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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001
Editor: I find myself pondering some of the recent decisions made by Pasco County government, and I am flabbergasted at the unrealistic view of the needs and wants of the people they are representing. Two issues come to mind and are integrated together.
First, the decision to build another housing project while not addressing existing problems in Park Richey. There is only a 71 percent occupancy, and that would indicate we do not need more housing. The number of calls the Sheriff's Office has received in six months is more than 365, which I am sure surpasses most adjacent subdivisions. What does this tell you?
We are going to increase housing not needed so we can burden our Sheriff's Office even more. By the way, sheriff deputies don't want to live there because of vandalism to personal and county cars. This is more taxpayer money down the drain.
Furthermore, let's look at water. More families in less space and more water use. And this makes sense? Not to me, when all we do is talk about solutions and we are really creating our own problems.
One does not have to be a genius to see this, and one commissioner is worrying about being sued. I think he might not find that problem at next election time, along with the other two people who voted for this major mistake.
I have lived here for 17 years, and all I see are the good ol' boys doing business like usual. Can't we find accountability in our local government?
-- Virginia Mangano, Port Richey
Editor: Anybody who says that Hernando-Pasco County Line Road (County Road 578) isn't a well-traveled road, probably hasn't been there in more than 25 years. Because everybody is so worried about the rising cost of widening the road, I've got a simple solution for both Pasco and Hernando counties: a moratorium on development.
Development blocks the right of way for future lanes and raises the price of acquisition. The fact it's happening now, and not after the road is widened, proves that bigger and better roads do not produce suburban sprawl, contrary to the complaints of anti-highway zealots such as the Sierra Club and Citizens for Sanity. The notion that more development raises revenue for road improvements is just as much of a farce as the environmentalists' complaints against improving them. With more businesses and residents living and working on the right of way, you'll just have more private property being condemned, and more people rallying against improvements, regardless of how bad congestion becomes. The same thing happened to the roads of Long Island (New York State Route 347 is a notable example), and now it's happening here.
The proposed "no-build" alternative is not an acceptable option. However, if we continue to allow developers to have their free-for-all on County Line Road, it may be the only option available. Don't make the same mistakes they did in the Northeast. Widen County Line Road now, before the traffic becomes worse than U.S. 19.
-- Daniel Timothy Dey, Shady Hills
Editor: Zoning to allow building 8,000 new homes in Pasco County should not be approved.
It should be approved only if and when we have sufficient water with a large reserve to meet the needs for all the people in Pasco and the surrounding counties.
All we hear and read about is how critical the water problem is and how we must cut back and conserve what we have.
What incentive is there for us who try to use less, when we look around and all we see is land being cleared and the building of new homes?
Progress is essential to Pasco County, but we must slow down and fix our current water problems or there will be nothing left for any of us.
We all can live without a lot of things, but water is not one of them.
-- John N. Pagucci, New Port Richey
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