The Pasco County Commission has cleared the way for more changes to come to the central part of Pasco County.
The county board voted on Aug. 24 to approve changes to a master plan unit development (MPUD) on the west side of U.S. 41, between Roaches Run and Causeway Boulevard. The changes allow a maximum 275,000 commercial retail square feet and create a land use equivalency matrix, to expand the types of uses.
Those additional uses are office, medical office, health care-related, light industry distribution, multifamily residential, single-family attached residential, senior retirement/assisted living/aggregate home and public institutional uses.
The request was filed by Hagman Groves Inc., and RS Roach LLC, who were represented by attorney Barbara Wilhite.
The county board also approved a request to change the name from Causeway Center Commercial MPUD to Causeway MPUD, to better reflect the potential uses.
The commercial retail square footage shall be a minimum of 100,000 square feet.
Residential uses will only be allowed on the parcels abutting U.S. 41, if they are part of a vertically mixed-use integrated building.
Commissioners also approved a variance to reduce the number of required parking spaces in the development. And, they granted a deviation from the county’s standard platting procedure, for this specific project.
Brad Tippin, the county’s manager for development review, explained what the county is trying to accomplish with the platting deviation.
“One of the things that we’re doing — the development services branch and public infrastructure branch — are working together to try to reduce the overall timelines to market for some of these types of projects. So, one of the things that we’ve included in here is a deviation from our standard platting process,” Tippin said.
“We only are doing this in this particular project and we can only do it upon your approval of this particular set of conditions that would actually allow us to do that. We’re going to give it a trial run, see how it works,” Tippin said.
He added: “Some other jurisdictions are doing something similar.”
The county hopes this approach will help shorten its timelines, Tippin said.
Wilhite, representing the applicants, told commissioners: “I think we’ll come up with something that will bring this project to market quicker.”
In other action, the county board:
- Approved a request by Pulte Homes to rezone the southwest corner of Lake Patience Road and Perdew Drive to allow 240 single-family detached homes on approximately 80 acres.
Attorney Clark Hobby, representing the applicants, noted the density “is roughly one-half of the density that would otherwise be permitted on the site.”
He added: “Every property that’s adjacent to the site, running for approximately six miles, have MPUDs or large-scale developments to the west.”
In other action, the board:
- Established the Connerton East Community Development District, east of Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, West of Ehren Cutoff, and South of State Road 52. The district covers 1,274.6 acres.
- Approved a text amendment to the county’s comprehensive plan to allow a broader array of uses to be considered on the Paw Materials property, on the north side of State Road 52, about one-quarter mile west of Land O’ Lakes Boulevard. The policy previously contained the word “support” when referring to commercial and retail entitlements. Removing the word “support” expands the list of potential uses.
Published September 01, 2021
