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Residents Gain Some Of Their Demands

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2007

HUDSON - Nearly 200 Beacon Woods residents packed the county's hearing room in New Port Richey on Thursday to oppose two projects many feared would lower their property values and damage their quality of life.

The projects - one commercial, the other residential - sandwich The Estates, a residential community near the junction of Little Road and Hudson Avenue in the southeast corner of the massive golf course community.

Both projects ultimately cleared the Development Review Committee after more than two hours of hearings and last-minute negotiations that forced the developer to meet some of residents' demands.

The 7-acre commercial property sits in the northwest corner of the intersection. The developer, Jacksonville-based Atlantic Pasco LLC, has submitted plans for a fast-food restaurant, small strip center and a Goodyear tire store on the property.

The tire store drew the ire of residents whose homes back up to Atlantic Pasco's land. Residents of nearby streets worried that the tire store would produce too much noise as well as air and water pollution, to the detriment of their homes and lives.

'We do not want the project to continue with the tire store in that location,' Edward Balkin told members of the Development Review Committee.

Atlantic Pasco attorney Shelly Johnson said the tire shop will face Little Road, projecting any noise away from the nearby homes. The developer also plans to plant larger-than-required trees between the store and the homes, Johnson said.

A noise analysis suggested that with the addition of quieter tools, the tire shop would be no more noisy than traffic on Little Road.

Residents weren't buying it, even when an employee of Goodyear demonstrated the difference between a conventional air-powered wrench and a new, quieter model.

Johnson declined county officials' first request that Atlantic Pasco build a wall behind its property to block any sounds that might annoy residents. Similar walls were built behind commercial projects on the other corners of the Little-Hudson intersection.

Ultimately, DRC members demanded the wall along the northern and western edges of the property. The developer may appeal that decision to county commissioners.

The Estates residents won a second battle with developers, this time with home builder D.R. Horton, which plans to erect homes and town houses on land to the west of The Estates.

Residents objected to plans to bring dump trucks - more than 9,000 trips by some accounts - through their neighborhood streets on the way to the Beacon Park site.

Johnson stood fast that her client had the right to use the streets, which are public, and promised to restore any damage the trucks might cause.

DRC members insisted the developer find a different route. After much haggling, County Administrator John Gallagher ordered the developer to use Buffalo Road, a little-used dirt road just north of The Estates.

Gallagher offered $15,000 of county money - half to a third of the total cost to improve the road enough to support the dump trucks.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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