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Residents can't stop growth, but they can guide it

Residents of Blanton and northeast Pasco County are understandably concerned about new development. After all, the hillside vistas, multiacre homesteads and uncrowded lifestyle is what lured them in the first place.

But residents need to help guide growth, not advocate a universal prevention. That was their request earlier this week. County commissioners were right to reject a building moratorium since there is no legal justification.

The prospects for change in the area are considerable. Dade City previously looked to annex 410 acres along Blanton Road in order to allow home building to expand its tax base, and earlier this month the county's Development Review Committee approved plans for an apartment complex east of St. Leo.

Putting 176 apartments near a growing university is not illogical planning, and it is the culmination of a zoning designation approved years ago. But the committee's approval of the project's site plan triggered calls for growth slowdown by the Northeast Pasco Concerned Citizens. They fear a rush of building permit applications in advance of planning meetings that are scheduled to begin Tuesday and continue through the spring. A final report goes to county commissioners for consideration in 2006.

Unfortunately, such a fear could be exacerbated by a moratorium, which would require public notice and public hearings before commissioners could vote on it. A 1999 county billboard moratorium was ineffective largely because it simply alerted outdoor advertisers to file applications in the weeks after the idea surfaced, but before the commission adopted it.

With a building moratorium out of the equation, residents need to focus on how they want northeast Pasco to look in the future. The study area involves 6,000 property owners in the area north of State Road 52, east of Bellamy Brothers Boulevard, west of the Green Swamp and south of the Hernando County line. The idea list includes 5- and 10-acre homesites in some areas; protecting historic landmarks; limiting future commercial development to Dade City; and adding more parks and trails.

Some of the ideas are contradictory. Obtaining a public park, for instance, seems remote if the goal is to limit the amount of residential development. Such a restriction means little impact fee revenue, which is how the county finances new parks. Seeking to limit commercial development exclusively to Dade City also is problematic if that city's proposed annexations are considered objectionable.

Pasco County's comprehensive plan allowing large-sized lots in rural areas didn't fulfill previous expectations. County officials initially figured such a land-use rule would allow people to build single-family homes and still enjoy an equestrian lifestyle. It didn't always work that way and the county, instead, was confounded by the propensity for large lots to become dotted with mobile homes.

Neighboring counties tried their own approaches. Hernando County set ground rules in its comprehensive plan for Spring Lake (just north of the Pasco study area) and other rural areas by setting minimum lot sizes at 10 acres. But people owning parcels of 40 acres or less are allowed to further divide one of these 10-acre lots into four 21/2-acre lots. Five homes, then, can be built on 20 acres, six on 30 and seven on 40. More than 1,000 such subdivisions have been created in Hernando, ranging in size from two to 91 lots, but many are ruled by deed restrictions, the type of controls not normally associated with rural living. It also means the area is without standard amenities: paved roads, sidewalks, and central water and sewers.

As it developed its comprehensive plan in the late 1980s, Hillsborough created a semirural land designation for Lutz. It, too, has had mixed results. Growth there is slow. But the lack of building has meant little impact fee revenue and right of way donations from developers. It explains why the community has winding roads without shoulders, few sidewalks, and homes on septic tanks and private wells. During the El Nino rains of 1997, the county had to bring portable bathrooms to public locations because homeowners couldn't flush their toilets.

In Pasco, Commissioner Ted Schrader suggested limiting development in some areas by increasing density elsewhere. He characterized it as a trade-off.

Just as accurately, it can be called balance. Blanton residents must help balance their desires for a specific quality of lifestyle with the rights of other property owners. A similar, though smaller-scale, planning initiative in Land O'Lakes proved nearly futile because of competing interests from community residents and larger property owners.

Pasco County commissioners, their Blanton constituents and area property owners need to seek consensus and ensure the upcoming study in northeast Pasco isn't equally irrelevant.

[Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:52:18]