The welcome mat's out in Pasco
The fastest-growing county in the Tampa Bay area throws its own parade of homes.
By JUDY STARK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 26, 2003
Nine communities and 25 model homes will be on display starting today in the Pasco Parade of Homes and Neighborhoods, which runs through May 11.
The "neighborhoods" aspect of this showcase spotlights the landscaping, recreational facilities, community centers and amenities of each development, said Nita Beckwith, executive officer of the Pasco Building Association, which sponsors the parade.
This is the first time in "four or five years," she said, that Pasco has held its own parade. For the past few years, Pasco builders have participated in the parades sponsored by builders associations in Pinellas and Hillsborough. Many of them appeared in this year's parade sponsored by the Tampa Bay Builders Association, the new organization created by the merger of the Pinellas and Hillsborough groups.
"But our builders were looking for something in Pasco to market, to expand back into a full parade," Beckwith said.
It's no surprise. The development wave has rolled north into Pasco, where State Roads 54 and 52 are lined with subdivisions in various stages of development and sales. Not long ago, Pasco was the sleepy country cousin, a modestly priced housing market dominated by local builders. But road improvements and big tracts of developable land mean that the developers and big regional and national builders are elbowing each other aside to buy land and create a substantial presence in Pasco, a snoozy market no more.
Pasco added 12,655 residents between July 1, 2001, and that date a year later, bringing its population to 371,245, according to census estimates. That growth rate, 3.5 percent, makes it the fastest-growing county in the Tampa Bay area.
In the next decade, the population of Land O'Lakes is expected to double from its 2000 census figure, 19,000. Two high schools are planned for central Pasco in the next eight years. Through 2020, about 50,000 homes and apartments have been approved, of which 7,000 have been built.
Some of these new communities are decidedly upscale. Seven Oaks in Wesley Chapel is a new 4,000-home project by Crown Community Development, which created the Bayou Club in mid Pinellas. Wilderness Lake Preserve is a rustic-themed project on U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes. Also on the list is Lake Jovita, a golf and country club community in Dade City that some considered too far away when it opened in 2000, but development has built out to meet it.
Even before the parade, a two-week showcase of new construction designed to promote spring home sales, business has been booming. Seven Oaks and Wilderness Lake are selling homes at the rate of one a day. At Oakstead, Tripp Trademark Homes sold 29 homes in February and 34 in March, despite three price increases.
A map showing parade entries appears in this section. Sunday, a magazine with maps, descriptions and floor plans will appear in editions of the St. Petersburg Times in Pasco, North Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The models are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. For information, call the Pasco Building Association weekdays during business hours at (727) 375-8922.
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