Wildwood commissioners Monday denied a site plan extension for a controversial recreational vehicle resort near the Oxford Oaks subdivision.
The year-long extension would have been the second for the Oxford Villages RV Resort.
Developers planned 264 camp sites on the northern border of the Oxford Oaks subdivision along U.S. 301 near County Road 466.
Melanie Strickland, the city’s development services director, told commissioners that the developers had not paid impact fees so a development permit was not issued.
Since the project was approved in 2021 and 2022, the city code has changed so that the project would not be allowed in commercial (C-3) zoning.
To rescue the project, the developers would have to rezone the property and start the site-plan process again.
Civil engineer Michael Radcliffe argued that the extension should be automatic due to more than a dozen declarations of a state of emergency by Gov. Ron DeSantis related to Hurricane Nicole.
He said Florida statutes require that development projects are extended when states of emergency are issued.
In a July 9 letter to Strickland, he wrote that the project is due an extension of 1,460 days because of the orders.
But the city maintains the statute applies only to development permits, not site plan approvals.
Oxford Oaks residents protested when a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning for the project were approved in 2021. They said the campground would hurt their home values.
At that time, Steve Jennings, one of the developers, said the project would not be for short, overnight camping and that he expected RV owners to stay up to six months.
The site plan was approved in July 2022 and a year-long extension was granted in 2023.
Mayor Ed Wolf recalled that project approval was difficult due to traffic concerns.
In 2021, the mayor said if the Jennings did not build “something top shelf, he’s wasting his money.”
