The Laker/Lutz News

20 Mile Level Road

Academy at the Lakes creates bold vision for the future

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Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Academy at the Lakes is taking a long view — and making some big plans.

While specifics are still a work in progress, the school envisions the creation of a third campus on 47 acres it acquired in 2013 from the MacManus family, of Land O’ Lakes, according to Mark Heller, head of school.

Mark Heller, head of school at Academy at the Lakes, said work is underway to plan for Academy at the Lakes’ future. He’s excited about the possibilities.
(B.C. Manion)

The private, independent school in Land O’ Lakes, at 2331 Collier Parkway, has an enrollment of 450 students, from preschool through grade 12. Besides Land O’ Lakes, its students come from New Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Lutz, Trinity, Spring Hill, Dade City, Hudson and Holiday, New Port Richey, Westchase and Odessa.

It now has campuses on both sides of Collier Parkway.

The third campus would be off 20 Mile Level Road, on land that is undeveloped, except for the former MacManus family home.

Plans for that third campus include athletic facilities, a new lower division school for grades kindergarten through fourth grade, and an environmental sciences education area.

It also would include the infrastructure that’s needed to support those facilities, Heller said.

The site off 20 Mile Level Road offers an exciting opportunity for environmental learning, Heller said.

Entering that site, Heller said, “you travel through a beautiful Florida wetland. A cypress swamp, water, wildlife, a beautiful canopy of trees.

“We aim for that to become an environmental science education area,” he said, adding that Academy at the Lakes’ vision includes classrooms and boardwalks, and perhaps an observation tower.

It would be a place, Heller said, “where, not only the children from Academy at the Lakes can learn to be good stewards of this gift of the fragile ecosystem,” but children from other schools would be able to attend environmental programs, too.

This banner communicates the message that Academy at the Lakes aims to convey to its students, staff and faculty.

The site is just off State Road 54, in a rapidly developing area in Land O’ Lakes.

“When you’re here at Panera and RaceTrac, you’re in the heart of suburbia. You go 200 yards up 20 Mile Level Road and you’re in Old Florida. What we want to do is preserve this as Old Florida and use it as a community educational tool,” Heller said.

There’s also the possibility of using some of the school’s land at that site for a first-rate aquatic swimming center, with an Olympic swimming pool, he said. “We’re looking at partnering with someone else.”

Other potential plans include work at the school’s existing campuses.

There’s talk of expanding the school’s early childhood center. And, moving the lower division would allow the school to increase its middle and high school enrollments.

Other potential plans include adding a new robotics and technology center, adding a Maker Space and making other campus improvements, such as a quadrangle in front of McCormick Hall, Heller said.

Heller expects the school to begin moving on some, or all, of these ideas within the next few years, but said there’s no specific timetable or cost estimate available yet for the school’s future expansion plans.

Published November 1, 2017

Resetting U.S.-Russia relations, one hug at a time

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A long, long time ago, in a country far, far away, a new president’s secretary of state presented her Russian counterpart with what clever minds at Foggy Bottom must have imagined was simple genius: a “reset” button, symbolizing the Obama administration’s desire for a fresh start between our nations.

We’ve seen how that worked out.

Anyone seeking an enduring USA-Russia reset needs to program his GPS for a low-slung block house off 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes. There, amid the managed chaos and loving clutter of a makeshift family, is the nerve center of a genuine international coming-together.

Daniil Shcherbinin and Sam, a rescue coonhound mix, in the woods near their Land O’ Lakes house. (Photos courtesy of Eric Wilson)
Daniil Shcherbinin and Sam, a rescue coonhound mix, in the woods near their Land O’ Lakes house.
(Photos courtesy of Eric Wilson)

Four boys from St. Petersburg, Russia, have spent their coming-of-age school years here under the guidance of transplanted Hoosier Eric Wilson. And, they enjoyed value-added assistance from the village network that is nearby Academy at the Lakes, the lads’ welcoming school.

The quartet — Gleb Barkovskiy, Maxim and Tioma Stepanets and Daniil Shcherbinin — has shrunk, through graduation, to a duo of Tioma and Daniil. By late August, the household will shrink again to Wilson and Tioma, plus languid Sam, the rescue coonhound mix. By then, Daniil, 18, will have been dispatched to Springfield, Ohio, and Wittenberg University.

How are the other alumni doing?

Barkovskiy, the son of a former Soviet nuclear submarine captain and a rising senior at Bucknell, is interning at Goldman Sachs. Max Stepanets is a rising sophomore at Alma College in Michigan, where he’s a member of the football team and majoring in business.

As for Shcherbinin (“Sher-ben-in,” but for simplicity’s sake, hereafter Daniil), he anticipates a summer of unofficial occupations. Here on a restrictive student visa, this perfect prospect for stocking the top shelves at Publix — he’s 6 feet 5 — ruefully concedes he can’t collect “a regular paycheck,” but he needs to save for college expenses.

So he’ll mow lawns, paint houses, help out with the household’s pooch-sitting operation, “move really heavy furniture” and do whatever other honest odd jobs come his way. After all, if he’d wanted to be idle and tempted into troublemaking, he could have stayed in Russia.

That depressing prospect is the future Katerina Ilina, a real estate agent in a perpetually tough market, was hoping her only child could avoid when she presented him nearly 10 years ago for evaluation by an associate of the Renaissance Project.

The plan was to identify promising St. Petersburg boys and invite them to attend a posh private school in Boca Raton, where they would be groomed to become citizen ambassadors for America back home.

Daniil Shcherbinin with his mom, Katarina Ilina, at an airport.
Daniil Shcherbinin with his mom, Katarina Ilina, at an airport.

Alas, the original plan soon collapsed. By then, however, Wilson wasn’t just on board, he’d become a passionate believer and the boys’ best advocate. Long story short, he found a like-minded administrator at Academy at the Lakes, and through a combination of scholarships, fundraising schemes, donations, a generous landlord, philanthropic medical professionals and stretching Wilson’s teacher’s paycheck, they’ve made it work. (Read more about their efforts here: http://renproject.org.)

It hasn’t hurt that each of the Russians has been an exemplary student and — as much as any teenager is capable — a model citizen. Daniil captained the football and basketball teams, served as student body vice president and played Mr. Darling in the school’s springtime production of “Peter Pan” — notably, without attempting a British accent.

The amateur thespian explains: “When I try to do an English accent, my Russian really comes out.” (Not that he hasn’t waxed the Volga boatman when it might charm an American girl, or get him out of a tight spot with a teacher, he concedes.)

Otherwise, looking for highlights in an eventful senior year, two stand out: First, the March afternoon he learned he’d been accepted, with generous underwriting, at Wittenberg. Second, the recent two weeks he spent here, with his mom, during Katarina’s first visit to America.

What did she learn? Americans are uncommonly welcoming to newcomers. “Everyone is so friendly,” she says. “Everyone wants to hug.” Maybe, she says, it’s the residue from Stalin, an era of suspicion, but Russians are rarely so open to strangers.

Experiencing it for herself, Katarina came to appreciate how this kid from a factory district —where V.I. Lenin once lectured on communism — had become upbeat and open-hearted, phonetically, “dobriy” in Russian. What a contrast to his somber, pessimistic peers back home.

Here she saw real evidence of that elusive reset. And, for those back home who fret their countryman has gone native, not to worry. When he’s not fetching and lifting this summer, Daniil will be immersed in Russian literature, Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantasy parable, “The Master and Margarita.”

“I am proud to be Russian,” he says flatly. “I never want to lose that.” Neither does anyone else in the Renaissance Project. They like him just the way he’s turned out.

And, so this happened. On the day of the open house on 20 Mile Level Road, when teachers and friends came to celebrate Daniil’s graduation, they brought presents for him, and for Katarina.

Gifts for the graduate Katarina understood. But for her? Why? “We brought you gifts,” explained one of the moms, her eyes shining, “because you shared your gift — your only son — with us.”

They hugged and wept happy tears. Because that’s what moms, wherever they’re from, do.

It’s from such embraces, real, lasting resets emerge.

Tom Jackson, a resident of New Tampa, is interested in your ideas. To reach him, email .

Published June 15, 2016

Dairy Queen firming up Land O’ Lakes location

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Ever get that hungry feeling for a frozen Mint Oreo Blizzard, but didn’t want to drive all the way to Wesley Chapel to get it?

The Terra Bella area of Land O’ Lakes, where a new apartment community was just announced last week, could very well have a Dairy Queen come in on its coattails.

Robin Kendall of EMK Consultants of Florida is set to meet with Pasco County officials next week behind closed doors help plan a new 3,076-square-foot Dairy Queen restaurant that would be located next to Christian Brothers Automotive on State Road 54. It would be just in front of the Dance and Gymnastics Academy of Tampa and Discovery Point Child Center, both located on Venezia Drive.

The project would involve several parcels along the north side of State Road 54 just east of Christian Brothers, land that is currently owned by K&B Flagship LLC of Orlando. It would be located between Via Bella Boulevard and Livingston Road.

If built, it would be the fifth such store in Pasco County, joining ones on Gall Boulevard in Zephyrhills, on Wesley Chapel Boulevard, and two others in New Port Richey.

That area of Land O’ Lakes already is heavily traveled by commuters and residents using Interstate 75 and the Suncoast Parkway, but would have an even stronger local boost when Alta Terra Bella — a 311-unit luxury apartment complex — is completed just west of it near 20 Mile Level road.

Plans for the Dairy Queen are still in the preliminary stages, and it’s unclear when construction would start.

New luxury apartment complex coming to Land O’ Lakes

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Wood Partners is stepping in where another developer left off, resurrecting a 311-unit apartment complex that could add even more residents along State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes.

The Atlanta-based company announced the new project — called Alta Terra Bella — just off 20 Mile Level Road Monday, following a report on The Laker/Lutz News’ website, LakerLutzNews.com.

Developers of the new Alta Terra Bella apartments say the new Land O’ Lakes community will inject nearly $25 million into the local economy, and indirectly create nearly 400 jobs. (Michael Hinman/Staff photo)
Developers of the new Alta Terra Bella apartments say the new Land O’ Lakes community will inject nearly $25 million into the local economy, and indirectly create nearly 400 jobs. (Michael Hinman/Staff photo)

“As the Tampa Bay area continues to experience robust employment and income growth — especially in the hospitality, financial and business service industries — Pasco County will continue to grow,” said David Thompson, Wood Partners’ Florida development director, in a release. “Alta Terra Bella is ideally located near top schools, and provides convenient interstate access to employers throughout the Tampa area.”

Wood Partners closed on 52 acres of land through a subsidiary, Alta Terra Bella LP, last week. It’s located between Via Bella Boulevard and 20 Mile Level, just north of State Road 54. The developer paid Capstone Resdev LLC $4.2 million for the vacant land, according to county property records, using part of a $30 million mortgage the company received early last week from Synovus Bank.

Pasco County officials met with representatives from Wood Partners last June, where the developer shared plans to build 311 apartment units in 14 buildings. Also on the plans are a freestanding clubhouse and freestanding parking garages, with a complete build-out of more than 452,000 square feet.

The project was originally known as Viento at Terra Bella Apartments, according to documents filed with the county, with units averaging about 1,200 square feet. The parking garages would be individual, one-story units, each with six bays for vehicles or storage.

Wood Partners is not expected to waste much time in breaking ground and getting construction started. The company expects to start leasing next September through its Wood Residential Services subsidiary, according to a release, with a full completion date scheduled for May 2016.

A community like this could inject as much as $24.5 million into the local economy — including $2.5 million in taxes — that would ultimately create nearly 380 jobs, Wood Partners officials said, using a formula offered by the National Association of Home Builders.

The population within a five-mile radius of the proposed Land O’ Lakes development has exploded by 114 percent since 2000, compared to a smaller but still strong 20 percent for the rest of the Tampa Bay region, the developer said. At the same time, household incomes have risen 37 percent, with 64 percent of households generating income of more than $50,000 not far from the proposed complex.

The land for Alta Terra Bella was originally purchased in 2007 for $6.8 million by BSP/Pasco LLC, a company associated with Orlando-based developer Scott T. Boyd. However, PNC Bank filed foreclosure papers against the property in October 2011, according to county records, claiming they were owed nearly $6 million.

The bank won title to the property through is Capstone Resdev affiliate in August 2012, and the land has been on the market ever since.

The new community will be located in the same general area where Florida Medical Clinic operates its headquarters. It’s also close to 46 acres of land Academy at the Lakes purchased in August 2013 on 20 Mile Level for $2 million.

The Collier Parkway school purchased the former MacManus property for $44,000 an acre, while Wood Partners spent just under $81,000 an acre for its land. The developer plans to use just 19 acres of the site for the complex, slating the rest for conservation and other non-commercial uses.

Charlan Brock & Associates designed the community, according to a release. It will have a 9,000-square-foot clubhouse that will include a community room, fitness center, playroom, a Wi-Fi café, and a summer kitchen overlooking a swimming pool.

The community will have more than 630 surface parking lots, and 76 garage spaces for rent.

Biggest local real estate purchases of 2014

1. $36.1 million, Arlington at Northwood in Wesley Chapel
BES Northwood Fund IX LLC of Chicago purchased this 312-unit apartment complex in May and renamed it Enclave at Wiregrass.

2. $16 million, Wiregrass Ranch development in Wesley Chapel
Pasco County Associates II LLLP picked up more than 332 acres in May for a 550-home subdivision along the southern portion of State Road 56, not far from Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter at Wiregrass Ranch campus.

3. $10.2 million, West Winds Assisted Living Facility in Zephyrhills
Sabra Health Care Holdings III purchased the 75-bed nursing home on Eiland Boulevard in October.

4. $4.7 million, Creative World School in Land O’ Lakes
Emerald Holding and Investments LLC bought the 7-year-old building and 2 acres of land on Mentmore Boulevard from Ballantrae LLC in July.

5. $4.2 million, Alta Terra Bella in Land O’ Lakes
Alta Terra Bella LP, a subsidiary of Wood Partners, purchased 52 acres of land off State Road 54 to build a new 311-unit apartment complex.
Source: Pasco County Property Appraiser

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Wood Partners to build 300 apartments in Land O’ Lakes

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Wood Partners is expected to officially announce Monday a new residential project that would bring more than 300 apartment units to the 20 Mile Level Road area of Land O’ Lakes.

Alta Terra Bella LP, a company associated with the Atlanta-based developer, closed on 52 acres of land last Tuesday, located between Via Bella Boulevard and 20 Mile, just north of State Road 54. The company paid Capstone Resdev LLC $4.2 million for the property, according to county property records, using part of a $30 million mortgage the company received earlier this week from Synovus Bank.

Representatives from Wood were scheduled to meet with Pasco County officials about the project last June, sharing plans to build 311 apartment units in 14 buildings, as well as a free-standing clubhouse and free-standing parking garages. It would have a total of more than 452,000 square feet.

The project was originally known as Viento at Terra Bella Apartments, according to documents filed with the county, with units averaging about 1,200 square feet. The parking garages would be individual, one-story units, that could hold up to six vehicles each.

The project will be called Alta Terra Bella, according to a Wood Partners spokeswoman.

The land was originally purchased in 2007 for $6.8 million by BSP/Pasco LLC, a company associated with Orlando-based developer Scott T. Boyd. However, PNC Bank filed foreclosure papers against the property in October 2011, claiming they were owed nearly $6 million. The bank won title to the property through its Capstone Resdev affiliate in August 2012, and had the land on the market ever since.

The new community will be located in the same general area of State Road 54 where Florida Medical Clinic maintains its headquarters.

Find out more about the development in the Nov. 26 print edition of The Laker/Lutz News.

Neighbors, power company fight over trees near electrical line

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Debbie Lane Goodman was a kid in 1986 when her family planted an oak tree sapling near where 20 Mile Level Road and Black Jack Lane meet.

Back then, there was no Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex to the west, or even a Plantation Palms community to the north. Just two years before, the 10 acres of land Goodman’s father owned was filled with orange groves, the primary source of income for her family.

Neighbors Debbie Lane Goodman and Eddie Midili survey tree trimming work Duke Energy has performed along a line route that crosses 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes. The oak tree behind them is slated to come down next, which has riled up Goodman, Midili and other neighbors. (Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)
Neighbors Debbie Lane Goodman and Eddie Midili survey tree trimming work Duke Energy has performed along a line route that crosses 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes. The oak tree behind them is slated to come down next, which has riled up Goodman, Midili and other neighbors.
(Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)

But a rare snowstorm in 1984 killed those trees, and emptied the land. The state helped by donating some pine trees to plant on the property, but the oak tree would become a symbol of perseverance for the family.

Today, Goodman uses the former orange grove land to provide horse-riding lessons, and keep various ranch-style animals. The oak tree is still there, now towering over the rest of the tree line, providing a majestic feel to property that was once part of a 19th century stagecoach route to Tampa.

But if Duke Energy gets its way — and it almost certainly will — that tree will become a part of history.

“They’ve destroyed my land, and now they’re going to take my trees down,” Goodman said. “They just came out four years ago and shaved the trees, and told us that’s all they were going to do. They said they didn’t need to cut any trees, and that it’s not even on their line. But then they came back and said we’re going to cut them all down.”

The property damage, Goodman said, came from heavy trucks that were used to replace the poles along the edge of her property from wood to steel last month. Duke did not fix divots its trucks created in the ground, although the utility did bring in a load of dirt so that Goodman could fix the land herself.

The tree is one of more than 30 Goodman said she believes is going to come down along Black Jack Lane. She is not sure, because Duke never reached out to her directly about the tree removal, and all of her information has come from the tree-cutting crew itself.

“I asked my dad, I asked my neighbors, and none of them have received anything,” Goodman said. “The only thing we have is the tree people, and they are at the bottom of the chain. They don’t really know anything. And how do we know that these guys aren’t just doing this because they want more jobs?”

Duke, which bought Progress Energy in 2011, says it works to keep open lines of communication with residents and businesses that might be affected by the tree work along power lines. While the trees and even lines might be on other people’s property, each line path has an easement that typically grants the utility 50 feet on either side of the pole.

“Generally, when we’re doing this type of work, we will put a letter out to each homeowner, each resident, that is adjacent to the easement,” Duke spokesman Sterling Ivey said. “We generally have staff walking the neighborhoods and knocking on doors, leaving door hangers. We try to do a lot of it proactively.”

Yet, Goodman and neighbor Eddie Midili said they’ve received no such communication. In fact, the only time Midili said someone from Duke contacted him was when a representative of the company knocked on his door and gave him paperwork from 1959 she said showed where the easement was.

“She said, ‘We’re claiming the land back,’” Midili said.

Trees came down last week at the neighboring Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex, leaving stumps in a parking area near an athletic field that once supported cabbage palms and oaks.

Brian Taylor, Pasco County’s parks and recreation manager, said he received a letter from Ashley McDonald, a vegetation management specialist with Duke Energy, which described exactly which trees had to be removed. Those trees, Taylor said, would cost the county a little more than $1,700 to replace.

Duke cuts and trims trees as a way to protect lines, not just from branches growing into lines, but also to try and prevent power line issues during major storms where winds could blow vegetation into the lines. It’s not required to remove stumps, but will make mulch available to interested homeowners who would like to recycle those trees, according to the utility’s website.

Duke also does not replace trees it removes, leaving those costs the responsibility of the affected property owners.

“We try to take the trees down as low as we possibly can,” Ivey said. “If a customer has concerns about some stumps that might have been left, and especially if they have some animals or horses in the area, I would encourage them to call our customer service center to see what help there might be.”

The line clearing project started in May, and stretches from Tarpon Springs to Zephyrhills, Ivey said.

Goodman and her neighbors have tried to talk Duke out of removing the trees, but know they won’t be successful. So now they’re having to figure out what life will be like on their property with the lights from the recreation complex streaming in, and what will now be an unobstructed view of the overgrown 12th green at the currently closed Plantation Palms Golf Club.

“When they did all this before a few years ago, I gave up some trees, and Debbie gave up some trees,” Midili said. “We didn’t like it, but whatever we had to do, we would do. But now, they want to go overboard on it, and it’s just not necessary. They need to come out and see what kind of damage they’re doing.”

Anyone with questions or concerns for Duke, Ivey said, is urged to call the company’s customer service line at (800) 700-8744.

Published September 17, 2014

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In Print: Duke turns neighbors into tree-huggers

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Trees are something we take for granted. There are millions of them out there, and we see them virtually everywhere.

But what happens when those trees go away? Debbie Lane Goodman has lived on 10 acres off 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes long before she was joined by the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex on one side, and the Plantation Palms community on the other. The family’s land was once orange groves, which were cleared out after a 1984 freeze.

Neighbors Debbie Lane Goodman and Eddie Midili survey tree trimming work Duke Energy has performed along a line route that crosses 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes. The oak tree behind them is slated to come down next, which has riled up Goodman, Midili and other neighbors. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Neighbors Debbie Lane Goodman and Eddie Midili survey tree trimming work Duke Energy has performed along a line route that crosses 20 Mile Level Road in Land O’ Lakes. The oak tree behind them is slated to come down next, which has riled up Goodman, Midili and other neighbors. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Recovering financially from such a loss was tough, but emotionally it was even harder. So when her family planted an oak tree a couple years later, it helped start the healing process.

Yet, that tree will soon be no more. It’s within 50 feet of power lines recently upgraded by Duke Energy, and they are set to take the majestic tree — along with more than two dozen others nearby — down.

“They just came out four years ago and shaved the trees, and told us that’s all they were going to do,” Goodman told reporter Michael Hinman. “They said they didn’t need to cut any trees, and that it’s not even on their line. But then they came back and said we’re going to cut them all down.”

Duke, however, says it has no choice. It’s required by law to protect lines from trees and other vegetation, especially during a storm. Fines for allowing trees and such to bring down power lines and cut power to residents are huge.

But what can Goodman and her neighbors do? Find out in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available now. Or, if you don’t want to go out in the rain, you can read our free online e-edition by clicking here.

God may take away one place, but it looks like he is giving in other places. The Benedictine Sisters of Florida opened the doors of their new monastery in St. Leo to reporter B.C. Manion recently, and what they had to show was impressive — at least as far as a monastery goes.

The new 28,000-square-foot structure replaces a larger 100,000-square-foot facility the nuns had across State Road 52. However, they sold that campus to Saint Leo University, and used those funds, plus a $500,000 capital campaign, to build their new home.

Want to learn more about it, and see what it looks like? It’s on the front page of our B Section this week in The Laker/Lutz News. Check out our print edition right now, or read all about it in our free online e-edition, which you can find right here.

And finally, Dean Patterson is making his fifth trip to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. And the 12-year-old can’t wait.

“I get kind of nervous and freaked out,” Patterson told reporter Michael Murillo. “But as the days (get closer), I normally just get all excited and happy.”

Patterson lives in Lutz and attends Martinez Middle School, but he also plays football for the South Pasco Predators Pop Warner team. Football has been his life for eight years, and he started getting attention on his skills when he was 7. And while he works hard on the gridiron, he’s had a great support network in his father and coach, Robert Patterson.

“I’ve been working with at-risk youth for 20 years, helping kids get back on track or stay out of trouble with the law,” the older Patterson said. “So to be able to do that with your kid, and see him flourish on the football field as well as the classroom, it’s a special deal.”

Read more about what both Pattersons have to look forward to in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, or check out our e-edition 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.