A new townhouse community planned for Wesley Chapel’s Seven Oaks subdivision is struggling to keep the neighborhood gated.
Pasco County officials have recommended denying a request by The Ryland Group to allow for two gated access points to a planned 96-unit community near the intersection of Stockton Drive and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. The problem, they say, is that there isn’t enough room to accommodate a line of cars.
County ordinance requires there be at least 75 feet of space from a sidewalk to a community’s gated entrance, enough to fit three cars. However, because of the unusual layout design of the property where Seven Oaks Ryland Townhomes is planned, it can only provide enough space to accommodate two cars. The rule, officials said, ensures there is enough room for a small line of cars, without blocking sidewalks and roads.
“Significant queues could develop behind visitors waiting to be ‘buzzed in,'” county development review manager Amanda Boone wrote in a memo to the Development Review Committee, which is scheduled to hear the request Aug. 21 in New Port Richey. “Furthermore, if visitors are unable to reach the resident they are visiting, they may be unable to move from the service position at the gate due to vehicle queuing behind them.”
The plan would have provided for two entrances into the community, one from Stockton Drive, the other from Eagleston Boulevard. Only the entrance at Stockton would provide visitor access, but even a resident-only entrance at Eagleston created concern from county officials. That’s because it would only have enough room to hold one vehicle, and any additional vehicles would block pedestrian pathways.
Developers will have a chance to plead their case in front of the Development Review Committee, which will meet in the county commission chambers at 8731 Citizens Drive in New Port Richey on Aug. 21, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The committee is led by county administrator Michele Baker, and includes assistant county administrators Heather Grimes, Cathy Pearson and Bruce Kennedy, as well as John Walsh from the Pasco Economic Development Council and Chris Williams from Pasco County Schools.
