Developer plans to preserve cemetery

A request for a zoning change reveals a overgrown graveyard on Darby Road.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published June 22, 2007

A small piece of Pasco's history sits where Darby Road meets Interstate 75.

A cemetery called Bee Tree Branch once thrived on these 2 acres. Former slaves and war veterans were laid to rest there.

But years later, as area families came and went, its maintenance fell by the wayside. Only one headstone remains. The land more closely resembles an abandoned field than a cemetery.

The unmarked, weed-infested cemetery was mostly unknown.

Until Thursday.

Facing opposition from the cemetery's supporters, the county's Development Review Committee unanimously voted to postpone a rezoning request for a proposed 300-home development that would have included the cemetery site.

Members of the committee said they were unaware of the cemetery until the meeting.

"I wish we would have known about this before, " County Administrator John Gallagher said.

Joel Tew, attorney for ETR Pasco LLC, the development's landowner, said that if the County Commission approves the plans for Pine Ridge Estates in August, the cemetery will be preserved.

"We'll preserve it, " Tew said. "My client became aware of it (Wednesday). We won't develop in that area."

That was welcome news to Darby residents like Ted Blommel, who opposed the rezoning request Thursday.

"When I was a kid, we used to watch people get buried there, " said Blommel, showing photos of the cemetery to the committee. "You shouldn't take this lightly."

The committee also cited utility concerns and an incomplete traffic study as reasons to postpone Tew's request to rezone the 475-acre property from agricultural to a master planned unit development. The project is slated to return July 26.

County planners said they plan to resubmit an archaeological survey of the proposed development that would not include the cemetery.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 21:29:25]