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By JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 15, 2001
Connerton New Town Development is one of the most scrutinized, hyped and publicized projects in the history of Pasco County.
The 15,177-home experimental city of the future would revolutionize suburban development. Kids could walk on sidewalks to school or grab a Popsicle at the corner store.
Mom and dad could bicycle to work at an office or factory close to home and register a complaint at a downtown police station.
At least that's the vision of self-sufficiency promised by the project, mentioned in the same breath as Disney's Celebration, the Orlando community that also harkens back to an earlier, simpler era.
But there's another vision for the 8,000 acres of Connerton property, contained in a rough triangle of U.S. 41, State Road 52 and Ehren Cutoff.
Call it Old Florida, circa 1850: No houses, grazing cattle, miles of cypress stands and impenetrable palmetto.
That's the vision of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which is trying to buy the land and preserve it for eternity as a haunt of grass snakes, deer and osprey.
It's not going to come cheap. The Conner family, whose 27 heirs control the family ranch destined for development, got their land rezoned for Connerton last July.
The family's message essentially is this: Listen, guys, we spent hundreds of thousand of dollars and three years getting this monster approved, so you're not going to lowball us. You want to scrap the 15,000 homes? Show us the cash.
Word on the street is that the Conners and the water district are creeping closer to a deal. After Swiftmud's attempt to buy the property last January, an offer the Conners rejected as inadequate, water officials laid another price on the table in September.
The Conners are still mulling the offer. Meanwhile, keeping all their options open, the family has enlisted an Atlanta developer named Terrabrook.
Terrabrook, which built part of Hillsborough County's sprawling Westchase neighborhood, would be the "master developer" of Connerton, the company to guide the project through at least part of its 30-year build-out.
The Conners and the water agency are mum about the amount of the latest offer, but said it's appreciably more than $10-million.
For comparison's sake, Swiftmud acquired the 8,200-acre Cypress Creek Preserve, the nearest publicly owned conservation site to Connerton, for $17.5-million.
Swiftmud cobbled together the pieces from land condemnations in the 1970s and voluntary purchases from developers and landowners in the 1980s. The preserve buffers a critical well field tapped by Tampa Bay Water's 1.8-million customers.
By getting approval for Connerton New Town Development, the Conners jacked up the price of their ranch beyond reach of the property's agricultural value.
But the Conners face a quandary familiar to lottery winners debating whether to take the money in yearly installments or one lump-sum payment.
The family can sell the ranch piecemeal to developers for, say, $30-million over 30 years of construction. Or they can accept an immediate payment of, say, $20-million from the water district.
A water district purchase would anger the budget balancers in Pasco County government. Connerton's 15,000 property-tax-paying homeowners are a prospect devoutly to be wished.
An adjacent industrial park in Connerton would bring in more taxes.
Pasco officials are fond of pointing out that more than a quarter of Pasco is already government owned and effectively off the tax rolls.
Of course, in the opinion of environmentalists, Connerton's moderately priced homes wouldn't begin to pay enough taxes to balance their consumption of government services: police, fire, water, roads and schools.
If the water agency bagged Connerton, what's in it for the average person?
The prospect of an 8,000-acre government-managed nature preserve accessible to horseback riders, hikers and bicyclists is attractive.
But more than a few of us, after gorging ourselves on the fast-food version of development sold in most of Pasco, are craving a taste of gourmet development a la Connerton.
- James Thorner covers growth and development in central Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 226-3458 or thorner@sptimes.com.