In a residential rich location, the answer should be easy. But, Pasco County commissioners last week authorized a short-term solution to a land dispute, while leaving unanswered the long-term question of setting aside adequate space for future industrial development.
They had better start taking a longer view before that space disappears. By acquiescing to creeping suburbanization in Shady Hills, commissioners allowed attractive industrial land to be swallowed by residential rooftops.
Most disappointing is the commission approval contradicts the county's own push to set aside more land for industrial development. This is not unfamiliar terrain. County planners and industrial recruiters frequently lament the decision a few years ago to turn the vacant Saddlebrook commercial/office park at State Road 54 near Interstate 75 into a residential neighborhood.
Switching slightly more than 76 acres from industrial to residential use might seem like a minor adjustment to the county's comprehensive land-use plan, but it is counterproductive to the county's stated goal of creating jobs locally.
As noted in this space previously, the county's current tax roll has only 1.7 percent of the total property used for light industry. That is half the statewide average of 3.4 percent. The abundance of residential housing but limited employment centers helps explain the daily exodus of 64,000 people who work in other counties. The commuters crowd roads and force the county to rely heavily on residential property taxes to pay for services while seeking new revenues for capital expenditures.
The recent land switch involves parcels in a prime industrial location at State Road 52 and Hays Road. Under a compromise, approved 4-1 with Ted Schrader providing the only dissent, a 91.5-acre site was split with 15 acres earmarked for a new industrial park, and little more than 76 acres for houses. Nearly 25 acres more fronting on State Road 52 will be used for retail and office space.
Amending the comprehensive plan is a precursor to a rezoning request to build houses - 250 were planned originally, but that number is expected to be reduced - plus 106,000 square feet of commercial space and 52,000 square feet of offices.
The county's comprehensive plan, written in the late 1980s, designated the site as industrial land. At the time, the proposed route of the Suncoast Parkway abutted the property, but the highway was built a short distance away to the east.
That made the land less attractive for industrial development, contended representatives for the owners, the Pottberg family's real estate trust. Less attractive? No. Less convenient, maybe, but not less viable. Why else could the owners sell two nearby parcels for industrial use, including land earmarked for a Withlacoochee River Electric Co. site?
Instead, the lure of an immediate payoff from a residential developer was too tempting for the property owners. It is an unfortunate byproduct of the county's appeal as a bedroom community to Tampa and Pinellas counties. The success of housing projects along the State Road 54 corridor near the Suncoast has made State Road 52 another likely growth area as attested to by a California developer's announced plans to turn 435 acres southwest of Hudson Avenue and Hays Road into a gated community of homes.
Pasco cannot live exclusively on the housing boom. The county recognized this previously and began making adjustments to its comprehensive plan. Last year, the county's industrial recruiters, the public-private Economic Development Council, targeted 226 acres at two sites as potential industrial parks and asked the county to change the comp plan designation.
Unfortunately, the decision on the Pottberg tracts reverses the trend. Sure, a 15-acre industrial park might sprout immediately, but the short-term gain is tempered by the loss of other, significantly larger industrial sites.
We'll repeat the advice to commissioners from their professional staff. "At this time there is an adequate supply of single-family residential homes in appropriate locations. . . . Haphazard and speculative comprehensive plan amendments could result in an overabundance of single-family residential homes."
So, commissioners picked houses over hiring. In the words of their own employees, it is haphazard.
