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Developers reluctant to build roads in Pasco
By JAMES THORNER © St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2000 Developers sought speedy approval for about 2,000 new homes before the Pasco County Development Review Committee on Thursday, but they hemmed and hawed and hedged when it came to building roads to serve those developments. The developers' road resistance left county administrator John Gallagher, who chairs the development committee, groaning in frustration. "I'm going to have a whole bunch of cramped-in houses on cramped-in corridors, and it's not going to be pleasant," Gallagher said near the end of the 3 1/2-hour meeting. Pasco envisions a network of roads to serve an estimated 7,000 homes proposed for farmland between U.S. 41 and the Suncoast Parkway. The county expects each developer proposing a subdivision there to contribute a share of right of way and asphalt. The first development up for approval Thursday was U.S. Home Corp.'s 1,599-home LeDantec subdivision on 1,166 acres north of State Road 54 in Land O'Lakes. Pasco asked U.S. Home to build two major east-west roads and one major north-south road to access LeDantec. Joel Tew, the attorney representing U.S. Home, complained the company was shouldering an unfair burden. U.S. Home said it would pay for two lanes of road. Any more lanes than that and the company demanded a reduction in impact fees paid to the county. "What you're asking the developers to do is build your regional road network," Tew said. That's right, Gallagher said. See how many homes you will sell if your home buyers must rely on the increasingly crowded SR 54, he told Tew. Gallagher said he wanted to avoid the traffic jams that prevailed on Little Road before it was widened. "We all know with the growth that's out there, I'm going to need that additional right of way," he said. A compromise ended the impasse. The county agreed to negotiate a reduction in the amount of right of way demanded for the north-south road, known as Sunlake Boulevard. In return, U.S. Home stuck to its agreement to provide a 100-foot corridor for two east-west roads, one called Lake Patience Road Extension. Later in the meeting, developers for the 273-acre Cordoba development, about 2 miles west of LeDantec, tried their hand at tussling with Gallagher over roads. Pointing to the 100-foot corridor provided by U.S. Home, representatives of developer Lance Ponton inquired about reducing their right-of-way requirement from 120 to 100 feet. Cordoba, which lies northeast of SR 54 and the Suncoast Parkway, calls for about 800 houses and apartments. Turning in the direction of Bipin Parikh, the assistant county administrator in charge of development, Gallagher knocked county staffers for using different standards for different developers. "Every time I turn around there's a different right of way," Gallagher said before rejecting Cordoba's request for a narrower road. Developer John "Hi" Sierra fared no better than Cordoba. Sierra is trying to build an upscale, 147-home subdivision called Sunset Lakes northwest of SR 54 and U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes. Citing lack of available land, Sierra's attorney, Ben Harrill, asked to be freed from a requirement to widen Morgan Road to 50 feet. The county had demanded that width so it could offer sidewalks on both sides of the road. The development committee approved preliminary plans for Sunset Lakes, but refused to yield on the road issue.
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