TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Group Challenges T. Rowe Price Permit

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: March 14, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Citizens for Sanity, Pasco County's home-grown environmental group, has thrown a wrench into the county's hopes of landing financial giant T. Rowe Price.

Citizens has challenged the development permit T. Rowe Price got Feb. 13 from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, also known as Swiftmud. That permit lets the company build on 94 acres at the southwest corner of State Road 54 and Sunlake Boulevard.

The challenge claims T. Rowe Price will destroy 1 acre of wetlands on the property. It also demands to know how T. Rowe Price plans to provide drinking water to its 450,000-square-foot office complex.

Citizens also criticizes Swiftmud for fast-tracking T. Rowe Price's permit.

"Consequently, there has been virtually no time for anyone to fully review and analyze the project's impacts," Citizens officials say in their filing.

Pasco County Commissioner Michael Cox dismissed Citizens' criticisms.

"There are no grounds for this objection," Cox said. "We couldn't ask for a better corporate partner from an environmental perspective."

Cox has helped lure T. Rowe Price from Tampa. The company plans to build a 1,200-worker expansion that, if combined with workers in Tampa, could bring more than 1,600 jobs to Pasco.

T. Rowe Price has garnered more than $30 million in state and local subsidies to sweeten the potential relocation.

Company officials continue to weigh their options for the expansion.

The Citizens for Sanity complaint sends T. Rowe Price's Swiftmud permit to the state's Division of Administrative Hearings for review. That process could take several months.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT