If the county agrees to a plan with fewer homes and access to Outrider Road, neighbors' lawsuit could fizzle.
By JAMES THORNER
Published June 5, 2003
Developers of Perrine Ranch are trying to smooth over a neighborhood dispute that has frozen in its tracks for more than a year the 210-home project proposed for southwest Pasco County.
Bowing to pressure from some of their critics, landowner Gary Blackwell and developer Alex Deeb have agreed to cap the subdivision at 190 homes and to keep open Outrider Road, a street neighbors feared the development would seal off.
Pasco County commissioners approved Perrine Ranch's rezoning in April 2002, over the opposition of 250 people who crammed the meeting room. Two months later, some of those opponents, many from the adjacent Oak Ridge subdivision, sued to stop the 138-acre project.
Perrine attorney Steve Booth said the concessions are meant to break the impasse. Last year, Deeb's plans included selling the lots to Ryland Homes for a gated community in which home prices start at $175,000.
"We've been a year with this thing already. We want to move it along," said Booth, scheduled to present the Perrine Ranch changes at a Pasco Development Review Committee meeting that begins at 1:30 p.m. today in Dade City.
If the county approves the updated Perrine plans, as is likely, the antidevelopment lawsuit has scant chance of succeeding, said Randall Reder, attorney for the neighbors.
The case hinged largely on the issue of Outrider Road, Reder said, and if the developers "cave" on that point, there's less left to sustain their arguments.
"No judge is going to overrule the county unless you have an awesome amount of evidence," Reder said.
Residents of Oak Ridge, the 400-home community east of Perrine Ranch, have complained the new homes won't jibe with the large homes on 1-acre lots that dominate Oak Ridge.
Blackwell and Deeb originally sought permission to build 280 homes on the property, south of Perrine Ranch Road and about a half mile east of Grand Boulevard.
In response to the neighborhood lawsuit, developers filed a trespass suit against neighbors, contending they were illegally driving on Outrider Road. On Wednesday, Booth held out hope both sides would call a legal truce.
But Fred Rydzik, president of the Oak Ridge homeowners association, didn't sound conciliatory.
"This was not our idea. It's just a gambit as far as I'm concerned," Rydzik said of the concessions. "We've had no honest dealings with these people."
