Developer's golf course plans upset activists

A proposed 18-hole course in a 648-acre project just south of Pasco has some environmentalists seeing red.

By MICHAEL SANDLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 2, 2000

WEST MEADOWS -- On both sides of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, housing developments, golf courses and shopping centers fill the landscape. But toward County Line Road, rows of trees still dominate the tract of countryside likely to be renamed Grand Hampton.

For now, the trees stand tall on Tampa's northernmost edge, an example of what New Tampa looked like just a couple of decades ago. They stretch west for miles toward the Cypress Creek Preserve, a watershed that empties into the Hillsborough County River, the city's main source of drinking water.

But in the coming years, Toll Brothers Inc. hopes to build 829 single-family homes, 750 apartments and another golf course on those 648 acres just south of Pasco County. The planned community would sit on land that includes a protected wildlife preserve and would narrow the open space bordering the watershed, issues that have sparked concern among environmental advocates. The land, owned by The Giunta Group Ltd., was annexed into the city in late 1998.

The current site plan shows the location of homes, but not a golf course, a huge point of contention with local and national representatives from the Sierra Club, as well as top city officials. As Toll Brothers refines its plans, two questions are on the minds of many, including Mayor Dick Greco: Will there be a golf course and where will it go?

"We are adamantly opposed to a golf course," said Beth Connor, a national representative with the Sierra Club. "We are praying they take that out. The whole Tampa Bay area has a glut of golf courses. That just brings another host of problems."

Ed Weber, a vice president of operations with Toll Brothers, declined to comment on the project.

Joel Tew, a Clearwater attorney representing Toll Brothers, said plans for the 18-hole, regulation golf course are being finalized, a plan his client never intended to change.

"We believe a golf course development is entirely sensitive to the environment," Tew said. "I guess if golf courses polluted the river, we'd all be dead by now. The Sierra Club has known from the beginning that this is a golf club community. This is not news to anyone."

Tew will represent Toll Brothers on July 13 when it goes before the City Council to seek a change in the zoning of the property from agricultural to residential and general commercial use.

"The reason there is a lot of things going in that area is that is what the public is asking for and that is what the public is buying," Tew said. "That is the market. What's being constructed is what the market is demanding."

But before the zoning change can be approved, Toll Brothers must meet a Tampa ordinance by setting aside 106.4 acres of upland habitat. The city rejected the developer's original proposal of 97.4 acres on the site and 9 acres off-site, calling it fragmented.

Tew said the Pennsylvania developer will propose to pay $673,299.20, or $6,328 per acre, to protect habitats elsewhere, using an "off-site mitigation' option recommended by the city.

"Our position was this fragmentation would not preserve the upland habitat in perpetuity," said Yvonne Wilder, a naturalist with Tampa's Parks Department and a member of the mayor's environmental committee. "In the long term, it would not preserve the upland habitat on site. The quality of the habitat would be degraded over time, quite possibly, if it was maintained in this fragmented configuration."

Although the city has the right to enforce its ordinance, it cannot stop the developer from building a golf course. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has the final say.

Michael Molligan, a spokesman for Swiftmud, said the developer has yet to apply for an environmental-resource permit and a wetlands permit. The first would ensure that changing the elevation of the property would not alter the rate, quantity and quality of water running off the ground. In the case of the wetlands permit, the developer must restore, enhance or preserve any wetlands on the property. If it cannot, any damage must be mitigated by preserving or creating an equal number of wetlands elsewhere.

The permits are likely to depend on how the proposed course will affect Cypress Creek and Trout Creek, two tributaries of the Hillsborough River.

"If they leave a large upland buffer on Trout Creek, I would think the burden of proof would be on we, the environmental community," said David Sumpter, an adviser on the mayor's environmental committee.

Ron Rotella, a special consultant to Mayor Greco, said the city's top official met with the developer last year and asked them to reconsider.

"It would be nice if they dropped the golf course," Rotella said. "They were very receptive. We haven't heard from them in a long time. Now they've submitted a new plan and it still includes a golf course."

Rotella said the mayor has scheduled a meeting this week with his environmental committee to discuss a broad range of environmental topics.

"I'm sure this one will come up for discussion," Rotella said.

One person expected to offer an opinion is Denise Layne, co-chairwoman of the conservation committee for Sierra Club's Tampa Bay chapter. She hopes the developer will meet with the Sierra Club and consider taking the project in a new direction.

"We are not out to trash for the sake of trashing," Layne said. "This is unnecessary. If these developers would work with the beauty they have there, they could be the primo green development out there, the first of its kind. We are hoping to look to the developers as leaders, on how to do it right."

Should the developer proceed with its plans, Connor hopes it considers the watershed.

"We understand they have the right to develop that property," Connor said. "We just think it should be designed better, to accentuate the features that they need to have a successful development while also protecting the watershed."

- Michael Sandler can be reached at (813) 226-3472 or sandler@sptimes.com.

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