Housing plan for dirt-mine site trimmed

The developer, having abandoned efforts for a dirt mine in Wesley Chapel, will file a new proposal soon for 170 homes on the 274 acres, according to an attorney.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 5, 2000

WESLEY CHAPEL -- When developers withdrew plans to open a much-maligned dirt mine on 274 acres in Wesley Chapel, they were left holding less controversial plans to turn the property into a housing development.

Trouble is, Pasco County officials are still unsure how many homes the developer, C.I. Babcock's Safety Harbor Capital Corp., proposes to build.

Is it about 200 homes, the number announced during a meeting last month of the Pasco Development Review Committee?

Or is the real number 790 homes, the figure highlighted in an application submitted to the county's growth management office?

The truth makes a vast difference to dozens of neighbors living near the property between Boyette and Curley roads.

For Jerry Haxton, the neighbor who fought against Safety Harbor's earlier proposal to open a dirt mine on the property, 790 houses could be a disastrous intrusion in the neighborhood.

"That's not even feasible," he said. "That's ridiculous."

But 200 homes would be acceptable for the likes of Haxton and his neighbors, provided developers upgraded the auto-rattling dirt roads around the property.

"If they put in good roads I don't know if you can stop them," Haxton said.

In an attempt to explain the discrepancy, Karla Owens, the Dade City attorney representing Safety Harbor, said her client initially wanted to build 790 homes around a lake created by removal of dirt from the mine.

But with the abandonment last month of the mining proposal, Safety Harbor is considering a scaled-down subdivision of about 170 lots, Owens said.

Safety Harbor expects to substitute the 170-home proposal for the 790-home proposal within the next month.

While 790 homes would be more profitable, the smaller subdivision would probably have to clear fewer governmental hurdles.

The property is zoned for one home per acre, which appears to jibe with the plan for 170 homes.

"They would be single-family lots in keeping with the homes in the surrounding area," Owens said.

That's good news for Haxton, who feared his rural neighborhood north of Wesley Chapel High School would be overrun with hundreds of tightly packed homes.

"If they would bring up the neighborhood, I don't know that we should oppose them," he said.

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