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Official opposes mall on 2 fronts

Kathy Castor says the proposed Pasco supermall would harm the environment and the University area's revitalization attempts.

By JAMES THORNER
Published March 4, 2005

The Tampa Bay area's newest mall, a proposal for more than 100 stores and a multiscreen cinema in southern Pasco County, is still struggling to overcome fears it would destroy wetlands and pollute streams.

But buried not so deeply beneath the surface is a different kind of green issue:

Will Pasco's Cypress Creek Town Center mean the death of Tampa's University Mall, about 10 miles to the south? It's with that mix of motives - environmental and economic - that Democratic Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor wants the county to oppose the Pasco supermall.

The loss of University Mall would mean the loss of one of the economic foundations of a north Tampa neighborhood struggling to revitalize itself, Castor said.

"We've seen a pattern in the past with the closing of East Lake Square Mall and Tampa Bay Center," Castor said Thursday, a day after she suggested that the board formally intervene against the proposed Pasco mall.

"As growth is pushed out, oftentimes the in-town areas suffer, and it takes quite awhile to redevelop."

A Cleveland developer, the Richard E. Jacobs Group, plans to open the 1.3-million-square-foot Pasco outdoor mall by October 2007. It would occupy a 100-acre site at State Road 56 and Interstate 75, a mile north of the Hillsborough-Pasco line.

The state Department of Community Affairs has frozen Jacobs' plans, at least temporarily. Its main concern is the 56 acres of wetlands the project would displace. The wetlands feed Trout and Cypress creeks, two tributaries of the Hillsborough River.

Jacobs has pledged to install treatment ponds to keep from polluting the creeks. The city of Tampa, which draws most of its drinking water from the river, declined to challenge the mall's application.

But Castor isn't convinced.

Saying "we have a right to disagree" with Tampa, Castor would like Hillsborough County, as early as next week, to consider joining the state in challenging the project.

"We'd like a seat at the table rather than hear information second hand," Castor said, adding that her "overriding concern" is environmental protection.

Castor's position provoked comment from at least two Pasco commissioners.

The Department of Community Affairs' job is to ensure that the mall is environmentally friendly, Republican Pasco commissioner Ann Hildebrand said. It's not the government's job to play favorites with one mall or another.

"In my mind University Mall is not part of DCA's job description," Hildebrand said.

Pasco Commissioner Steve Simon, also a Republican, suggested that the spectacular growth of Pasco's suburbs - 6,000 homes were built last year - will entice some sort of giant shopping center, regardless of the economic impact on Tampa.

"Sooner or later somebody will fill the gap,' Simon said. "That's called free enterprise."

The opening of Cypress Creek Town Center would almost certainly dent University Mall. The malls, about 15-20 minutes apart by car, would draw from the same south Pasco/north Hillsborough suburbs like New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

But whether the Pasco mall would knock out University Mall is another question.

While many real estate analysts predict University's demise, mall general manager Tom Locke insists the center will reinvent itself, albeit with a different mix of stores.

Locke - or at least the stressed neighborhoods around the mall - may have found a supporter in Castor, who has made no secret about her desire to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"We need to look at the impacts to Hillsborough County," she said of Pasco's proposed mall. "And they're probably greater than just the environmental issues."

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:30:22]