 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Swiftmud sale shrinks town
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer LAND O'LAKES -- The 8,000-acre Connerton New Town Development may sell about 40 percent of its land for conservation, but in doing so could sacrifice one of the qualities that earned the project hallelujahs from suburban planners: its compactness. The Southwest Florida Water Management District's planned purchase of nearly 3,000 acres severs the remaining 5,000 acres into two main parcels, separated by the Pasco County jail. The larger piece to the southeast will become the "new town," which is supposed to mimic the centralized walkability of neotraditional developments such as Disney's Celebration near Orlando and Seaside in the Florida panhandle. Connerton promises to build homes around an urban core of shops, a junior college campus, a town hall and a hospital. By 2025, the town could have 20,000 residents. "We still expect it will be a live, work and play community," said Rick Mildner, Southeast regional manager for Terrabrook, Connerton's Dallas-based developer. Not so the isolated smaller pocket to the northwest. Mildner said the land will probably stand alone as either an "active adult" neighborhood or a "high-end luxury golf community." The idea to split Connerton came from the water management district, commonly known as Swiftmud. Wetlands that water managers deem vital for preservation are mostly clustered on the north side of the property. But a finger of environmentally sensitive land stretches to U.S. 41 south of the jail, cutting off the one part of Connerton from the other. Terrabrook and Swiftmud stress that the sale has yet to close. "That is by no means a done deal," Mildner said last week. One condition of the sale is that Terrabrook reconfigure Connerton to reflect a shrunken, post-Swiftmud future. Swiftmud's purchase would include 22 acres near the jail that Connerton reserved for industry, forcing Terrabrook to shrink a proposed industrial park roughly 25 percent, from 1.1-million square feet to 819,000 square feet. Might that harm Connerton's self-sufficiency, its promise that residents need not commute to jobs in Tampa? Mildner doesn't think so. With the company trimming the proposed number of homes from 15,117 to 8,677, Terrabrook estimates the development will still generate 1.3 jobs per household. Assuming Terrabrook gets its revamped plans approved in the next six months, development of the homes will start next year, Mildner said. The city center will start largely as a barren hub of roads, sidewalks and bike trails. Its ultimate transformation into a town rests largely with private businesses and government, which would move stores and offices to Connerton. "The actual town center depends on a critical mass of users for the town center," Mildner said. " . . . The town center is more dream than reality." But for nature lovers, Connerton's post-Swiftmud makeover is for the better. In addition to the 2,981-acre sale to the water agency, Terrabrook will set aside 556 acres of wetlands and uplands in the northeast section of the property for endangered scrub jays and gopher tortoises. Mildner jokingly calls them "scrub jay hotels." To provide passage for deer and other animals, wildlife corridors would link the project to other Pasco county conservation land, including the neighboring Cypress Creek and Cross Bar Ranch well fields. Terrabrook notes that 45 percent of the project, exclusive of the Swiftmud land, will remain in its natural state. The town center has room for a 120-acre "education campus" where Pasco-Hernando Community College could teach up to 1,400 students, although Terrabrook still has "no firm commitment" from the college, Mildner said. Retail would take in another 1.7-million square feet. To get an idea of that space, a Publix supermarket uses about 50,000 square feet -- or less than 3 percent of Connerton's total retail space. A hospital of 150 beds is scheduled for construction sometime between 2005 and 2015. Its arrival depends less on Terrabrook and more on the whims of the medical community. The smaller Connerton will sell better than the 15,117-home project originally proposed in the late 1990s, Mildner said. The project benefits from lessons Terrabrook learned in developing West Park Village, a similar live-work-and-shop neotraditional community in Tampa. Often buzzing with pedestrians, West Park's downtown encompasses a dentist, a Starbucks, an antique store, a dry cleaner, a YMCA, restaurants and a pizza parlor. "West Park Village was an afterthought," Mildner said. " . . . This town is planned ahead of time." At a glanceConnerton's new numbers, assuming a 3,000-acre sale to the Southwest Florida Water Management District: ACREAGE: 5,013 HOMES: 8,766 INDUSTRY: 819,000 square feet GOVERNMENT/OFFICES: 1.1-million square feet RETAIL: 1.7-million square feet COMMUNITY COLLEGE: 1,400 students GOLF: 36 holes HOSPITAL: 150 beds COMMUNITY PARK: 80 acres BIRD AND TORTOISE RESERVES: 556 acres
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
