By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Even in its twilight years, the 105-year-old home of the late Bronson businessman Buren Brice, standing atop a tall, forested sandhill opposite the front doors of the Levy County Courthouse, remains a picture of historical grandeur from a bygone era.

            And yet the home and the hill are destined for the scrap heap.

            The home and its surrounding acreage, owned by former Levy Property Appraiser Francis Akins, are being offered to Chattanooga, Tennessee real estate developer Noon Real Estate for construction of a 10,500 square foot Family Dollar Tree store.

            Bronson Town Council members haven’t approved the development. They discussed the project at an April 5 public hearing and took public comment.

            Residents filled the council chambers to near capacity for the hearing. They asked why the town would consider allowing a discount store to be constructed in the heart of Levy County government facing the historic 84-year-old red-brick courthouse.

            Town Attorney Steven Warm, realizing there was some potential for the council to reject the development, recommended that developer Jamie Flegal ask council members how they felt about the project at the hearing. Warm said it might save Flegal expense if the council wasn’t interested in approving the store.

            “If it’s not something you would support I would appreciate knowing that,” Flegal told the council.

            The council remained silent.

            Flegal learned the previous weekend that the property was zoned residential rather than commercial. His company apparently thought the zoning was commercial. Flegal has now submitted a request to change the zoning on the property from residential to commercial, which will require a public hearing. He has also renewed his request to lower the number of parking spots from 42 to 34. The request for a reduction in parking spots must also be heard in a public hearing. The parking variance was the reason for Monday’s public hearing.

            After the hearing, Flegal was asked by a reporter if the company would consider building the store with a red brick exterior that would more closely match the Levy County Courthouse, Levy Abstract and Title, and the Levy County Historical Society building. All are red brick structures. Flegal said the exterior walls of the store wouldn’t be made of red brick construction. The home of next-door neighbor Libby Barr is also a brick home. A sidewalk connects her home to the Akins property. Barr said her grandmother was born in the home but her family no longer owns it.

            Barr said the boundary of her property extends farther into the Akins property than what the site plan shows. Flegal said he has been trying to hire a surveyor to survey the property to find the property lines, but surveyors are busy right now. Development is brisk in Levy County.

            “The aerial map looked like it was coming right through my house,” Barr said. “I knew that was incorrect, so I got the survey and we went and walked it off and everything,” she said.

            The Akins home stands on a piece of land bordered by Court Street, Picnic Street, U.S. 27A, and by Barr’s home on a fourth side. Barr, a realtor by profession, said she is concerned that the entrance for the store would be on Picnic Street. She said the drainage retention pond for the store would be located along U.S. 27A.

            “He will come in on Picnic Street so the entrance will be on Picnic Street. It will not be on 27 and he tried to stay as far away from my property; we have a property line dispute. We’re waiting on the survey,” Barr said.

            Barr said the site plan looks like dumpsters would overlook the front entrance of the courthouse.

            “I said the way it’s set we’re going to have dumpsters fronting our nice courthouse,” she said. “To have dumpsters when you come out of the courthouse that will be a little tough to see. My property goes over quite a bit more than he thought it did. We’re going to work on that. I’m concerned about the Picnic Street entrance because it’s a bottleneck now. He did say they are going to remove everything and they are going to take down the hill. I think it’s going to change the main part of our little town, small as it is, and I think it could go somewhere else.”

            Flegal said the company chose the site in part because it has a defined median opening on U.S. 27A. He said the Florida Department of Transportation doesn’t give away median openings if none exist.

            “Some properties, if you don’t have an existing access point, FDOT is not going to give it to you,” he said.

            Mayor Beatrice Roberts didn’t think the Akins property was a good location.

            “To me, that’s a bad spot. You were thinking Picnic Street goes all the way through to State Road 24 but it don’t; it ends at the park,” she said.

            Roberts asked if Flegal looked at other properties. She said there is a nice piece of property across the highway from the Dollar General Market store at the other end of Bronson

            “It’s already leveled out,” she said.

            “The only piece of property on the market is Mr. Akins property,” Flegal responded.

            “I can get you the owner’s name – seriously,” Roberts said, referring once again to the property opposite Dollar General.

            “That property is a little low,” Flegal responded.

            Councilman Robert Partin asked Flegal if he could consider moving the development to a different piece of property.

            “This is an approved deal. I’m already negotiating a lease with this tenant at this particular piece of property,” Flegal said, referring to the Akins property.

            Councilman Aaron Edmondson said the town is starved for economic development and for that reason he would support the project.

            “Bronson needs to grow y’all. I’ve been here pretty much in the neighborhood of 70 years. We got a lot of old structures on 27 and you got swamp behind that,” Edmondson said. “Our problem is we spent all this money on sewer to bring development into Bronson. We spend a lot of money every month paying for a sewer. We can’t fund the payments because we can’t get any development in the city.”

            “I am telling you now I would vote for it because the city needs help and the only way we’re going to get help is to bring in development and new jobs. That’s the way I feel about it. I have nothing to gain from it. I got nothing to lose from it. We invested a lot of money in a sewer in Bronson and we’re not getting any return on it,” he said.

            Spotlight Founder Linda Cooper questioned why the town provided little advance information on the development project. She said people were asking questions and not getting good answers.

            Roberts said Town Manager Sue Beaudet is new to her job.

            “She is learning,” Roberts said.

Akins, the property owner, has had the property on the market for a number of years. Flegal said he pays about $2,200 in property taxes annually.

            Akins has a Homestead Exemption on the property even though he no longer lives there.

            Property Appraiser Osborne Barker, in a later interview, said Akins vacated the home a number of years ago to care for his aging mother. He was allowed to keep a homestead exemption on the property so long as he didn’t claim a homestead on the house where he lives now. He said this type of arrangement is common when a homeowner is caring for an elderly parent at a different location.

            Flegal said the proposed Family Dollar Tree store would generate $2 million in annual sales. He said the store would provide about $15,000 more in property taxes than it does now with a vacant home on the site.

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Town of Bronson Public Hearing April 5, 2021; Posted April 9, 2021