Pioneer ranch may give way to 1,599 homes

A developer envisions a subdivision that would be the biggest in Holiday since Gulf Trace in the 1980s.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000

HOLIDAY -- After the Civil War, Capt. Samuel E. Hope, a Confederate Army officer wounded just before Appomattox, moved his family to hundreds of acres of land he bought near the mouth of the Anclote River.

Most of the coastal plain cleared by the trailblazing Hope has since become Holiday, the densely developed community north of Tarpon Springs popular with retirees.

Now, the last large chunk of the family's 19th century homestead, a 400-acre ranch still controlled by Hope's descendants, could soon be casting its lots with developers.

An out-of-state developer has pitched tentative plans for a 1,599-home subdivision and upscale golf course on the Mickler ranch, Pasco County officials said.

The news came at a recent "preapplication meeting." Such meetings let developers air their ideas before they formally submit paperwork for county approval.

If approved, the Mickler development would be the biggest in Holiday since Gulf Trace was developed in the 1980s.

Elaine Mickler, the widow of Hope's great-grandson, Bartley L. Mickler, said developers, whose names she declined to provide, have yet to confirm plans with her.

Mickler and her daughter run a beef cattle ranch on land east of Baillie's Bluff Road. Bartley Mickler died last year at the age of 79.

"I've had people coming to me all the time as far as development goes," Elaine Mickler said. "But there's no contract."

Viewed on a map, the Mickler spread looks as if it's the last missing puzzle piece amongst a hodgepodge of roads and canals in neighborhoods such as Holiday Lakes Estates.

The ranch has come under increasing development pressure with the groundbreaking this year of Key Vista.

That 700-home subdivision, earmarked for property that belonged to eye surgeon/developer James Gills, lies immediately north of the Mickler land.

American Indian activists tried to freeze the project after the discovery of ancient hand-worked stone chips on the property. In fact, one of the best-known Indian burial sites in the area, the Hope Mound, is named after the Micklers' ancestor.

To counterbalance the suburbanization of Holiday, Pasco recently opened Key Vista Park, a 101-acre nature preserve on Baillie's Bluff Road.

Although Elaine Mickler has worked with cattle for 30 years, the temptation to sell hangs in the air. The rooftops of the advancing suburbs loom beyond the trees near her gulfside home.

Then there are the hardships of ranch life, particularly the cattle slipping through the fences.

"It's not an easy job anymore," she said.

Developers' representatives could not be reached.

- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 226-3458 or thorner@sptimes.com

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