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Zephyrhills/East Pasco News

Pace of growth quickens in Zephyrhills

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Burgeoning residential and commercial growth has been a prime theme of late, within the City of Zephyrhills.

Thousands of new homes are on the books, and there’s an influx of new businesses, too.

The city now claims a Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Starbucks, and Wawa, too.

The surging growth is keeping the city’s building department busy.

Longtime building official Bill Burgess shared just how busy they’ve been — during an Aug. 9 Zephyrhills City Council meeting,

The department issued 1,765 permits, from Oct. 1 through July 30, according to Burgess’ report.

The Zephyrhills Building Department issued 1,765 permits from Oct. 1 through July 30. The department also handled 6,226 site inspections during that time frame. (File)

General residential building accounted for the bulk of the work — with 788 permits issued for miscellaneous home upgrades like screen rooms, roofs, sheds, air conditioning changeouts and solar panel installations. That represents 44% of total permits issued.

“We’re getting solar permits left and right,” Burgess said.

There’s also been significant demand for new residential building construction — with 407 permits issued for single-family dwellings and multi-family units. That represents 23% of the total permits issued.

Residential additions and alterations accounted for 162 permits, representing 9.2% of the total;  electric service replacement, 159 permits, for 9% of the total; general commercial building, 104 permits, for 5.9% of the total; and, new fire systems, 77 permits, representing 4.4% of the total.

The department also issued 20 new commercial building permits. However, he was quick to point out that those permits don’t necessarily mean that many brand-new buildings are coming aboard.

Some of those permits, he explained, are for signage and other ancillary items.

The building department handled 6,227 site inspections during the October to July timeline, which equates to roughly 35 inspections each business day, Burgess said.

Given the level of activity, the department’s seven staffers — who handle permitting, inspections, code enforcement and other duties — have had their hands full, Burgess said.

“We’ve been busy,” Burgess told council members, noting it has been good for the city and the city’s finances.

“It has been a good year,” he said. “I think it’ll help the budget.”

Times certainly have changed, noted Burgess, who has worked for the city since 1990.

He recalled, with a chuckle, how he used to know just about every person who came into the building department for a permit, inspections and other matters.

“That’s not the case anymore,” he said.

Still, the department tries to maintain its “hometown” feel, he said.

“As we get bigger, it gets a little harder,” Burgess said.

In the discussion with council members, Burgess acknowledged the need for succession planning and boosting departmental staffing in the near future — perhaps in fiscal year 2022-23.

“If things continue the way they are, I will be coming to you all to talk about staff,” Burgess told the council.

“We were comfortable this year, I think this coming fiscal year we’ll be OK…so I think we’re in good shape and we can handle it for another one,” Burgess said.

Councilman Lance Smith, however, noted the cyclical nature of the real estate market and cautioned that the city’s growth may slow in coming years.

Burgess agreed that outcome is possible, but he posited the East Pasco community’s nearby distance to Tampa likely will equate to measured growth for a while.

“I think we’re going to be in a good place for several years, just my feeling, just because of our proximity to Tampa and everybody pushing out,” he said.

Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson queried Burgess about the department’s ongoing code enforcement efforts and legal resolutions.

The building official said the coronavirus pandemic “put a damper” on the time frames of trials and arraignments to settle outstanding issues. This included about a six-month lull in such court system meetings, he said.

Though activity picked up in recent months with the courts, Burgess said, questions remain if measures again will begin to slow down amid the surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant.

“Who knows with this new variant if they’ll make a change again,” Burgess said.

After Burgess’ presentation, Councilmen Alan Knight and Charles Proctor commended the building department’s overall level of professionalism and proactiveness in dealing with the public at large.

City Manager Billy Poe echoed those sentiments, sharing a positive testimonial from the owner-operator of the new Chick-fil-A on Gall Boulevard, which celebrated its grand opening late last month.

Poe relayed how the Chick-fil-A manager “had nothing but praise for the building department and how well the building department worked with them.”

Poe also mentioned Chick-fil-A officials being satisfied with the efficiency of the city’s site plan review and permitting process, compared to locations in other municipalities: “They said, that if they were building anywhere else, (the grand opening) would’ve been two weeks to a month later, because the hassles, I guess, they get from other municipalities, so I thought that was good to hear and needed to be passed along.”

Published September 01, 2021

Zephyrhills to receive over $8 million in COVID-19 relief funds

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The City of Zephyrhills will receive about $8.24 million in federal grant funds — direct monetary relief related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law in March by President Joe Biden to speed up recovery from economic and health impacts due to the pandemic.

The $8 million-plus figure is based on the city’s resident population.

Zephyrhills is considered a non-entitlement city, so it will receive its ARPA allocation from the state’s Florida Division of Emergency Management rather than the federal government directly, according to a staff report from Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe.

All available information suggests there will be two allocations — one year apart — with the first allocation anticipated sometime after Oct. 1 of this year, Poe said.

Funds will be disbursed to the city within 30 days of the state receiving the funds from the federal government. They are to be used to cover expenses incurred by the city before Dec. 31, 2024.

The funding can be used to respond to the following:

  • Public health and economic impacts
  • Premium pay for essential workers
  • Revenue loss
  • Investments in infrastructure

Poe further explained how the relief funding could be deployed down the line, while addressing the Zephyrhills City Council during an Aug. 23 regular meeting.

“It’s pretty clear you can spend it on water or wastewater and broadband infrastructure,” he said. “There’s also an argument that you can spend it on parks and open areas; I just haven’t figured out exactly how they’ve made that argument, and so we’re looking at that, as well.”

Additional meetings will be scheduled to discuss and approve the allocation of funds to the appropriate projects, Poe said.

The city council unanimously approved the ARPA coronavirus local fiscal recovery fund agreement, and authorized the city manager to electronically sign the necessary documents.

Published September 01, 2021

Zephyrhills sets legislative priorities

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The City of Zephyrhills has solidified three legislative projects to present to the Pasco County legislative delegation at its annual meeting.

The session is set for Sept. 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Zephyrhills City Hall, 5335 Eighth St.

The public, and representatives of various interest groups and local governments are invited to present their requests to the delegation before the 2022 Legislative Session begins.

The City of Zephyrhills is seeking a $5 million state appropriation for myriad improvements to Zephyr Park, 38116 Fifth Ave. Shown here is a draft concept from a park master plan. (Courtesy of City of Zephyrhills)

With that, the Zephyrhills City Council unanimously approved a staff recommendation to seek funding for the following multimillion dollar projects, during an Aug. 23 regular meeting:

  • Sewer main extension/water main extension — Kossik Road and Fort King Road ($3.48 million)
  • Zephyrhills Municipal Airport — taxiway, two box hangers, fixed-base operator/terminal ($5.33 million)
  • Zephyr Park improvements ($5 million)

The next step was for representatives from the city to ask state Rep. Randy Maggard and state Sen. Danny Burgess to sponsor the projects on its behalf, during the delegation meeting.

Here’s a closer look at the priority projects, which also were outlined in a report prepared by Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe.

Sewer main extension/water main extension — Kossik Road and Fort King Road
This $3.48 million project calls for connecting sewer lines along Kossik Road from U.S. 301 to Fort King Road, then from Fort King Road north to Phelps Road and south to Simons Road.

It also includes a water main along Kossik Road, from Greenslope Drive to Fort King Road.

The sewer main portion will allow for the decommissioning of existing septic tanks along the route and will accommodate proposed development.

The water main portion will create a loop in the system, allowing for redundancy by being able to service the area from different directions.

The comprehensive project, Poe said, “will help to create a loop for the water system and install a sewer main that’ll open up our system, kind of in the northwest corner of our city.”

Zephyrhills Municipal Airport — taxiway, two box hangers, fixed-base operator/terminal
This Zephyrhills Municipal Airport improvement project is three-pronged, with each portion combining to total $5.33 million, if funded in its entirety.

The first piece calls for two box hangers on the southern infield — totaling slightly over $1.9 million — to house larger aircraft and boost economic development opportunities in coordination with the extension of Runway 1-19.

The housing of aircraft at the airport also will help to increase turbine operations, therefore beneficial for future FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) funding, officials say.

The second portion — totaling $725,000 — would be the construction of the parallel taxiway, from Runway 5-23 north to Taxiway Bravo to allow aircraft housed in the proposed hangers to access both runways 5-23 and 1-19.

The project’s third component is to construct a new fixed-base operator terminal — costing $2.7 million — to offer better service to pilots that fly in and out of the airport.

Poe said the airport project can be split into separate parts, but advised the entire package be submitted to the delegation, “and then let the state say, ‘Hey, we would only like to fund half of that, or a portion of it.’”

The airport is located at 39450 South Ave.

Zephyr Park improvements
For the past several years, the city has conjured up various ideas on how to spruce up the 34-acre Zephyr Park, at 38116 Fifth Ave.

It presently features Alice Hall Community Hall, lighted tennis courts, handball, fishing, picnic pavilions, barbecue grills, horseshoe pits, playground equipment and a lakeside trail.

But the Zephyrhills Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) envisions the community park to be much more — a place within walking distance to the city’s downtown core, intersecting recreation, fun and art.

Redeveloping the space into a blended urban natural park would provide a connection from downtown to the west of the CRA district, officials say, while promoting the economic development of surrounding neighborhoods and expansion of the downtown area.

The city organized a community open house back in May 2016 to gather input on what enhancements residents would like to see at Zephyr Park. A Zephyr Park master plan also was completed shortly afterwards, by project consultant Kimley-Horn and Burkhardt Construction Inc.

A draft concept shows an event lawn, family fun zone, wedding lawn, dog park, history garden, splash pad, fitness zone, bandshell, and pedestrian bridges, boardwalks and terraces surrounding Lake Zephyr, among other frills.

Should Zephyr Park gain state funding — is requesting $5 million— Poe acknowledged that staff will revisit and likely refine some of the park’s drafted redevelopment plans “because it has been several years,” since those talks took place.

The city manager put it like this: “We’ll look at it, talk about it, tweak it, because, you know, maybe the interest of the community has changed from the time when we originally did the plans, so we’ll look at all that.”

Published September 01, 2021

Dade City Commission solidifies legislative priorities

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The City of Dade City has identified four legislative priorities to present to the Pasco County legislative delegation at its upcoming annual meeting.

The session is for Sept. 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Zephyrhills City Hall, 5335 Eighth St.

The public and representatives of various interest groups are invited to present their requests to the delegation before the 2022 Legislative Session begins.

Pasco’s delegation includes State Reps. Amber Mariano, Ardian Zika and Randy Maggard; and State Sens. Wilton Simpson, Ed Hooper and Danny Burgess, respectively.

The Dade City Commission is seeking state funding for these key priorities:

  • Morningside Drive Extension: $8 million
  • Meridian Avenue/21st Street/St. Joe Road-Suwanee Way Intersection: $4.2 million
  • Wastewater Transmission Forcemain: $4.7 million
  • Wastewater Treatment Plant Relocation — design and permitting: $1.75 million

The four projects are described, in a staff memo, as elements that would foster “an overall favorable effect on our local and regional economic development efforts.”

The extension of Morningside Drive to connect U.S. 301 to Fort King Road is undergoing a route study, design and engineering of the project, following a $5 million state appropriation in 2019. Another $8 million is needed to complete the project, with rising construction and right of way acquisition costs. The preferred 1.19-mile route is shown in the rendering. (File)

The city document explains how the municipality’s economy has been “greatly enhanced” through redevelopment efforts during the past several years.

But it also underscores the town’s “many challenges” that are related to its aging infrastructure systems and its large percentage of nontaxable properties.

The memo also mentions “the need to attract more business, industry and residential rooftops to help improve its local economic situation.”

Dade City, incorporated in 1889, has a population of about 7,400. It is the county seat of Pasco County.

Here’s a more detailed look at the priority projects:

Morningside Drive Extension
The primary aim of extending Morningside Drive is to relieve Clinton and Meridian avenues by providing additional eastbound and westbound travel options for residents and visitors. But the extension also would provide direct east-west access for AdventHealth Dade City.

The proposed roadway also would accommodate new development, improve emergency response times and serve as a corridor for the extension of utility services.

City leaders, however, were surprised when they learned the project’s expected cost.

The city received $5 million in state appropriations in 2019 and is now asking for an additional $8 million. That money, if awarded, would go toward securing necessary right of way and constructing the road.

The initial $5 million is paying for a route study, design and engineering of the project.

Meridian Avenue/21st Street/St. Joe Road-Suwanee Way Intersection
Officials say a roundabout would greatly improve efficiency and safety at this five-point intersection on State Road 52.

The project is promoted as a gateway to assist the town’s central business district and surrounding neighborhoods. It also is expected to provide a better traffic pattern for city and county residential subdivisions that are approved to be built west of the intersection.

City Manager Leslie Porter told commissioners that state legislators in the district have encouraged the city to submit the project for funding.

This comes after the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) narrowed the original project’s scope and pushed it back on their priorities list, she said.

The intersection request will call for a full roundabout to best leverage safety factors, Porter said, and therefore would most likely require the acquisition of right of way, hence the $4.2 million price tag.

Mayor Camille Hernandez labeled this asking price as “much more realistic” compared to some lower estimated costs thrown around in prior meetings and discussions surrounding the project.

Wastewater Transmission Forcemain
In simple terms, construction of a new wastewater transmission forcemain will direct wastewater to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The $4.7 million project is designed to foster growth in a financially disadvantaged community, too, officials say, with a secondary benefit being the reduced need for septic systems to serve commercial and residential growth.

The city manager told commissioners that staff also is pursuing a separate grant opportunity for the force main initiative.

Wastewater Treatment Plant Relocation — design and permitting
Dade City currently owns and operates a 1.5 million-gallons per day (MGD) wastewater treatment facility situated in the heart of the environmental justice Mickens-Harper neighborhood.

But this current facility site is built out with no room for expansion or upgrades to accommodate a higher level of treatment, officials say.

Meanwhile, the city is experiencing an increase in development that will impact future capacity.

The project also is slated to benefit the environment and impaired water bodies — Withlacoochee River Basin, Big Gant Canal — into the Hillsborough River Basin through implementation of a three-stage biological nutrient removal process.

Aside from seeking $1.75 million in state appropriations for design and permitting, Porter told commissioners the city is pursuing alternative means to see the entire project through.

“This is, you all know, a large project, so we’re looking at every possible funding source we can,” Porter said.

After the commissioners reached consensus on their priority projects, at the commission’s July 27 meeting, the mayor encouraged city stakeholders to attend and take part in the upcoming delegation meeting.

Hernandez — who plans to attend — urged that whoever speaks on behalf of the city keep talking points on the projects “very brief and to the point,” as more in-depth presentation materials can be sent to legislators’ aides ahead of time.

“We learned that brevity is a good thing, especially at those events,” said Hernandez. “There’s lots going on. It’s one after another for (the legislators), so it’s a pretty busy day.”

Porter concurred “a very brief script” is the way to go when addressing the delegation.

Hernandez went on to point out there’s no indication any or all of the projects — some carryovers from prior years — will get sponsored for state funding. “They may all go by the wayside, (or) something may get picked up,” she stated.

Commissioner Scott Black offered optimism regarding the possibility of securing state funding for the designated projects.

Published August 25, 2021

Zephyrhills keeps busy — with lots of irons in the fire

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The City of Zephyrhills is involved in numerous initiatives, and City Manager Billy Poe recently updated the city’s elected leaders on what’s happening on numerous fronts.

For one thing, a staff-level meeting has been scheduled with state Sen. Danny Burgess, state Rep. Randy Maggard and the Pasco Economic Development Council regarding “future opportunities” at the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport, Poe told members of the Zephyrhills City Council, at its Aug. 9 meeting.

He also informed them that the Florida Army National Guard is still evaluating parcels in the area of the municipal airport to build an armory — a project that’s received $25 million in state funding.

Poe told council members that the National Guard plans to purchase a property, instead of lease property from the city, as originally anticipated.

Funding for the armory project must be encumbered by 2024 and completely spent by 2026, Poe said.

The city manager also said that staff is hammering out a new lease agreement for the Zephyrhills Municipal Golf Course, an 18-hole, par 68 course, at 39248 B Ave., in Zephyrhills. It’s expected to be presented during an Aug. 23 council meeting.

At one point the golf course was being considered as a possible location for the armory building.

Poe also told council members that appropriation funding requests to present to the 2022 state legislative session will be evaluated and finalized during the council’s Aug. 23 meeting.

Staff and council members have been tasked to prepare ideas and input on necessary projects within the city limits, to present to state legislators.

Poe noted: “You know, the things that they (legislators) look at the most are projects that are economic drivers, so that’s what we need to be thinking about.”

The annual Pasco County Legislative Delegation public meeting is scheduled for Sept. 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Zephyrhills City Hall, on 5335 Eighth St. Legislators to be present include Senators Wilton Simpson, Ed Hooper and Danny Burgess, and Representatives Amber Mariano, Ardian Zika and Randy Maggard.

Poe also told council members that progress is being made on the 2021-2022 fiscal year budget, which is undergoing “a few changes or some additions.”

In another update, Poe noted the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis & Wellness Center is set to host the SVB Padel Open, from Aug. 27 through Aug. 29.

The tournament initially was promoted as an international padel tournament — featuring a team from Spain — but has been scaled back to feature just local competition, amid coronavirus-related travel restrictions, Poe said.

Another padel tournament incorporating international competition is expected to be scheduled at a later date, he said.

Finally, the city manager said that city staff is working on making applications for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for these projects:

  • Transforming Seventh Street into a complete street
  • Purchasing and installing generators for the city’s utilities department
  • Construction of a city maintenance yard.

Published August 18, 2021

A unique kind of Happy Hour

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Residents of Rosecastle of Zephyrhills, a retirement and assisted living facility, recently got tattooed.

Temporarily tattooed, that is.

Take Solace Studios, a tattoo and piercing company in Zephyrhills, brought beer, wine and hard ciders, along with a bunch of temporary tattoos, fake glitter stickers and brow henna, to surprise the Rosecastle residents.

From left: Shaun Sikat, Riley Courtwright, Isabella Brunk and Matthew Chivers volunteer their time to bring smiles to the residents of Rosecastle of Zephyhills by giving them temporary tattoos. (Courtesy of Riley Courtwright)

Riley Courtwright, owner of Take Solace Studios, and Michelle Hurst, executive director of Rosecastle of Zephyrhills, organized the July 30 festivities.

Courtwright was inspired to create the event after she saw a social media posting of something similar in a retirement community in Texas.

“When I saw the photos, I knew I wanted to do the same thing,” Courtwright said.

Hurst, a piercing client of Courtwright’s for years, was enthused when Courtwright pitched the idea.

“We started to plan it out, and then COVID hit. When things finally calmed down a bit with COVID this year, we got in there as soon as possible,” Courtwright said.

Courtwright and Take Solace Studios staffers Matthew Chivers, Isabella Brunk and Shaun Sikat took part. Chivers is a tattoo artist; Brunk, a cosmetic tattoo artist; and Sikat, Courtwright’s business partner.

It’s all about the placement! Take Solace Studios tattoo artist Matthew Chivers gets ready to apply a temporary tattoo on James Bain, a resident of Rosecastle of Zephyrhills.

Courtwright worked with the fake piercings. Chivers applied the temporary tattoos. Brunk took care of the brow hennas. Sikat served drinks.

Courtwright said her entire staff wanted to be there, but because of COVID and social distancing, the retirement and assisted living facility asked her to limit the numbers.

“I’m so truly blessed to have a staff that was really willing to do this. They asked on their own to give up working a very busy day of making money to go spend time with the residents at the retirement facility for free,” Courtwright said. “I’m very aware as an employer how rare it is to have an entire staff share that same genuine generosity.”

The event was particularly meaningful to Courtwright, whose mother battles with dementia.

“My heart’s a little partial to the senior community,” Courtwright said.

Take Solace Studios cosmetic tattoo artist Isabella Brunk applies brow henna to Barbara Holmes, a resident at Rosecastle of Zephyrhills. Brow henna is a form of eyebrow tinting. It usually lasts for about three weeks.

She said she wasn’t sure what to expect going into the event, and was pleasantly surprised by the receptive response by the residents.

“When you think about the older generations, there’s definitely that gap of acceptance on body modifications and tattoos,” Courtwright said.

“I didn’t really know how they were going to take it, but it was all smiles…the residents just had the most amazing time,” she said.

Creating and showing others the “softer side” of the tattoo industry is Courtwright’s main mission with Take Solace Studios.

“The industry overall kind of has a reputation and I think it’s because no one’s really ever gone out of their way to mend that,” Courtwright said. But, she added: “The tattoo industry really can offer a lot of good.”

For instance, Take Solace Studios does free tattoo coverups of anything racial, gang-affiliated, hatred and so on. It also does free cosmetic tattooing for cancer survivors and free microblading for lupus patients.

“We’ve spent the last two years doing as much good as we could,” Courtwright said.

Courtwright wants to continue doing good for the community, and is already planning on coming back to Rosecastle of Zephyrhills.

And, Rosecastle isn’t the only place they plan to go.

“As soon as we posted the photos from the event, another facility in Dade City asked us to do an event like that for them, as well,” Courtwright said.

She can’t wait.

“I just want to go to all the retirement homes now,” Courtwright said.

For more information on Take Solace Studios, visit Facebook.com/TakeSolaceStudios.

Published August 18, 2021

Take Solace Studios provided Rosecastle of Zephyrhills residents with many temporary tattoo options. Two residents, here, make their choice.
An up-close shot of just one of the many temporary tattoos given to the residents at Rosecastle of Zephyrhills.

Dade City proposes big hike in public safety impact fees

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The Dade City Commission has unanimously given first-round approval to an ordinance that includes sizable increases of the city’s public safety impact fees.

The Dade City Commission gave first-round approval to an ordinance that will increase the public safety impact fees on new residential, commercial and industrial construction projects construction valued at $5,000 or more within the city limits. The fees will help pay for equipment and training for the Dade City Police Department. (Courtesy of Dade City Police Department)

The higher impact fees would apply to new residential, commercial and industrial construction valued at $5,000 or more.

The proposed public safety impact fee on new single-family homes would be $449.30 — a whopping increase over the current fee of $94.49.

That’s an increase of 376%, according to the summary of a report from Stantec Consulting Services Inc., the consulting firm that prepared the fee study.

The proposed rate for retail units would be $462.78 per EDU, a 52% increase from the current rate of $304.

An EDU is a unit based on the impact of a typical single-family detached dwelling.

Different types of uses are assigned EDU multipliers.

For instance a single-family dwelling equals 1.0 EDU, while a mobile home is assigned 0.75 EDU and a retail use is assigned 1,030 EDUs.

Commissioners gave the proposed fee schedule preliminary approval during their Aug. 10 meeting. No one offered public comment during the introduction and first reading of the proposed ordinance.

The second reading and adoption of the proposed ordinance are scheduled during the 5:30 p.m., meeting on Aug. 24, at City Hall, 38020 Meridian Ave.

Proceeds of the fees are intended to provide additional funding for the Dade City Police Department, at a time of surging growth and development in the East Pasco municipality.

The proposed impact fees are based on a recent study completed by Stantec Consulting Services Inc.

A city agenda memo explains that Stantec “determined that capital costs for the expansion of the police department caused by new growth should be borne by the developers of the new projects and the residents and businesses that will occupy the new structures.”

Stantec “has recommended the municipality’s public safety impact fee schedule be increased from a flat fee schedule to a fee schedule based on $449.30 per EDU in accordance with the schedule set forth in the study,” the memo continues.

The city’s public safety impact fees haven’t increased since 2004.

Officials say the proposed increases come at a critical time in the city’s history.

This graphic, from Stantec Consulting Services Inc., compares the City of Dade City’s proposed public safety impact fee rate of $449 on new single-family homes, a whopping increase over the current rate of $94. The current rate hasn’t changed since 2004. The chart also shows comparisons of Dade City’s rate to other Florida cities and counties. (Courtesy of Stantec Consulting Service, Inc.)

About 6,500 new rooftops and several commercial properties are approved to be built over the next 10 to 20 years, Melanie Romagnoli, the city’s community and economic development director, told commissioners.

Dade City Police Chief James Walters said the department will need to hire 46 additional sworn officers, in response to the city’s growth.

Additional revenues from the public safety fees would be used to address the police department’s increased costs of service delivery, operations, capital outlay, training and new equipment, officials say.

‘Antiquated’ impact fees
In addressing the proposed fee schedule, Peter Napoli, a senior financial consultant for Stantec, characterized the city’s existing impact fee model as “antiquated.”

He told commissioners that its impact fee schedule needs to be more in line with 2021 values through the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index (ENR-CCI).

The proposed schedule “represents an updated proportional allocation between the property classes that you charge those impact fees to,” Napoli said.

He also explained the consequences of not increasing the fees.

By keeping the same fees, the consultants believe the city would be insufficiently covering the incremental cost of growth, according to Napoli.

When that happens, he said, “the difference between the costs and what you recover is shouldered by the existing taxpayers in the city.”

Napoli acknowledged there is at least one wrinkle in the city’s efforts to impose higher public safety impact fees.

This graphic from Stantec Consulting Services Inc., compares the City of Dade City’s proposed public safety impact fee rate on new retail properties is about $463 per 1,000 square feet, compared to its current rate of $304. The current rate hasn’t been updated since 2004. The graphic also provides a comparison with other Florida cities and counties. (Courtesy of Stantec Consulting Services Inc.)

A new Florida law, which took effect July 1, requires that new impact fees be phased in over years, rather than imposed within 90 days.

However, the consultant noted, Dade City may be exempt from the new law, if it exhibits a “demonstrated need” to accelerate the impact fee schedule.

City Attorney Thomas Thanas concurred with Napoli’s assessment, as the town will need to expand its police department, which, in turn, necessitates equipping and training new officers.

Thanas pointed out the Florida statute allows such impact fees to be applied to capital costs such as squad cars and other long-term investments. It can’t be used for salaries, however, he said.

Put another way, hiking impact fees “will help defer the cost of adding new officers to address the growth issues that we’ll be encountering over the next few years,” the city attorney said.

Additionally, Thanas outlined another finding that may work in the city’s favor to claim  extraordinary circumstances to rapidly impose public safety impact fee increases.

It comes in the form of another new Florida law (House Bill 7051) that calls for new technology and training requirements for all police departments statewide.

The technology requirements include body-worn cameras, while training requirements span use of force, de-escalation techniques, and interactions with persons suffering from substance abuse disorder or mental illness.

Because of this law, Thanas observed the city’s police department “will be incurring additional expenses, even if we don’t have growth, we still have these costs to deal with, and some of the costs are eligible for being covered by a public safety impact fee.”

The city’s proposed ordinance calls for making the new impact fees effective within 90 days of adoption.

Proposed public safety impact fee schedule for the City of Dade City:

  • Retail — $462.78 per 1,000 square-feet
  • Single-family — $449.30 per dwelling unit
  • Mobile home — $336.98 per dwelling unit
  • Multi-family — $323.50 per dwelling unit
  • Office — $220.16 per 1,000 square-feet
  • Institutional — $134.79 per 1,000 square-feet
  • Industrial — $76.38 per 1,000 square-feet
  • Warehouse — $44.93 per 1,000 square-feet

Published August 18, 2021

Wire Road pavement work is underway in Zephyrhills

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The Wire Road pavement rehabilitation program began this week in Zephyrhills, and is expected to be completed around Sept. 17, according to a Pasco County news release.

During the project, crews will focus on road base rehabilitation, milling, resurfacing and new pavement markings, the release says.

The project includes work along the entire three-mile stretch of Wire Road, from County Road 54 to U.S. 301, which also is known as Gall Boulevard.

Northbound and southbound lanes will be under construction with single lane closures, the news release says.

The project work hours will be Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Message boards will be used to direct traffic.

The project is expected to take 32 days to complete, depending on the weather.

Asphalt Paving Systems is the contractor for this project, being done for the county’s public works department.

Published August 18, 2021

Bellamy Brothers headline Thomas Promise fundraiser

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The Bellamy Brothers — the iconic country music duo from Darby — will return to their East Pasco County roots to headline an event to benefit the Thomas Promise Foundation.

The concert fundraiser, “An Evening With The Bellamy Brothers,” is scheduled for Aug. 26, at the Dan Cannon Auditorium at the Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36722 State Road 52, in Dade City.

The Bellamy Brothers will headline an Aug. 26 fundraiser to benefit the Thomas Promise Foundation. Their last performance in East Pasco may have been at the 2019 San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival. (File)

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for dinner, with the concert beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is a private event, maxing out at about 320 guests.

Select table purchases remain available, with prices based on the table chosen. Each table will hold up to eight guests. Table purchases are tax-deductible.

All proceeds from the event go toward the Thomas Promise Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that provides meals for food-insecure students on the weekends when no school programs are in operation. The organization has provided more than 1million meals to students since its inception a decade ago.

The Bellamy Brothers — Howard and David Bellamy — are scheduled to perform a 90-minute set at the event.

The playlist of songs “absolutely” will feature some of their greatest classics, Joe Simmons, executive director of the Thomas Promise Foundation, told The Laker/Lutz News.

That’ll probably include their 1976 chart-topping country pop hit, “Let Your Love Flow,” which spearheaded a career of 20 No. 1 hits and 40 million album sales worldwide.

Howard and David Bellamy graduated from Pasco High School in the 1960s before embarking on their successful music career.

They had their first official gig in 1968, when they performed on stage with their father during the Rattlesnake Festival at San Antonio Park.

The Thomas Promise Foundation is a local nonprofit organization that provides meals for food-insecure students on the weekends when no school programs are in operation. (Courtesy of Thomas Promise Foundation)

Fame and fortune have followed, over the ensuing five-plus decades.

The Bellamy Brothers usually are booked for dozens of gigs set across multiple states and countries each year.

Their last performance in East Pasco is believed to have been in 2019, at the 53rd annual Rattlesnake Festival.

They have, however, performed multiple times at the annual Florida Cracker Christmas festival in Spring Hill.

Simmons expressed his gratitude that the in-demand performers were willing to set aside a date to help the Thomas Promise Foundation, and the hometown community at large.

The fundraiser has been in planning for several months.

“The Bellamys are extremely busy,” Simmons said. “You know, they have a tremendous tour schedule coming up, and we felt very fortunate for them to be able to do something for us, and we’ll be able to help kids in our community, too, so we do appreciate the opportunity for them to play and give back.”

“We’re really looking forward to this being a tremendous event,” he said.

Simmons pointed out the event sets up as Thomas Promise Foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year.

And it comes at a critical time, he said, with rising food costs and others hardships brought in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simmons put it like this: “We help more kids now than we’ve ever helped before. We’ve helped more schools now than we’ve ever helped before, so opportunities like this to be able to raise funds for the foundation are extremely important to us.”

The Bellamy Brothers are known to spend any downtime amid their frenetic showbiz schedule on their 200-acre family ranch in Darby, just outside the Dade City limits.

But downtime isn’t very synonymous with the hometown celebrities — juggling multiple side projects over the years, besides performing and putting out new music.

Last month they garnered national headlines in teaming up with actor Dennis Quaid to record and perform a cover of Billy Swan’s 1974 country crossover hit, “I Can Help.”

The single release was featured on the Bellamys’ hit reality television series, “Honky Tonk Ranch,” which airs on the Grand Ole Opry’s Circle Network.

They also released an autobiography in 2018 titled, “Let Your Love Flow: The Life and Times of the Bellamy Brothers.”

Call 813-782-0000 for concert reservations. Visit TheThomasPromise.org for more information.

Published August 18, 2021

East Pasco chambers pause merger discussions, for now

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After several months of discussions regarding a potential merger between chambers of commerce in Dade City and Zephyrhills, those talks have been put on pause — for now.

“The conversation has definitely taken a back seat,” according to John Moors, executive director of the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce. “I can’t say that it’s shut down for good, that we don’t know, but the task force has stopped meeting currently.”

The boards for both chambers approved the formation of a task force last year to look into the logistics and possible benefits of merging the two organizations.

The task force involved about 20 stakeholders — 10 from each respective organization — representing hospitals, banks, and other small businesses and groups.

(File)

Randy Stovall, provost emeritus for Pasco-Hernando State College, chaired the task force. He’s been active with both chambers for years.

The group met about a dozen times, from October 2020 through April 2021, with groups split into a budget committee, a membership committee and a mission committee.

Its three main objectives were membership, community advocacy and economic development.

The task force generated enough progress to reach a consensus on a proposed name for a merged chamber: Greater East Pasco Chamber Alliance.

But news that the merger talks have paused was announced in the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce’s August newsletter.

The newsletter indicated the Dade City chamber’s financial outlook exceeded expectations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so merging its organization with the Zephyrhills chamber wasn’t quite as pressing as originally once thought.

Melonie Monson, the CEO of the Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce, said the task force, on the whole, had “put together very great reasons why a merger would be the right direction to go, and really had fleshed out the greatest perspectives from this and what advantage it would be for both communities.”

But she said various hurdles surfaced when trying to flesh out the finer details of a merger concept, she said.

Monson said “the biggest problem” resulted from both chambers being content with their own current leadership, and not wanting either her or Moors to step down or take a less prominent role within a merged organization.

(File)

Monson put it like this: “We just felt like, until one of us is ready to retire, then this would be on pause. Doesn’t mean that (a merger) wasn’t the right thing to do, it’s that neither one was ready to say goodbye.”

Another sticking point, she said, came with determining locations of where a combined chamber’s main office and secondary office should be situated — Zephyrhills, Dade City, or vice versa — and how to best leverage economy of scale.

“We felt strongly there needed to be a presence in both communities of the chamber,” Monson said.

Task force supports merger concept
The task force overall found a merged chamber “made sense” and could yield several benefits, Monson said.

Specifically, it suggested that a larger, combined chamber “would have a stronger voice and advocacy on the county and state level, and members would gain more of a value by expanding the geographic reach of the chamber,” Monson said.

It also suggested that merging the Dade City and Zephyrhills groups would better help navigate booming commercial and residential development in Central and East Pasco.

With that, Monson said the task force observed a merger “would really help us in the risk of losing our territory to other entities, and making a stand of, ‘This is East Pasco.’”

These were likewise important factors for leadership within the Dade City chamber, too.

Moors detailed how the East Pasco area historically has been known as a more rural area, with less focus on business development and manufacturing.

This may not be the case for much longer, with rampant growth on the community’s doorstep.

“For the most part, there hasn’t been a lot of activity of companies moving into this particular area, but we do see that this may well change as the population increases and the density increases and the demographics change,” he said.

As East Pasco continues to grow, Moors emphasized the importance of being “in front of that wave of growth, rather than trying to catch up.”

Pandemic spurred initial merger discussions
Both chamber leaders have casually discussed the possibility of combining their respective organizations for a few years now, but more serious talks didn’t begin until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

Ramping up those conversations was important for the Dade City chamber to prepare an action plan in a worst-case scenario, given the uncertainty around the effects of the coronavirus on the area’s business and economic climate, Moors explained.

“With everything shut down, we just didn’t really know what anything was going to look like, we didn’t know what was going to happen with our membership, we didn’t know whether we were going to be able to have a Kumquat Festival, whether we were going to have any events, because at that point, everything was literally locked down. In fact, the chamber was closed for a period of time last year,” said Moors.

Since then, however, Moors said the Dade City chamber has experienced an upbeat financial outlook, with membership reportedly up 15% year-on-year, combined with a successful enough scaled-down Kumquat Festival.

Put another way, negative revenue impacts caused by COVID-19 never materialized for the chamber, Moors said. “So, the need to merge was not as urgent as we had feared,” he added.

Monson said the pandemic provided “a great opportunity” to form a task force to discuss the merits of a proposed merger, and garner various perspectives.

But she emphasized the Zephyrhills chamber didn’t need to enter the merger talks strictly out of concern regarding financial sustainability.

She said she was confident in her organization’s membership base and other efforts, even during the pandemic.

“You know, we’re a strong chamber no matter what, and we knew we were going to be,” she said. “We did not forecast the gloom and doom.”

Rather, joining forces with the Dade City chamber on a merger task force was more to vet the various benefits and outcomes of such an exercise, Monson acknowledged.

Merger talks likely not done
Monson said the merger concept — and its varied findings — will likely be revisited once she or Moors leave their current leadership posts, whenever that happens.  She said the work of the task force could be revisited, once she or Moors moves on.

“I believe that we could come up with great ideas of location, I think that would be something that we would get worked out pretty easily, but the biggest thing was we were going to pause it until one or the other was ready to retire, or move on to another venture in life,” Monson said.

If a merger eventually occurs, it would be the third merger of its type among Pasco County chambers.

The North Tampa Bay Chamber is the result of combining chambers that previously represented Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, Trinity and Odessa.

The Greater Pasco Chamber of Commerce resulted from a merger between the West Pasco and Central Pasco chambers.

Published August 11, 2021