Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Developers join jostle near parkway

Three development proposals would expand the housing boom fueled by the Suncoast Parkway.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published May 7, 2006

Three new development proposals, and one Pasco County theme: the primacy of space.

Two of them along State Road 52, with nearly 600 acres and with 817 homes combined, are poised for rezoning. They underscore the Suncoast Parkway's influence on suburbia's northward romp.

The other, a 25-home addition to an 800-unit master-planned unit development, is a looming tussle over balancing developmental and environmental concerns.

West of the Suncoast Parkway, Sanctuary Farms, next to Hays Road and north of SR 52, is by far the bigger proposal, weighing in at 515 acres and 530 single-family residences.

"(The parkway) has been influential in the growth pattern," said J. Ben Harrill, of Figurski and Harrill, Sanctuary Farm's attorney. "I have to surmise that it's played a significant part in the development of the surrounding area."

Farther west on SR 52, the Columns at Bear Creek propose 287 units on 58 acres.

They join a Suncoast corridor jostle that's prodded prices into a range comparable with such boom town locations as Wesley Chapel.

Along the parkway, the price bracket with the most new homes has shifted from $150,000-$199,000 in March 2003 to $200,000-$249,000 in March 2006, according to data from Tampa's Metrostudy group.

Annual closings along the parkway have climbed from 509 in the first quarter of 2002 to 1,365 in the first quarter this year.

Sanctuary Farms is headed for Thursday's Development Review Committee meeting. The Columns is scheduled for June 14's Planning Commission.

Harrill doesn't expect the application to crumble much under county scrutiny, because Sanctuary Farms would join a neighborhood already teeming with similar developments: Lakeside, the Verandahs and Legends Point.

The proposal has 336 acres of wetlands, and its Akron, Ohio, owner is proposing neighborhood parks and extensive wetland conservation in it. County filings show multiple access points proposed from SR 52, another one from Hays Road, and possibly more from the Verandahs development.

The Columns at Bear Creek, owned by Landmark Communities of Clearwater, calls for 287 units in nine three-story buildings, a clubhouse and swimming pool.

It sits south of SR 52 and west of Quincy Drive, about 6 miles from the Suncoast Parkway.

"Any type of roadway that makes north-south traveling easier certainly makes (development) attractive," said Jared Brown, Landmark's president, of the parkway's role.

The developments may add to concerns over SR 52's traffic capacity. County crews are widening the route from Moon Lake Road to the parkway, and moving to buy rights of way to expand SR 52 from the parkway east toward Interstate 75.

A third development proposal farther south, on Rowan Road and Massachusetts Avenue, has a different issue.

Plans are afoot to add 25 town homes on 4 acres to Magnolia Valley North, which is already built-out at 804 homes.

But wetlands on the site threaten a dispute over drainage and retention at the floodplain property.

Magnolia Valley isn't scheduled for county hearings yet. The developer and county officials have already clashed over what they think should be included as wetlands, and therefore Pasco's requirements on drainage and water retention.

County officials said the area, currently zoned for commercial development, sits in a volume-sensitive floodplain.

But the developer's planner said county officials misunderstand the synergy between wetlands and runoff.

"This whole issue of wetlands is not just an issue of drainage," said Bill Konrad, the development's planner.

"We've had our engineer delineate it and . . . we're consistent with the Southwest Florida Water Management District," Konrad said, adding that the development has not yet secured a permit. "The county will look at certain things, but I think it's Swiftmud that has jurisdiction here.

"The site is surrounded by undeveloped and won't-be-developed wetlands. Here in Florida, we can get a little anal sometimes. They're being overly zealous in applying their standards."

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at 813 909-4613. His e-mail address is cyap@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 7, 2006, 01:24:22]