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Utility plan is a jolt

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: November 5, 2009

TRILBY - Pasco County officials say they will protest plans to create a private water utility serving thousands of acres in northeast Pasco and Hernando counties.

The utility was proposed last month by Evans Properties in paperwork filed with the Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates utilities.

The Vero Beach-based company has large amounts of agricultural land in Pasco and Hernando counties. It was a key player in last year's county-led development of a long-range growth plan for the 22,000-acre Pasadena Hills area northwest of Zephyrhills.

The proposed water company, Skyland Utilities LLC, wouldn't target the Pasadena Hills area. Instead, it would serve a curving swath of Evans-owned land along the Pasco-Hernando county line near the junction of Interstate 75 and County Road 41.

As proposed, the utility would serve more than 4,000 acres of Evans' land in the area. The utility would be developed in five phases. Getting the system up and running could cost Skyland $1.2 million between 2010 and 2015, according to its PSC filing.

In their application, Evans officials say their facilities in the area would benefit from central water and sewer.

State law would allow the company to add neighboring residential and commercial landowners in the future. In its application with the PSC, Skyland says its utility could serve 140 residential customers by 2015 and more than 440 by 2024.

Evans officials have told Pasco County they want to create the water and sewer company in hopes of luring a major agricultural industry, such as a biofuel maker, to the area, said Bruce Kennedy, the assistant county administrator for utilities.

Evans' proposal was a surprise to Pasco County commissioners.

"I thought the board's goal was to get away from private utilities and toward public ownership," Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said this week.

The plan for a new utility comes as the Florida Governmental Utility Authority is preparing to buy its second private water provider in Pasco County. The deal with Lindrick Service Corp. is expected to close next month, said Hildebrand, who is a Lindrick customer.

The utility authority took possession of troubled Aloha Utilities Inc. earlier this year, its first acquisition in Pasco. The state-chartered agency was created to place private water utilities under public ownership.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 731-8168.

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