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Members from five planning districts will consider changes to the land use plan.
By JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001
Pasco County has split into five planning districts to refashion the land use plan that determines what development can go where.
As part of a settlement between the county and environmentalists last year, Pasco agreed to create a 25-person citizens advisory committee to recommend changes to the land use plan by October 2003.
Commissioners will choose five members from each of the five planning districts. The county's growth management office created the districts, which don't correspond to the five commissioners' districts, by grouping similar communities together.
District 1, including Shady Hills and Aripeka, will run from the Gulf of Mexico to Bellamy Brothers Boulevard near San Antonio, from State Road 52 to County Line Road.
District 2, which includes Dade City and the cities of Saint Leo and San Antonio, runs west-to-east from Bellamy Brothers to the Sumpter County line and north-to-south from Hernando County to Clinton Avenue and SR 52.
District 3 takes in most of the west Pasco coastal communities, from Holiday and Trinity in the south to Hudson in the north. Its eastern boundary is Little Road.
District 4 starts at Little Road and SR 52 and runs southeast to encompass Odessa, Land O'Lakes and part of Wesley Chapel west of Interstate 75.
District 5 begins east of I-75 and runs to the Polk County line, taking in Zephyrhills and Crystal Springs.
As commissioners approved the districts Tuesday night, county attorney Robert Sumner stressed the need to balance committee membership between landowners/developers and environmentalists.
The criticism of earlier citizens advisory committees was that overrepresentation by developers stifled opposition from slow-growth activists.
"We were run over," said Judy Williams, a water activist from Land O'Lakes who sat on the last incarnation of the committee. "They beat us 3-to-1."
About 40 people have submitted applications for the 25 committee positions. The county plans to continue taking applications through March. After commissioners appoint the committee in April, the group could convene in May.