TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Builder To Fight Density Decision

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 30, 2007

DADE CITY - A proposal for a high-density subdivision on the western border of Dade City drew a strong reaction from neighboring residents and city officials during Thursday's Development Review Committee meeting.

The Citrus Ridge development is proposed for 112 acres owned by Uradco, the development arm of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, which has its headquarters on land just to the east. The property would be accessed from St. Joe Road.

The developer, Clearwater-based Bayshore Broadway, originally proposed building 450 homes on the land - 390 of them single-family houses - in the traditional-neighborhood style that features front porches, rear alleys and backyard garages. The houses would sit on lots between 50 and 80 feet wide, averaging four homes per acre.

By the end of Thursday's three-hour hearing, Bayshore had backed down to 400 homes, a figure about 30 percent lower than the maximum number of homes the developer could build on the property.

That 400-home figure still didn't satisfy the review committee, however. The committee, led by County Administrator John Gallagher, cut the project down to 358 homes - a density equal to Dade City's citywide average of 3.2 homes per acre. The committee also demanded the development be linked to Blanton Road to reduce the potential traffic load on St. Joe Road.

Bayshore attorney Joel Tew grudgingly accepted the lower figure and agreed to return to the review committee on Jan. 24 with a new design based on it.

After the hearing, Tew said he intends to appeal to the Pasco County Commission for the 400-home ceiling. Without that number of homes, the traditional-neighborhood design - a pattern county officials favor - isn't financially feasible, he said.

Bayshore's proposal requires a rezoning by the county to shift the land from a low-density rural nature to a more suburban pattern. That rezoning was the focus of Thursday's hearing.

Bayshore originally contemplated annexing the project into Dade City last year, but met with resistance from surrounding landowners and was rejected by city officials who said the project was too dense for the area.

"We love that style of house," Dade City Mayor Hutch Brock said of the project. "In this location, it's not the right fit."

City officials have recommended building half the number of homes, a sentiment county staff members shared at the outset of the hearing.

Tew argued that approach would wreck the traditional-neighborhood design and turn the project into just another version of suburban sprawl found elsewhere in Pasco County.

City officials also opposed the project because of the burden it would create on St. Joe Road and its awkward, offset intersection with 21st Street and Meridian Avenue, City Attorney Karla Owens said.

Tew said that local resistance ignores the fact that the project mimicked the density and design of the city's historical grid street pattern just a few hundred yards away.

"All we are is a logical extension of that pattern, but with new TND traditional neighborhool design criteria," Tew said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at kwiatrowski

@tampatrib.com or (813) 948-4201.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT