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By BILL COATS, Times Staff WriterBerean Academy, which plans to move to the Lake Stemper area, has agreed to forgo soccer field lights and will pay for landscaping.
LUTZ - Neighbors along Lake Stemper have made peace with the prospect of a large Christian academy being built next door.
A breakthrough in the neighborhood's opposition to Berean Academy's plans came last week after the school swore off lights for its soccer field and agreed to pay for $30,000 in additional landscaping between the future school facilities and the neighbors' homes.
The neighbors will get to plan the extra landscaping.
"We think it's a good investment on our part, just to be good neighbors," said Joe Bray, the Berean headmaster.
The concessions prompted neighbor Roger Rigau to drop his appeal of a March 31 decision authorizing the school between Stemper and U.S. 41, north of Lakeside Drive.
Currently housed at Forest Hills' University Church of God, Berean plans to build a classic, red-brick academy that could eventually house 780 students on the Lutz property.
Rigau, who had loudly complained that the project will pollute Stemper, also won a pledge that the school will be connected to public water and sewer lines whenever they are extended to that section of U.S. 41. Until then, Berean will rely on a well and septic tank.
By dismissing his appeal, Rigau cleared Berean to apply for building permits.
Bray said contractors hope to break ground this fall and finish construction in a year. The school would move immediately.
"It would be a terrible shame to let it sit empty for a whole semester," Bray said.
- Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com