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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 16, 2002
Pasco County and Dade City are prepared to forgo the bellicosity and the bluffs and soon move forward on a long-talked about plan to assist the Tommytown neighborhood.
It's about time.
A negotiating session Tuesday produced an equitable compromise that allows the city to expand its utility service area, the county to recoup some impact fee costs, and residents to receive a break on their water and sewer bills. It's a refreshing change from the yearlong acrimony that left Tommytown residents wondering exactly when the government assistance, first promised in 1998, would arrive.
Pasco County, using federal Community Development Block Grant money, planned initially to pave 7 miles of roads, add sidewalks, install water and sewer lines and stormwater drainage, and put up street lights in Tommytown, a 78-block area north of the Dade City limits where more than three-quarters of the residents are low and moderate income and close to half the houses are substandard.
Over the past 12 months, commissioners balked at the $7.5-million cost then wanted to expand the targeted area 19 additional blocks, but only if Dade City offered financial assistance in the form of returned impact fee proceeds. The city declined saying its contribution included expanding its utility plant to handle the 400 new customers. (Tommytown is in unincorporated Pasco County, but is to be connected to the Dade City water and sewer system.)
After failed negotiations, the county announced its plans to leave Dade City out of the equation and to build an expanded plant in Lacoochee to accommodate Tommytown. The city countered with a plan to create a wide service area, stretching westward to the Lake Jovita development at the edge of Saint Leo.
The two sides put away the hardballs this week and settled on a way to expand the neighborhood improvements and also try to keep the utility bills down for Tommytown residents.
Under the tentative agreement, Dade City will return $370,000 in impact and connection fees to the county, down from the $600,000 requested. The city will move its service area westward, approximately to Happy Hill Road, allowing it to capture new customers as the area develops. The city, which charges nonmunicipal residents a higher rate for water and sewer service, also agreed to keep its rates equal to or less than what Pasco charges beginning Oct. 1, 2003.
The start date is important because the county expects to establish new rates next year. Currently, Dade City's water fees for noncity residents are about $6 a month higher than county rates.
Still to be determined is how the county will use the recouped impact fee revenue. The county should use it to offset the $2.6-million costs of expanding the infrastructure improvements beyond the original target area. Two months ago, the commission agreed it could do that if it assessed property owners a paving fee for the rebuilt roads.
The size of the assessment has not been revealed, but a separate plan to come before county commissioners Tuesday could help reduce the expense. Under a revised paving assessment ordinance, the county will have the ability to waive interest on assessments for qualifying low-income property owners and also contribute up to 25 percent of a paving project's cost.
So, kudos to Dade City and Pasco County. City Commissioner Bill Dennis' contributions are particularly noteworthy. He advocated reduced utility charges for Tommytown and also jump-started the stalled negotiations with the idea of trading impact fee revenues for the larger service area.
His leadership is worth emulating. Putting the welfare of the Tommytown community ahead of the two governments' differences is the right thing to do.