Proposed district park deal involves partnership between Pasco County, Pasco County Schools and Wheelock Street Capital
By B.C. Manion
A deal that’s being discussed could lead to the creation of a district county park that shares facilities with a potential kindergarten through eighth-grade public school.
The partnership would also include a private developer, who would cover initial operation and maintenance fees in exchange for being allowed to use about 20 acres of land for houses, instead of park land.
Details of the potential public-public-private partnership were discussed at a July 16 workshop of the Pasco County Commission.
Pat Gassoway, of Heidt Design, an engineering firm in Tampa, told commissioners that the new owner of the Starkey Ranch Development of Regional Impact, wants to include an active sports park.
He said Wheelock Street Capital wants to help the county get the park up and running, and it is willing to pay the operation and maintenance costs for a period of years.
In exchange, Wheelock wants the park and school designs to be compact, freeing up land for development.
Proceeds from that development would cover park operation and maintenance costs for a period of time, Gassoway said.
The specifics of the deal have not yet been negotiated.
The school district is interested in making this concept work, said Assistant Superintendent Ray Gadd.
The park would be built next to 22.5 acres, set aside for a school.
The location would provide opportunities for the school district and county to share resources and would benefit the public, said Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. She envisions the potential for allowing the school cafeteria to be used for public events.
Gadd said the school board needs an elementary school and a middle school to accommodate future growth.
Initially, children living in the development would attend Longleaf Elementary or Odessa Elementary, but the school district anticipates the need for another elementary school around 2018.
Gassoway said the proposed plans are a result of a planning exercise, where professionals gathered to consider the pros and cons of various sites and offer their thoughts of how to lay out the park to include the desired features.
In the end, Wheelock Street took the work accomplished that day and refined it, Gassoway said. It is proposing a two-phase project that includes multipurpose fields, baseball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, a playground, a picnic pavilion, parking and other amenities. The project would cost slightly more than $17.2 million.
“In my opinion, it’s a remarkable opportunity,” Gassoway said.
Commissioner Henry Wilson, who took part in the planning session, is impressed by what Wheelock Street Capital wants to do.
“He wants a park built before he builds the houses,” Wilson said, and the developer is willing to pay operating and maintenance costs for a number of years, as well.
Gadd said the school district supports the effort.
“We’re committed to finding some kind of design that we can fit in there,” Gadd said. “Hopefully it will be a K-8 (kindergarten through eighth-grade school). That would be my desire,” he said.
Now that the general concepts have been worked out, it’s time to iron out the specifics, said Michele Baker, Pasco’s new county administrator.
Baker said she supports using private-public partnerships in the quest to improve the quality of life in Pasco County.
