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Park Is An 'Eyesore' Before It Even Opens, Resident Says

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By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Published: June 24, 2008

PORT RICHEY - Even before it has officially opened, Lake Lisa Park has drawn complaints about conditions at the site.

Construction is in the final phases for the neighborhood park on Regency Park Boulevard about midway between Ridge Road and Embassy Boulevard.

Ernie Setz of Port Richey recently wrote to complain the park should have been fenced off until it is ready. Some of the turf has been destroyed by parked cars, he wrote in a letter. The grass has been worn down along Maplehurst Drive, the southern boundary of the park just north of Stone Road.
Setz generally regards the area as an eyesore, and says the county should patrol the area better when construction is done.

"It is heavily used," Martha Campbell, administrative services manager for the Pasco County Parks and Recreation Department, said of Lake Lisa Park. "It is not even officially open yet."

A grand opening might take place by August, Campbell said.

A roaming county parks crew stops by the park several times a week.

"I think people should take better care of their neighborhood park," Campbell said about abuse of the park. Perhaps volunteers will come forward to help at Lake Lisa because the county staff is stretched thin.

Lake Lisa had been conceived as one of several smaller, neighborhood "passive" parks with limited facilities and without any permanent staff.

Protests by some 300 residents in 2001 contributed to the rejection of plans for a low-income, 160-unit apartment complex on the 15-acre site. In 2003, the county arranged to buy the property. A state grant for about $200,000, which the county matched, funded the park project.

The contractor has installed a trail, picnic shelter, playground and basketball courts. Some culvert work remains, along with minor repairs on the playground, Campbell said.

More such parks are in the works. The county hopes to develop 15 acres at Eagle Point, a coastal preserve with more than 600 acres total along Trouble Creek Road.

The state also put up half of the $400,000 available to develop Eagle Point near the entrance. Plans call for a nature trail, picnic shelter, playground, kayak launch and other limited facilities.

"That's going to be really incredible," Campbell said, although it might take another year or so before work begins. Construction has to start before the state grant expires in two years, she pointed out.

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