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New development revives old questions

Cypress Creek will add 2,200 homes in south county, renewing traffic concerns and how long the boom can last.

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published December 16, 2005

Residents in one of Hillsborough County's fastest-growing corridors are eyeing a new development with wariness.

Metro Development Group announced last week that it paid $37-million for land where it plans to build 2,200 homes north of the Sun City Center retirement community.

More than half the homes in the proposed development called Cypress Creek will sell from $200,000 to the mid $300,000s. There will be 865 townhomes that will run from $200,000 to $250,000.

Metro Development does not need a zoning change to build, company spokeswoman Anne Duffy said. The land was zoned for residential development under a plan approved for Sun City Center.

Developers plan to tout Cypress Creek's central location, with easy access to Tampa and St. Petersburg. The developer expects to break ground by June 2006 and have models on display by July.

Neighbors say they don't know what to expect.

Resident Roy Hathaway spends half of each year living near the southern border of the Cypress Creek property. Hathaway and his wife, Pauline, own their mobile home at Holiday Palms RV Park on 19th Avenue NE, but they don't own the land beneath it.

With the area's building boom, Hathaway said he wonders whether someone will make Holiday Palms an offer too lucrative to turn down.

"We obviously worry about whether the place will be sold," said Roy Hathaway, 70, an Ontario native. "But if somebody offers (owners) a huge amount of money, you can't blame somebody for taking it."

Retailers and developers have found the area between U.S. 301 and Interstate 75, from state roads 674 and 672, chock full of hot properties.

GL Homes has broken ground on Valencia Lakes, a 2,800-home community for active retirees on U.S. 301 south of Bill Tucker Road. A Wal-Mart Supercenter at U.S. 301 and SR 674 could be ready for customers by the end of 2006.

And Newland Communities is preparing to build up to 5,000 homes in a subdivision called Waterset in Apollo Beach between I-75 and U.S. 41.

"They ought to stop all this building and start getting some better roads first," said David Bihler, 46, who lives east of Cypress Creek on Bill Tucker Road.

Getting onto U.S. 301 already takes five to 10 minutes on a busy morning, Bihler said.

Several developers have funded a widening of U.S. 301. But Mariella Smith of Ruskin wondered if that will work.

"We see that the county solution is to just keep widening our roads," said Smith, who is president of the local Sierra Club. "And you really can't pave your way out of gridlock."

Development in the county's unincorporated area accounted for 79 percent of Hillsborough's growth in 2004, according to a Planning Commission study.

Jim Hosler, who directs research for the Planning Commission, predicted more growth for the area. The rural landscape near Cypress Creek will house 20,000 people by 2025, equivalent to the city of Temple Terrace today, Hosler predicted.

"It's a situation that should not have surprised anybody," Hosler said.

Marvin Rose, a St. Petersburg real estate consultant, said there is no reason to think Cypress Creek will not succeed.

"History has shown that developments like that, in the past two or three years, have done well," Rose said.

Still, questions persist about how long southern Hillsborough can sustain a housing boom.

The Florida Association of Realtors reported that Tampa Bay area prices have leveled off in August and September after peaking in July.

Hathaway said the rush of new residents to southern Hillsborough mystifies him in some ways.

"I wonder, frankly, how all of these people can afford it," he said.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 10:05:12]