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Housing Plan Gets Panel's OK

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 25, 2008

DADE CITY - Clearwater-based developer Bayshore Broadway won preliminary rezoning approval for a controversial project on the western edge of Dade City after a lengthy hearing by the Pasco County Development Review Committee.

Bayshore Broadway wants to develop 112 acres on the north side of St. Joe Road on land owned by the development arm of the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative.

The rezoning was approved pending a new traffic study by Bayshore. If county staffers have no problem with the results of that study, the rezoning will move on to county commissioners for a final vote.

The Citrus Ridge project sits in an area that county officials have designated as a transition zone from low-density rural development to Dade City's denser urban grid.

Committee members last month reduced the number of houses Bayshore could build on the property to bring it in line with the overall density of Dade City. That figure - 358 homes - still makes the project denser than the surrounding land.

The project has drawn strong criticism from the city commission, as well as residents of St. Joe Road and the Tank Hill neighborhood. They argue that the density is too great.

The developer has proposed a project with alleys and grid streets similar to "traditional neighborhood" projects like Longleaf in western Pasco.

Thursday's hearing, which took nearly 90 minutes, re-trod many of the issues raised during a four-hour hearing last month.

The list ranged from density to flooding to school crowding.

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

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