peterson, director of planning and development for Polk County, said that HCA had formally requested a continuance of the rezoning hearing and it has been rescheduled for Oct. 5.
“That will put them (Tentatively) before the November 1st Board of County Commissioners hearing for a final approval,” Peterson said via email.
Katharine Jonsson and Coyle are among 817 residents as of Friday who has signed a petition at Change.org to help convince the planning commission not to recommend the zoning change for a hospital.
The growing group of residents that are against the hospital has set up a Facebook page entitled: No Hospital at Harrell’s Nursery/540-A. They have printed signs saying No Hospital and are encouraging neighbors to attend the planning commission meeting when the rezoning is brought up.
The signs are popping up along the streets in the potentially impacted neighborhoods as the second batch of signs are due from the printer any day.
Property sold by Grady Judd’s family
In the staff report produced by the DRC, the applicant is listed as Jo Thacker, Nelson Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, LLP.
“Staff is recommending approval because we believe that a modest-sized hospital can be placed on this property in a manner that it is compatible with the surrounding residential community, the nearby schools, the environmental limitations, and the available infrastructure,” the report said.
The current landowner is June 35 LLC. Among the managing members of the LLC are Samuel N. Haven, CEO of HCA, state records show. Other HCA executives listed are Chris Wyatt, senior vice president and controller, and John M. Franck II, vice president, legal/secretary.
The 29-acre parcel was recently sold to June 35 LLC on Aug. 19 by Grady Judd’s family for $2.2 million, according to Polk County Property Appraiser records.
The sellers include Wheeler Citrus, with the active member being Grady C. Judd Jr. along with his sister Ann Lee Fagundo with the Grady Judd SR trust.
Sheriff Grady Judd said by phone his family was talking to attorneys who represented the buyer and had no knowledge a hospital was planned for the site because his family was dealing with a “blind buyer.”
“That’s our homestead that we’ve owned for decades,” he said, addressing resident concerns. “When and who we sell it to is our business.” He said the 29 acres was owned by three entities; Wheeler Citrus, his property and his now-deceased father.
Two years ago, the attorneys for the buyer had wanted the sale contingent on a zoning change, but Judd said he had turned down that offer. The attorneys reached out again about a year later and the price and terms were what he wanted.
“I asked who was buying this and wanted to know what they were going to do with it,” he said. But he was told by the attorneys that was confidential. The first he heard a hospital was planned came after calls from the media.
The county commissioner who represents the area is Commissioner George Lindsey, a real estate developer. He was contacted but did not return an email request for comment.
Judd said he is not planning to get involved with the decisions by the planning commission nor would he speak with the commissioners about the property.