Words to live and grow by

Two new phrases for your vocabulary: "Urban growthshed" and "work force housing."

John McIlwain, a resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute, who apparently coined the first term, explains: "Each city has a natural growth zone around it . . . analogous to a natural watershed area and, in fact, affected by regional geography in much the same way watersheds are. . . . Planning needs to be based on an understanding of an area's natural "urban growthshed.' "

This is a useful concept for the Tampa Bay area.

These growthsheds "are far larger than past planning has predicted," McIlwain points out in an article in the current Urban Land magazine. Case in point: The Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway extend the urban growthshed from Hillsborough County north into Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. I was astounded a few weeks ago to find that I could drive from St. Petersburg to Crystal River via those new highways in 75 minutes. Who'd have thought? State Road 54 in Pasco County, lined with new and soon-to-be subdivisions, also extends the Hillsborough growthshed.

As we struggle with issues of traffic and water, sprawl and density, it becomes clearer and clearer that growth doesn't stop at arbitrary city and county lines. We're all part of the same urban growthshed.

A watershed, of course, is the area drained by a river system. But the word also has come to refer to crucial events, times or factors -- "a watershed moment" in history. Considering how critical our decisions on growth are, perhaps someday we'll find ourselves referring to a "growthshed moment" in local planning.

"Work force housing" is the new spin on what we used to call "affordable housing" or, before that, "houses for poor people." It's a reminder that people who have trouble affording homes of their own are not all unemployed. They're the people who make our sandwiches, bag our groceries, take our tickets, provide day care for our children and wait our tables.

McIlwain suggests that these problems go hand in hand. One way to solve them, he says, is to let developers build more units per acre -- higher density -- in return for requiring that a certain percentage of units be sold or rented at below-market prices. Higher density means developers don't have to continue to push out, out, out -- read: sprawl -- in order to build; and below-market prices mean people of modest incomes can afford to live near their jobs.

One of the criticisms of expensive, exclusive cities is that the people on whose backs those cities operate can't afford to live there.

Work force housing plus urban growthshed equals: We're all in this together.

Update on McMullen-Coachman land

We're always quick to report when a piece of undeveloped land is sold to a developer, but we seldom go back and say, "What ever happened?" So consider this an update on a small piece of our urban growthshed.

Three years ago, a parcel of land once owned by two pioneer Pinellas families was purchased by a developer to be turned into homesites.

The tract of 16.6 acres along what is now NE Coachman Road was among several hundred acres sold by the McMullen family to the Coachman family around 1900. A McMullen family cemetery is just across the road.

The descendants of S.S. Coachman, the first chairman of the Pinellas County Commission, had offered the land to both the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County for a park, but a deal could never be made, so they sold it to be turned into a small residential subdivision.

Now the first of 16 homes in what is called Coachman Hill Preserve has been built, a 7,000-square-foot spec home by Tyler Homes that is for sale for $1.350-million including a homesite of 1.23 acres. (The Coachman family sold the entire parcel for $1.3-million.)

The house has two separate two-story wings, one for entertaining (home theater downstairs, game room above) and one for family living (master bedroom downstairs, children's and guest rooms above).

Builder Gary Tyler has loaded the five-bedroom, six-bath house with all the features move-up executive buyers want: two dishwashers and gourmet appliances in the kitchen (the buyer he is targeting entertains a lot); structured wiring (the owners may work at home at least part of the time and want high-speed computer connections); a garage big enough "for two cars and a boat," plus extra depth to accommodate a workbench and built-in storage closets; a master closet complete with an island where a suitcase can be opened out for packing (potential buyers likely travel a lot, for business or pleasure); and electrical outlets in the laundry-room cabinet where small electronics such as hand vacuums can be recharged.

But he deliberately left a few things undone. The downstairs powder room has no mirror "so the owners can add their own and personalize it," he said. In the two-story family room there's no fireplace mantel, so potential buyers can add something to make the room their own.

Tyler pointed with pride to the home theater, with its 10-foot screen, acoustically paneled walls, luxurious leather recliners and recliner sofas and "a $20,000 Intellipad remote that does it all." That room is one of his biggest selling features among both men and women. It has also won the hearts of homeowners who aren't interested in moving but who walk in, see it and say, "I've got to have it," and ask Tyler to build a theater as an addition to their existing homes.

"We tell them, "Not a problem,' " said Tyler.

As for the pioneer land that once was, an old turkey oak tree on the property, said to be the largest in Florida, became diseased last year "and died out. That tree is no longer there," Tyler said.

And the red foxes that once prowled the site? Tyler said he has not seen them, but his business partner, Dave Nelson, who owns the land, "has mentioned that he has seen them still."

The model is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. Coachman Hill Preserve is on the north side of NE Coachman Road just east of Belcher Road in Clearwater. The phone number is (727) 799-0431.

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