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BILL COATSThe county would like to buy 32 acres for a future expansion of a popular Lutz sports complex.
LUTZ - The busiest sports complex in Lutz would double in size under a land deal being considered by Hillsborough County.
The county is proposing to pay $1.2-million for a 32-acre tree farm immediately east of the Oscar Cooler Youth Sports Complex. Development, which could be nearly four years away, would produce a new soccer and football complex on the tree farm property. The current recreation fields would remain devoted largely to baseball and softball.
"I said, "There's not going to be any more land out there,' " said county Commissioner Jim Norman, who pushed for the purchase.
Before Norman and his fellow commissioners approve the sale, a public meeting is required.
That is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lutz Community Center, just off Lutz-Lake Fern Road and U.S. 41, next to the Lutz Branch Library.
"We're trying to get as many people as we can to go to that," said Dewey Robinson, immediate past president of the Lutz Little League and a board member of the Lutz Chiefs, a youth football program. "That would be a good thing for us."
Robinson said participation in the Little League grew to 500 children from 300 in the last season. Leaders expect it to reach 700 next spring.
Last spring, Saturday games among the 7-year-old and 8-year-old Little Leaguers ran from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
"We had thousands and thousands of people out there on opening day," Robinson said.
On that day, March 6, Norman threw the first pitch.
A decade earlier, he had pushed the county to buy the property, but a deal had collapsed. In 1999, the county was on the verge of buying 10 acres southwest of the park. But that property was sold at the last minute to a housing developer.
When Norman looked past the crowds March 6 to the pines covering the 32 acres across Crooked Lane, he decided to try again.
Mike Kelly, the county's real estate director, said $1.2-million was the asking price by the small family corporation that owns the land, Wildcat Groves Inc. of Zephyrhills. The county requested two land appraisals. One was for $1.18-million; the other was $1.23--million. So the county offered the asking price. A deal was reached July 8, Kelly said.
Although no money had been budgeted for such a purchase, county officials found $1.2-million budgeted for other things but was unlikely to be spent with two months remaining in the county's fiscal year. Norman said commissioners had budgeted wages for new employees at several big new parks that haven't opened on time because of rain and other delays. Last week, commissioners agreed to shift that money to the tree farm purchase.
County commissioners are to vote on the final sale on Aug. 18. If it's approved, a land closing is set for 90 days later, Kelly said.
Thereafter, progress may be slow.
Chuck Kuntz, the budget and financial services manager, said money to develop the park doesn't appear to be available before February 2008.
"That could change if some project falls off the list for some reason, or another funding source is made available," Kuntz said.
Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com