The four-part "vision plan," which is a set of guidelines, focuses on Land O'Lakes' boundaries, growth, highways and town centers.
By JAMES THORNER
Published October 29, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - A group of business people and landowners released a four-part recipe Tuesday night for lifting up Land O'Lakes: attract jobs, expand community boundaries, knit together neighborhoods and beautify highways.
The ideas were squeezed into a 20-page "vision plan" to mold the future of Land O'Lakes as it continues its switch from a citrus and cattle center to a bedroom community of Tampa.
About 60 people turned out for the plan's presentation, as well as finger foods and soft drinks, at the clubhouse in the Wilderness Lake Preserve neighborhood off U.S. 41.
Representing the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, one of the parties to the vision plan, local attorney Tim Hayes hammered home four themes in describing Land O'Lakes' future:
Create an identity and borders for what has been a relatively shapeless community. The group proposed boundaries running from County Line Road north to State Road 52 and from the Suncoast Parkway east to Interstate 75.
Manage growth, with an emphasis on broadening the jobs and tax base by luring good-paying employers up the I-75 corridor. Hayes stressed that residential development alone can't bankroll such community needs as parks.
Beautify highways such as State Road 54 and U.S. 41 by installing sidewalks, bike paths, park benches and landscaping, and by removing billboards and other visual blight.
Encourage a multitude of town centers, each with its own theme, rather than one overall theme for Land O'Lakes. Examples include the horse farm theme at the Collier Commons shopping center at SR 54 and Collier Parkway.
The group wrote the vision plan in response to another plan created a year ago that might have mandated architectural guidelines such as Florida Cracker-style porches and tin roofs.
Hayes and his colleagues stressed that their plan, which will go to county commissioners for approval, is more a set of guidelines than a decree.
"When someone tells you this is what you're going to do with your property, the hair stands up on the back of your neck," Hayes told the crowd.
Even one of the authors of the earlier vision plan, local artist Brad Arthur, seemed pleased with the ideas of Hayes and company. Arthur said the two plans agreed on at least 80 percent of the details.
"The goal is to have a unified plan as best we can," Arthur said. "But one thing is clear from everything that's happened: In Land O'Lakes, people care."
