The County Commission today will consider a proposal for the project, which homeowners rejected.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published June 8, 2004
HOLIDAY - The rows of tiny stucco homes started sprouting in the late 1960s, on lots a tenth or a twentieth of an acre, in a community offering a slice of Florida sunshine at an affordable retirement price. As generations passed, some of the houses became attractive starter homes for working singles and young families.
The tale of Beacon Square is the story of west Pasco. Now the neighborhood is reaching the next chapter for such communities: the forced paving assessment.
The County Commission will consider a proposal today to repave 94 streets in Beacon Square and bill homeowners for the work - even though 67 percent of the homeowners who responded with mail-in ballots last winter opposed the project.
Most homeowners would be charged about $800 if the $2.3-million project is approved. The work would start within the year.
Today's meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. in the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey.
"As our subdivisions get older, you're going to see more of these people having to bite the bullet to improve the streets," said Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, whose district includes Beacon Square, a community of about 3,500 homes and condominiums west of U.S. 19 and south of Trouble Creek Road.
In fact, Hildebrand said, it's just a matter of time before the other communities along U.S. 19 face the same dilemma.
"These developments all started in the 1960s and 1970s, and the streets were paved at the same time," she said. "Our staff will tell you those streets are guaranteed to stay in tip-top shape for 17 to 20 years. After that, it starts to go south."
Embassy Hills became the test case in April when county commissioners approved a $600-per-home repaving assessment that homeowners had rejected 2-to-1.
The prevailing logic: It is cheaper to do the roads now than to wait until they deteriorate more, potentially driving up the repaving cost in Embassy Hills to $3,000 per home.
"I cannot do that to you in good conscience," Commissioner Steve Simon told a roomful of Embassy Hills homeowners before voting to approve the $600 assessment.
The arguments in Embassy Hills are the same in Beacon Square. Paving assessment supporters say the roads are crumbling with dangerous potholes.
"There's holes everywhere," said resident Shirley Dresch, the Port Richey city clerk who bought her Beacon Square home in 1987. "There is grass growing in the streets."
Opponents say that their streets aren't that bad and that only the residents along the problem roads should pay. Or they support the work but say government should pick up the tab.
Most of all, opponents such as Joy Timmons resent the possibility of commissioners forcing a project that residents rejected.
"Is this a country where once you vote - and the vote is no - they keep putting it up until they get the vote they wanted?" asked Timmons, a semiretired hairdresser who moved to Beacon Square in 1973. "I don't see how they can do that legally."
But the ballots that go to homeowners are more like an opinion poll than a binding referendum, county officials say. Ultimately the County Commission decides whether to repave the roads and how to pay for it. With the gas tax dollars committed to major roads, Hildebrand said, the only way to pay for neighborhood streets is to charge homeowners for the work.
"It's not a question of if the roads need to be done, but when the roads need to be done," she said. "The longer you prolong that, the more expensive it's going to be because the roads are going to continue to deteriorate."
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com
