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Despite Outcry, 2 Residential Projects OK'd

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2007

Updated: 09/23/2007 08:44 pm

LAND O' LAKES - County officials have approved construction plans for two residential projects that earlier had provoked an outcry from residents of nearby Carson Drive.

The two developments - one with 10 single-family homes, the other with 48 town houses - will be built on land owned by Robert and Joy Hagman.

The developer, Mobley Homes of Tampa, has experience with town houses at Lake Bernadette near Zephyrhills, plus other residential projects in Hillsborough County.
Company officials say they plan to start construction on the single-family homes in three or four months and on the town houses early next year.

'We've been gauging what the market is,' said Mobley Homes Vice President Marc Mobley.

The 10 single-family homes will sit on lakefront land at the southern end of Lake Padgett.

When initially proposed last year, the Hagmans' plan drew a strong response from their neighbors in the Carson Drive area, who feared dozens of new cars daily would join the already heavy traffic on their streets.

The Hagmans have owned their property, populated by orange groves, since the 1980s. They spent most of last year defending their development plans, which their Carson Drive neighbors worried would disrupt their lives.
Carson Drive sits just north of State Road 54 and extends east from U.S. 41 running behind the Village Lakes Shopping Center. It's a narrow, poorly maintained county road that dead-ends at Lake Jo Ann.

As part of their deal with the county, the developers will block access to Carson Drive from the new homes and town houses.

Access to the residential properties will be from U.S. 41 at a point just south of Ducheon's Nursery.

Residents along Carson Drive and its tributary streets say they have yet to see many of the changes county officials originally promised to protect the community from traffic and other potentially detrimental side effects of the developments.

One of those promised changes - not directly related to the Hagman project - was erecting a sign banning trucks from using Carson as a cut-through to reach the nearby shopping center.

The eastern end of Carson Drive has become a popular spot for truck drivers to idle while waiting to deliver their goods, much to residents' chagrin.

'We have talked about general things numerous times and they promise things, then never follow through,' Lynn Picou said about county officials.

'It leaves you wondering if they're going to follow through on other things.'

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

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