Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Proposal brings town feel to pastoral Pasco

On the drawing board: A mix of green space, homes and retail at the nexus of Curley and Overpass roads.

By JAMES THORNER
Published April 3, 2005

WESLEY CHAPEL - One of the most rural sections of Pasco County - the orange groves, hay fields and cypress swamps of the Curley Road corridor - is due to become a town resembling a miniature Sarasota.

That's what a recently released plan shows happening at the future intersection of Curley and Overpass roads, the heart of what could be more than 5,000 homes in the next 10 years.

County officials got a peek at the plans last month. Many walked away dazzled at the audacity of the eight landscaped traffic circles, village greens babbling with fountains, rows of pitched roofed town homes and shady store fronts.

County Administrator John Gallagher decided to commission the study more than a year ago, concerned that Pasco, in the throes of a suburban growth spurt, was relegating itself to bedroom community status.

Using the example of Longleaf, Connerton and New River - three other Pasco developments pitching live-work-and-shop town centers - Gallagher enlisted the firm URS Planning to dream up a cityscape for Curley and Overpass.

In formulating its suburb of the future, URS had to integrate the construction plans of three developers and builders that have dibs on and around the proposed intersection.

Centex Homes has a deal to buy the former T&G Groves, 218 acres on the northeast edge of the proposed town center.

Crown Community Development, which built Seven Oaks in Wesley Chapel, is developing the 1,036-acre Watergrass project east of Curley.

Finally, Lennar Homes proposes developing the Epperson ranch with up to 3,900 homes west of Curley.

"The county is about to make Curley Road an example of what good, forward planning can be," said Rogers Haydon, who owns the T&G property Centex plans to buy this year.

It's certainly groundbreaking for a section of Pasco between Wesley Chapel and San Antonio dominated by agriculture.

URS's plans shows a cross-shaped city center of 200 acres running a half-mile in both directions.

Cars would fan out and flow around eight traffic circles, transforming Curley from a 55 mph rural highway into a slow-paced city street.

Overpass Road, so named because it crosses Interstate 75, now ends 2 miles west of Curley. Not for long: An extension of Overpass will cross Curley at the site of the town center.

The county envisions lining the town streets with shops, offices, a hotel, hundreds of apartments and town homes and long, leafy village greens. Sidewalks, park benches and shade trees will encourage walking.

"They'll concentrate things in the town center rather than strip development along Curley like in the old days," Haydon said.

Since the three developers are on different schedules, the town center would take shape gradually over the next seven years, according to the plan.

Crown Community Development is months from breaking ground on Watergrass and tentatively agreed to build its length of "city streets" over the next two years.

Lennar and Centex envision completing their sections from 2007 to 2012. Once everything's built, plans calls for demolishing Curley as it exists now, converting it into a green belt through the center of town.

The lengthy development schedule has left some developers wary, Haydon said. The companies will have to leave land idle for years waiting to sell the requisite number of homes before retailers and offices buy or lease the commercial property.

"These improvements are driven by rooftops," Haydon said. "There's a big lag time that's created reluctance among developers."

[Last modified April 2, 2005, 10:10:05]