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Pedestrian-Friendly Starkey Ranch A Step Closer

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By KEVIN WIATROWKSI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

ODESSA - County commissioners, acting as the county's Local Planning Agency, gave a green light to plans for Starkey Ranch, the development planned by brothers Frank and Trey Starkey on land their family has owned since the 1930s.

The family plans to turn more than 2,530 acres it owns along State Road 54 into a pedestrian-friendly community that would be an expansion of the family's Longleaf project at S.R. 54 and Starkey Boulevard.

The project got a favorable ruling from the state Department of Community Affairs last year. It will go to county commissioners for final consideration Sept. 23.

The Starkeys hope to clear the remaining government hurdles by the end of the year. Construction would begin in 2010, with the first homes available a year later, the Starkeys have said.

The development will feature a downtown-style commercial center just north of the junction of S.R. 54 and Gunn Highway. Like Longleaf, the residential neighborhoods will feature homes with front porches and rear alleys.

About 1,400 acres of the project will be set aside as conservation land. The property sits just south of the J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park, created when the family donated the bulk of its 16,000-acre ranch to the state for preservation.

The project also will feature the county's first county park that will be shared with the county school district. The school complex, which will have a middle and elementary school, will take in 15 acres adjacent to 16 acres of playgrounds owned by the county and leased to the school district. The playgrounds will be part of an 80-acre district park serving southwest Pasco.

The Starkeys will make $58 million in road improvements to offset the effect of their project. County officials will reimburse them for $29 million in improvements related to a new business center on S.R. 54 east of the West Pasco Industrial Park, among other things.

"The Starkey family is definitely going to create a sense of place," said Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, who represents southwest Pasco. "It's the debut of a new era in development."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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