Panel blocks annexation in favor of airport's plans
A trucking company's plan to buy the Zephyrhills site clashes with future expansion ambitions of the city's airport.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published March 10, 2004
ZEPHYRHILLS - A trucking company looking to move from Dade City ran into a roadblock Tuesday before the Zephyrhills Planning Commission.
The board rejected an annexation request from Lois Linville, who owns more than 200 acres of mostly undeveloped land near the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. She is in negotiations to sell 18 acres at Chancey Road and Freefall Avenue to Heyl Truck Lines Inc., which plans to build a warehouse and office to employ about 100 people.
But the city-run airport has big plans for that land. It wants to build a road, taxiways, hangars, and office and warehouse space.
"I don't feel comfortable approving something that stands in the way of our plans to improve the airport," said commission member Jodi Wilkeson, who moved to reject the petition.
The motion was approved 4-1, with member Norman Ward opposed.
Bill McGavern, a Realtor who negotiated the deal between Linville and the trucking company, said Heyl will find a way to move to Zephyrhills.
The company could still pursue the Freefall Avenue property but go through the county to rezone the land from agricultural to light industrial. It also is interested in buying a similar parcel at Chancey Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, but Linville in the past has been reluctant to sell.
McGavern said the deal has been in the works since October. Only last week did he learn about the city's objection.
"We want to be in Zephyrhills," Ted Melching, manager of Heyl's Florida operation, told the planning commission. "This is an ideal location for us."
The long distance trucking company based in Akron, Iowa, operates in 48 states and Canada. It sold its office on Lock Street in Dade City last fall. In Zephyrhills, Heyl would employ about 100 people, but only five to six new jobs would be added immediately.
Melching said the company envisions growth. The Linville deal is for 18 acres, although the annexation request only applied to nine of those acres.
"We're buying 18 acres because we plan on future expansion," Melching said.
So does the airport.
Airport manager Jim Werme said long-term plans include a new road running north from Freefall Avenue. It would serve new taxiways and hangars that are leased to tenants, generating revenue for the airport. The land east of the new road, fronting Chancey, would hold offices and warehouses, also a revenue source.
Werme said loss of the Freefall Avenue parcel would be a major setback.
"You would lose the potential revenue for the whole east side of the airport," he said.
Werme said he would offer use of the city's barracks building to Heyl until a deal can be made for the alternate site on MLK Avenue.
Next up, city officials plan to meet with Melching and McGavern to reach a compromise. Werme said he will work to secure state grants so the airport can try to buy the Freefall Avenue parcel. McGavern would not reveal the price.
Said Werme: "We didn't have the money before, and the land never was for sale."
