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City Halts Plan For Zephyrhills Water

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS - It's one of the largest private employers in the city, one that's helped put this town on the map.

Monday night, however, the Zephyrhills Spring Water Co. was rebuffed by a city that typically embraced its business plans.

After hearing an impassioned plea from a resident who lives near the bottled water plant, the council refused to accept a report recommending a land-use change that would accommodate further growth of the 20th Street plant.

"Stop this rape of the land and destruction of our wildlife," said Zach Arnold, whose family has lived on Leaf Lane, a dirt road just outside the city, for 100 years. "You tell us we have water shortages. I wonder why."

Fueled by a boom in the bottled water industry, the Zephyrhills Spring Water Co. in the past two years has snatched up land and a few houses in the area near its facility. No actual expansion plans have been filed with city hall, but Nestle Waters Co. North America, Zephyrhills Water's parent company, has said it wants to add 160,000 square feet of warehouse space to the plant.

The company also has discussed building a new retention pond and adding parking. One of the properties purchased by the company - 6.8 acres off Tucker Road, east of Leaf Lane - is slated for a retention pond. It was up for discussion Monday night, because the company had petitioned the city to rezone the land for light industrial development. The land is currently zoned for residential use.

Arnold, who said eagles and owls have stopped flying near his property in recent years, said after the meeting he thinks the company has other plans that would be detrimental to the area.

"This is a fact: The water plant's going to drain us," he said.
City council approval of the planning commission report would have directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance allowing the land-use change. The council initially was set to approve the report. However, after Arnold spoke, Councilwoman Celia Graham rescinded her motion to second the report. After that, no one else stepped up to move the proposal forward.

"I agreed with what he said," she said after the meeting. "He's right; we are doing that to our environment, and it's terrible."

After the vote, representatives from Nestle Waters Co. North America declined to talk to a reporter and left quickly.

Nestle can take its petition back to the city council for another vote, city officials said after the meeting.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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