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Port Richey Looks To Buy Blighted Parcel

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 20, 2007

PORT RICHEY - To folks around here, it's known as the Spider's Web.

The Port Richey Mobile Home Park, which straddles the corner of Grand Boulevard and River Gulf Drive, has over the years earned a dubious reputation as the epicenter of drug-dealing and prostitution in the city's crime-ridden east end neighborhood.

Dope dealers plying their trade under the glow of halogen lights. Women hanging out in front of the convenience store across the street, turning tricks. Fighting and shootings.

Led by Vice Mayor Nancy Britton, a longtime east-ender, a small group of residents has banded together to drive out criminals and improve the neighborhood's blighted image.

They've worked with the police department to step up patrols in the area, held anti-crime marches and installed "zero-tolerance for crime" signs along Grand Boulevard.

Although things have been improving recently, the dilapidated mobile home park remains.

So now city officials want to buy the riverfront property and send in the bulldozers.

The city's Community Redevelopment Agency is scheduled next Tuesday consider a proposal to purchase the park with money from the CRA fund, which is slated for redevelopment projects.

"It's been a neighborhood eyesore for so many years," Britton said. "If we can buy it and find someone to redevelop the property, it will be a really great investment for the city."

Interim City Manager James Mathieu said he is in the process of getting an independent appraisal of the 1-acre property to present to CRA board members at the meeting.

Mathieu said he thinks the city can afford the expenditure. Ultimately, the purchase must be approved by the CRA board, which is composed of five council members.

The CRA fund, which earmarks nearly half of the city and county property tax proceeds its residents pay each year, is expected to amass more than $2 million this fiscal year.

Built in 1958, the mobile home park is owned by a St. Petersburg company and last year was valued at $622,752, according to the Pasco County Property Appraiser's Office.

There's only a handful of renters living on the property and although it has been on the market for several months, no one has made an offer to buy it, according to city officials.

"I think it's a very viable project," Mayor Richard Rober said. "We need to look at the logistics and numbers, but I think its something that would really improve the area."

Judy Parisi, an east-end resident and community activist, welcomed the proposal.

"This should have torn that place down years ago," she said. "It's a great idea."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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