Helen Spivey, Inglis, talks to county commissioners on Tuesday about her concerns with the proposed Port District project.

The Citrus County Commission on Tuesday was open to the idea of creating a Port District.

So much so that the commission sent details of the district proposal to the state Department of Community Affairs for review.

The change is sought by Dixie Hollins, Citrus County Chamber of Commerce President and mining company owner, and his Tampa Bay business partner, Hal Flowers. Flowers currently owns the Three Sisters Springs property he hopes to sell to the state.

The Hollins-Flowers partnership hopes to carve an area – called Hollinswood Harbor – from 545 acres along the north side of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. The development would feature a marina, residences and properties for industrial, commercial and office use.

It would also include, according project attorney Clark Stilwell, 1.3 linear miles of waterfront property. And it turns out that a port district has been in the county’s Comprehensive Plan since 1990.

The new district would allow for 14 different potential uses. And there was discussion at today’s meeting that the project also hopes to attract the workers who would be drawn to the not-yet-built nuclear power plants in Levy County. Housing for such workers has come to be known as “Workforce Housing.”

The commission received a unanimous recommendation from the county’s Planning and Development Review Board on June 4 to approve the district and all attendant changes necessary to make it happen.

Speaking in opposition to the project at that meeting, and at today’s commission meeting, was Helen Spivey, who spoke on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club. She said she was concerned about how such a change would affect the Manatee Protection Plan, and gave figures of the number of manatees in the barge canal area.

Manatees that are found in the canal are actually on their way to their traditional birthing area near the Inglis dam, she said. She also said that the manatees have been going there even before the dam was built.

Speaking for the district were Dr. Quentin White, a Jacksonville University professor of biology and marine science, Randy Welker, Economic Development Council, Mike Bays, 25-year county resident, Josh Wooten, Chamber of Commerce president, Inglis-area resident Wayne Kelley.

Dr. White said the proposed district would not endanger the few manatees found in the barge canal, a fact which Spivey later said was “anazing.”

“It is not natural manatee habitat,” Dr. White said. “There’s nothing there to attract manatees. While a few manatees are observed in the barge canal, they are few in number and very infrequent.” He also said he could find no evidence the canal was used as a birthing area for manatees.