Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
JAMES THORNERStrip malls and disconnected subdivisions are out. A town center and office parks are in.
WESLEY CHAPEL - The beef cows, orange groves, decaying barns and scattered mobile homes give few hints of what's in store for Curley Road.
Once in the middle of nowhere, Curley is about to find itself in the middle of somewhere.
Try this for starters: 15,000 homes, a giant shopping complex, a sleek office park, industry, a championship golf course and vacation condominiums.
But Pasco County leaders, absorbing lessons from the county's record-breaking housing rush, plan to apply that wisdom to Curley. Through the first 11 months of this year, the county tallied 5,387 housing starts for single-family homes.
Curley Road won't be stripped out with stores in imitation of U.S. 19. Not if County Administrator John Gallagher can help it.
And Pasco won't tolerate masses of homes in disconnected subdivisions. Gallagher is leaning toward a town center around which future residents can gravitate.
Job-creating office parks will also be part of the newly built communities. Gallagher said he's sick of Pasco playing bedroom community for employers in Hillsborough County.
"I've told my staff they're not just coming in and building houses. We'll have a town center, and developers will set aside land for it," Gallagher said.
"There's about 15,000 houses I see coming into that area. . . . I want 300 or 400 or 500 acres set aside for professional office."
The tough part will be this: Gallagher and company will have to negotiate with multiple developers to realize the county's vision.
Pasco has had some previous success in a similar endeavor, when it persuaded developers along State Road 54 near the Suncoast Parkway to contribute toward common roads, schools and parks.
Step one in implementing Gallagher's Curley Road vision would be hiring outsiders to help draw up a plan for the area. Gallagher proposes hiring a nonprofit think tank from Washington, D.C., called the Urban Institute.
Among the institute's tasks would be alleviating the morning exodus of tens of thousands of Pasco workers.
In Land O'Lakes, a 9,000-home project called Connerton calls for a walkable city center and job-creating industrial and office parks. Builders are set to break ground for Connerton next year. Gallagher hopes to duplicate such self-sufficiency in northern Wesley Chapel.
"We've got to pull some of these jobs back. We've got to create a better quality of life for our citizens," Gallagher said. "It's not a good quality life if you're stuck on I-75 at night, and when you get home, you're exhausted."
Here's the latest development news for the Curley Road corridor, which runs 7 miles from SR 54 to State Road 52:
* A group of doctors from Atlanta pooled resources to buy about 850 acres southeast of SR 52 and Interstate 75 from St. Leo Abbey and the McKendree family.
Their plans, which have made the rounds of county officials, include an outdoor mall, a corporate office center and apartments. Development appears to be several years away. CBL & Associates Inc., the Southeast's largest mall developer, based in Tennessee, has been involved.
* Cannon Ranch, a proposed 2,000-acre project at the north end of Curley on SR 52, is leaping to life after a two-year slumber. Not only are 5,200 homes and 1,500 resort condos approved there, but Saddlebrook Resort owner Tom Dempsey is considering a top-notch golf course to host televised tournaments.
* The Epco Ranch is reportedly under contract to KB Homes. The result could be several thousand houses. The 1,400 acres sit south of Cannon and west of Curley Road, around King Lake.
* Land owned by County Commissioner Ted Schrader and his siblings is under review for what could be 1,999 homes from Curley east to Handcart Road.
* Kirkland Ranch owners say they're not selling. But Clearwater developer Rick Neff has met with county planners about putting 3,600 homes and 250,000 square feet of stores and offices on the 1,600-acre property north of the Schrader land.
Engineers are redesigning Curley from two to six lanes. On its south end, Curley, after it is realigned, will flow into Wesley Chapel Lakes Boulevard. The boulevard will run south from SR 54 and serve thousands of new homes in the Meadow Pointe neighborhood.
After Curley is improved, it will become a natural magnet for stores and businesses. Plans such as the Schraders' show businesses fronting the road. But county officials want to steer much of that commerce to the soon-to-be-built West Zephyrhills Bypass between Handcart and Curley.
"If you start letting each development of 1,000 or 2,000 homes put up commercial, you are stripping out commercial on Curley just like on U.S. 19," county attorney Bob Sumner said.
Gallagher agrees that a successful transformation of Curley from farmland to suburbia requires detailed planning. The alternative is disjointed development conducive to traffic jams. Pasco already has enough of that, he said.
"We're not going to let that happen," Gallagher said. "We're going to tie the housing developments all together and try to create a town center and try to keep the commercial off Curley."