It takes a lot to stand in the way of progress, but a popular shopping center just off Interstate 75 in Wesley Chapel may have finally found its Achilles heel: A traffic light.
The Grove at Wesley Chapel has the room to grow, however new tenants are shying away from the complex because they say another traffic light is needed where Oakley Boulevard meets County Road 54.
“The challenge we have with all the major future development out of The Grove centers around the fact that the project lacks a traffic signal at the main entrance,” said Jim Mazzarelli, managing director at Genesis Real Estate Advisers, the company working with The Grove developers. “As our engineers say, we don’t have an ingress problem, we have an egress problem. You can get in, but you can’t get out.”
There is a traffic light for cars wishing to turn left from the shopping center, but that means traveling west to Gateway Boulevard before leaving. Oakley makes more sense, Mazzarelli said, because that’s considered the main drive out.
But getting that light won’t be easy. Although the main road past The Grove is now county-maintained, the Florida Department of Transportation still controls the intersection with I-75, and rules currently prevent the state agency from allowing a traffic light that close.
So what are The Grove’s options? Find out in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available on newsstands and driveways right now. Or you can read the free online e-edition by clicking here.
For those who feel jumping out of a perfectly good airplane thousands of feet above the ground with nothing more than a large piece of nylon isn’t exciting enough, Zephyrhills is bring the world to town with the World Canopy Piloting Championships.
It’s all about “swooping,” and it’s the first time the world competition has come to the United States. And unlike regular skydiving, this is something people can gather on the ground to not only watch, but also enjoy.
“All the action happens in the last 10 seconds of the skydive, close to the ground,” T.K. Hayes, president and general manager of Skydive City, told reporter Michael Murillo. “It is totally a spectator sport.”
It’s going to cost $100,000 for Skydive City to put on the event, which takes place Nov. 4-6, but the company did get a little help from the Pasco County Tourist Development Council, which contributed $15,000 to the cause.
And it’s not just jumpers from around the world. It also includes a Florida swooper who was the champion at the last world competition two years ago. Is he coming back? Can he defend his title?
Find out in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available now both on newsstands, and in our online e-edition, which you can read for free right now by clicking here.
Several years ago, retiring Pasco County commissioner Pat Mulieri found herself at the Pasco County Animal Services shelter in Land O’ Lakes, and vowed she would never return. Seeing all the animals the shelter had to put to sleep tortured her soul so much, that she preferred it to be out of sight, out of mind.
However, Mulieri realized the only way to make a difference was to become involved, and she did just that in 2012. And now she’s looking to continue her very active role with the animal shelter on Dogpatch Lane even when she finally steps down from the government dais next week.
But despite all the efforts the shelter has done to reduce the percentage of animals that have to be killed each year, Mulieri believes real change will have to happen outside the shelter, not inside, to really make a difference.
“You’ll never be able to adopt them all out,” Mulieri told reporter Michael Hinman, “and you’ll never be able to cut down on the pet population until you change people’s ideas.”
That means encouraging everyone to spay or neuter their animals. Otherwise, it’s possible for one cat couple, for example, to be the top of the family tree of more than 420,000 cats … in just seven years.
How else can people help to save lives at the animal shelter? Find out in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available on both newsstands, and right here in our free online e-edition.
And finally, photojournalist Fred Bellet has some great pictures to share from the recent cut-a-thon at The Grove at Wesley Chapel’s Ulta Beauty location, all to help raise awareness about breast cancer, and at the same time, raise money for research. See it online by clicking here.
All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.
If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to see where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800, or read our free e-edition by clicking here.
