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Off/beat

Dealerships abound, but count blessings

By JIM THORNER
Published January 23, 2005

You hear it from a chorus of Wesley Chapel residents, casting envious glances southward to New Tampa.

Why does New Tampa get a Rooms-to-Go, a multiplex movie theater and a Macaroni Grill while we're getting Hyundai, Chevy and Nissan?

And here's the reason they give: Tampa's zoning rules confine Honda, Toyota and all the other auto dealerships to industrial areas, or at least to those defined as intensely commercial.

That means New Tampa neighborhoods such as Tampa Palms and Hunter's Green are spared the rat-a-tat-tat of body shops, the feedback of the intercoms and the parking lot lights shining through cracks in the blinds.

Meanwhile, Wesley Chapel, a few miles up the road, gets the shaft. Or the oil splotch. Or whatever you want to call it.

Pasco County's zoning rules allow car dealerships to set up shop in areas designated "general commercial." The dealers are arriving with the enthusiasm of a 300-pound seafood lover attacking the all-you-can-eat lobster table.

If you haven't already heard, at least eight auto makers think Wesley Chapel and neighboring Land O'Lakes are swell places to sell thousands of cars a year.

Some of the planned dealerships, such as Honda and Toyota, cushioned the blow by scarfing up Interstate 75 property well removed from the $200,000-and-up houses filling Wesley Chapel.

Torquing off neighbors the most are Hyundai and Mazda, which plan to build outside the entrance of the Lexington Oaks and Westbrook Estates communities on State Road 54.

Neighbors are also combusting internally about Ferman Automotive's upcoming construction of joint GMC, Buick and Pontiac showrooms beside the Oak Grove neighborhood in Land O'Lakes.

If you've driven down N Florida Avenue in Tampa, you can understand their feelings. There, rows of dealerships compete with Live Girls on Stage, grungy auto parts stores and down-at-their-heels offices. Pricey houses are tucked away out of sight.

But maybe we should cut New Tampa a break. Its culpability in deflecting dealerships to Wesley Chapel has been greatly exaggerated.

Before auto makers pinpoint a site for a multi-million-dollar expansion, they're almost certain the place will make money.

Toyota, for example, surveys 17 metro areas in its southeastern U.S. market. A Tampa study flagged Wesley Chapel as an "uptick" area in which the company had to compete.

It's no secret why.

More than 40,000 suburban homes are on the books within about 10 minutes of the auto dealers row SR 54 is becoming.

Household incomes in the broader trade area, which includes New Tampa, average about $65,000 a year. After it's rebuilt, I-75 will pump six to eight lanes of traffic through the heart of Wesley Chapel.

In other words, auto manufacturers come to Wesley Chapel because, demographically, it's about to rain hundred-dollar bills by the trunk load.

New Tampa is less ideally situated. Much of the community is landlocked from I-75. It's closer than Wesley Chapel to a competing strip of auto lots on State Road 60 in Brandon.

Objecting to the previous analysis, you might say Pasco planners goofed by including auto dealerships in its "general commercial" category. You might say that.

But consider this: It's not as if banning auto dealerships is a cure all. "General commercial" allows some pretty noxious uses.

How about a dog kennel? Or a dance club playing thumpity-thump-thump music? They're allowed. Or how about a dry cleaner or a coin-operated laundry?

Would you welcome seafood stores (ammonia aroma, anyone?), barbecue stands (belching wood smoke), bowling alleys (spare us the strikes) or funeral homes (quiet, in the wrong kind of way)?

In any case, it's too late, considering the zoning already in place, to ban the dealerships. Pasco's approach is to make them aesthetically more pleasing to neighbors, starting with buffers of trees, flowers and bushes.

You might not like them, but you don't have to look at them. Or hear them: A ban on intercoms is also part of the new ordinance.

And this inferiority complex regarding New Tampa is wearing thin. It's time to count our blessings.

Central Pasco is getting a mall in 2007 that's supposed to look more like a Main Street shopping district than a 1.3-million-square-foot shoe box.

An international tennis stadium could open in about two or three years off SR 54. Wesley Chapel claims the world-renowned Saddlebrook Resort.

New Tampa has higher taxes, worse traffic congestion and not much in the way of entertainment, if you discount watching Starbucks hands blend your Frappuccino.

What's a few auto dealerships among friends?

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:14:21]