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Plans for Otis Moody area benefit all parties

The city of Zephyrhills is the kind of neighbor we'd all like to have. City officials don't just loan tools over the fence, they draw up the plans, arrange the labor and help secure the payment plan for the much-needed refurbishing.

The potential beneficiary is familiar. As it has done in the past, the city is attempting to bolster the Otis Moody neighborhood, located just east of the city limits in and around the Sixth Avenue extension. Seven years ago, the city lobbied county officials, helped write a grant proposal and assembled construction bid specifications to secure $119,000 in federal money to pave roads and demolish four ramshackle buildings in Otis Moody. At the time, 47 of the 57 residents qualified as low-income.

In 2003, some neighborhood residents, most notably Irene Dobson, championed the unsuccessful move to have the city change the name of Sixth Avenue to honor slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King.

The effort should be less controversial this time. The city wants to partner with the neighborhood to open a community center for after-school programs and job training, pave more roads, install water lines and hire additional police officers.

The catch, however, is the community would have to annex into the municipal limits. That means higher property tax payments for the homeowners and a city utility tax. It would be accompanied by reduced charges for customers who now receive municipal water, but pay the higher rate assessed to nonresidents.

Several of the homes in the area are rentals. Some are delinquent on property tax payments. Additional costs for low-income residents are a concern, but the effort shouldn't be dismissed summarily on dollars and cents. The benefits are significant. A proposed federally funded program could help reduce the local drug trade. Community oriented policing would mean a city officer spending significant time there as part of his or her beat. That has secondary benefits to current city residents. Reducing the illegal drug activity outside the city would curb burglaries and other crimes from spilling over into Zephyrhills.

Talk of annexing the neighborhood began when a Lakeland developer, Highland-Cassidy LLC, submitted plans to build moderately priced homes and some businesses on 15 acres near Otis Moody. The clear zone of the nearby city-owned airport and Pasco County's resistance to change the industrial land-use designation to residential doomed the proposal, however. The developer withdrew the plans this week.

Pasco County's attempt to retain industrial land designation is noteworthy since the county commissioners overruled their staff members last year and allowed the Pottberg family to change 116 acres of industrial land in Shady Hills into a planned high-density residential neighborhood and commercial space.

But without the influx of residents and capital investment from the Highland-Cassidy neighborhood, the proposed annexation could be a hard sell. A community meeting is planned for May 2 at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.

Even if the annexation attempt fails, some of the tasks still can be tackled. In particular, the area remains eligible for grant-funded infrastructure improvements, but Pasco County would have to become the sponsoring agency.

The city and county have demonstrated good will in the past toward the residents of Otis Moody. They shouldn't be shy to do so again.

[Last modified April 22, 2005, 00:44:19]