The Development Review Committee is scheduled to vote at a 1:30 p.m. meeting.
By JAMES THORNER
Published January 15, 2004
LAND O'LAKES - After almost four years of lawsuits and government scrutiny, a huge residential and shopping center project west of U.S. 41 along State Road 54 is poised for Pasco County approval.
Long Lake Ranch, a 1,079-acre development spearheaded by Nick and Peter Geraci on their family's ranch, would include 1,941 homes, 2-million square feet of stores and other businesses and 304,000 square feet of offices.
The site stretches roughly from Henley Road in Land O'Lakes to Meadowbrook Estates in Odessa, from SR 54 to the Hillsborough County line.
When the Geracis first applied to rezone the land in 2000, they proposed a mall. But mall developers favor sites closer to Interstate 75, including the proposed Cypress Creek Town Center at the State Road 56 interchange.
Most of the commercial development at Long Lake Ranch would cluster at a still-non-existent intersection. A new road called Sunlake Boulevard is supposed to cross SR 54 about a mile west of the Oakstead neighborhood.
Pasco's Development Review Committee is scheduled to vote on Long Lake Ranch's development order at a 1:30 p.m. meeting today at the West Pasco Government Center. County commissioners get the final vote.
A development order - essentially a project's green light - is required for large plans such the Geracis', known as developments of regional impact. The processing of the Geracis' application dragged for years, partly the result of lawsuits the brothers filed against the county.
One challenged rules limiting development near wetlands and well fields. A second fought a Pasco ordinance requiring developers to plant a strict number of trees in subdivisions.
The Geracis' attorneys and Pasco planners also haggled over the scale of the project. Pasco wanted to trim some of the 1,900 homes or part of the 2-million square feet of commercial.
In the end, the Geracis appear to have gotten what they wanted: All the homes and all the commercial.
