Surge of RVers causes Florida county to put leash on dog show

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. -- For nearly a dozen years, the Florida Classic Park has hosted popular dog shows, drawing pooches and people from all over Florida, but not everyone enjoys the canine mania, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

On Monday, the county's planning and zoning commission will consider an application by the operators of the park to allow expansion in the number and length of their events. The planning staff is not recommending approval, the paper noted.

Herbert and Deborah Wells, who live near the site, told the commission that park operators failed to comply with the conditions of the original permit granted when the park opened in 1998.

The couple notes that the original plan was to have up to 60 RVs on site; there now are more than 350. Speakers that were supposed to be ground level and pointing inward are instead mounted "on 20-foot poles and can be heard throughout our neighborhood.''

From 2001 to 2007, the park was approved for 110 RV hookups for utilities, but the park's marketing materials show it can accommodate 265, and the plans submitted to the county indicate more than 300 sites are sought. The staff's recommendation is to keep the number at 265 and properly permit those spaces.

To read the full story in the St. Petersburg Times, click here.