The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Pasco County Planning Commission

Development is heating up in Land O’ Lakes

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Recent rezoning applications suggest that Land O’ Lakes is on the radar for new development.

Potential projects on tap are a craft brewery, new retail and townhomes —all along a single stretch of Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, north of State Road 54.

Each project received a recommendation of approval on Jan. 13, from the Pasco County Planning Commission, a voluntary group that advises the Pasco County Commission, after reviewing recommendations from the county’s planning staff.

The Pasco County Commission is scheduled to consider the three proposals at its Jan. 26 meeting.

Imperial Buffet is applying for a license to sell beer and wine at its location in the Village Lakes Shopping Center, off State Road 54, in Land O’ Lakes. (Kathy Steele/Staff Photos)
Imperial Buffet is applying for a license to sell beer and wine at its location in the Village Lakes Shopping Center, off State Road 54, in Land O’ Lakes.
(Kathy Steele/Staff Photos)

Representatives of Interior Elegance Inc., and In the Loop Brewing have applied for a beer and wine license at a building located at 3338 Land O’ Lakes Blvd.

County records show plans call for a 540-square-foot brewery, a 2,800-square-foot tap and tasting room, and an outdoor beer garden of nearly 6,800 square feet.

Just south of the proposed brewery, owners of E List Properties are proposing to build about 7,500 square feet of retail, and five townhomes with a boat dock fronting Lake Padgett.

That nearly two-acre site is at 3300 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., north of Stiverson Road.

Real estate broker Jim O’ Brien represented E List Properties at the planning commission meeting.

O’ Brien told planning commissioners that no decisions had been made yet on the type of retail the project would include.

E List Properties is seeking to rezone a vacant lot on Land O’ Lakes Boulevard for townhomes and retail development.
E List Properties is seeking to rezone a vacant lot on Land O’ Lakes Boulevard for townhomes and retail development.

After the meeting, O’ Brien said it is not surprising to see new interest in the Land O’ Lakes area based on residential development on U.S. 41, given the county’s new growth spurt. “It’s going to create more opportunities,” O’ Brien said. “People want to work where they live.”

He doesn’t anticipate a quick start to construction by E List, but he said, “Everything north of State Road 54 is booming.”

Brother Investments Inc., rounded out the three proposals, with a plan to build a contractor’s office, with storage, at 3228 Land O’ Lakes Blvd. The zoning, if approved, would change from residential to commercial and light manufacturing.

In other rezoning requests in Land O’ Lakes, Imperial Buffet in the Village Lakes Shopping Center, off State Road 54, is seeking a beer and wine license. The restaurant opened Jan. 15 at the former location of Ichiban Buffet.

In another request, John D. Jones is seeking to rezone property at 7329 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., north of Gator Lane, from general commercial to commercial and light manufacturing. He proposes to remodel an existing building as a contractor’s office, with storage space.

Published January 20, 2016

 

School buses to run on natural gas

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Pasco County’s school district is planning to use natural gas to fuel a new fleet of buses.

On Jan. 13, the Pasco County Planning Commission will consider a proposal to rezone about 24 acres on Interlaken Road for a storage, maintenance and fueling station that can handle about 120 buses.

Future buses transporting children in Pasco County Schools are expected to use natural gas for fuel. (File Photo)
Future buses transporting children in Pasco County Schools are expected to use natural gas for fuel.
(File Photo)

Pasco County commissioners will make the final decision on the rezoning at a later date, possibly on Jan. 26.

In the first year of the program, Pasco County Schools plans to buy between 30 and 35 new buses equipped to run on fuel known as Compressed Natural Gas, or CNG. Those buses could be rolling by spring 2017, with more to come.

“Transitioning to CNG will be done over many years,” said Pasco County Schools Deputy Superintendent Ray Gadd.

The district has about 470 buses in its fleet.

The goal is to shift a portion of the district’s bus fleet from gasoline and diesel-burning fuels to natural gas. The school district anticipates the shift to result in savings over time.

Buses also will burn cleaner fuel with less toxic emissions, and they will run more quietly than traditional buses.

Gadd estimates the annual cost for purchasing these buses will be about $1.5 million. A state rebate program could provide the school district with a return of $25,000 per bus, up to 10 buses.

“It helps counter the costs,” he said.

Ray Gadd is deputy superintendent of Pasco County Schools. (Courtesy of Pasco County Schools)
Ray Gadd is deputy superintendent of Pasco County
Schools.
(Courtesy of Pasco County Schools)

And, buying the buses over several years will stagger their eventual replacement dates, which also can save money. Typically, buses are replaced after 10 years. But, Gadd said a natural gas fueled bus is predicted to have a longer life of 13 to 15 years.

If the rezoning is approved, design work could begin within a month. Opening date for the approximately $7 million facility is anticipated in spring 2017.

A.D. Morgan of Tampa will build the station.

The school board briefly considered a public/private partnership, but Gadd said, “Any time you finance it, somebody is making a profit. We had the capital to build it ourselves. We are going to own it and operate it.”

The property on Interlaken is in a largely industrial area on a former tree farm.

Prior to reaching a decision, Pasco school district officials visited Clearwater Gas System, which is owned and operated by the city of Clearwater. The city was the first in Tampa Bay to build a natural gas fueling station in 2011.

Clearwater Gas will be the school district’s supplier. The utility currently serves parts of Pinellas and Pasco, including Land O’ Lakes and the community of Connerton.

At a neighborhood meeting in November, about a dozen residents met with school districts officials, according to county documents filed with the rezoning application.

They requested an eight-foot buffer wall, which Gadd said can be built.

Aside from the buses’ new sheen, parents and students won’t notice a difference from the old yellow school buses.

“It looks just like the buses we have now that people are used to seeing up and down their streets,” Gadd said.

Published January 13, 2016 

Costco likely to open in 2016

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Costco Wholesale received tentative approval recently for beer and wine package sales at a proposed membership warehouse club slated to open near Tampa Premium Outlets.

The Pasco County Planning Commission on Dec. 2 recommended approval of the alcoholic beverage license for the approximately 153,000 square feet of store space, plus about 2,100 square feet more for a separate liquor store.

Costco WholesaleThe Pasco County Commission is expected to vote on the license in January. Additional site plan approvals and building permits are still to come. An opening date for the national chain likely won’t happen until late 2016.

“There is a ways to go in the process,” said Grace Yang, an attorney who represents the applicants, JG Cypress Creek LLC and Costco Wholesale.

Representatives for the companies were not available for comment.

Costco is an anticipated addition to the retail beginning to sprout along the State Road 54 and State Road 56 corridor, at the Interstate 75 interchange.

Tampa Premium Outlets, which opened in October, has 100-plus outlet stores including Michael Kors, Nike, Coach and PacSun. A sports complex and ice rink, known as Florida Hospital Center Ice, recently received building permits, with an opening planned for spring 2016.

Construction is under way on Culver’s restaurant on an out parcel fronting State Road 56. Permits also are approved for Cheddar’s Casual Café in the same vicinity.

Chick-Fil-A, Kohl’s, Panda Express and BJ’s Restaurant and Brew House also are planned as part of the master-planned Cypress Creek Town Center, located on separately owned parcels on the north and south sides of State Road 56.

According to the company website, Costco’s history traces to the Price Club which opened in San Diego in 1976. The Costco brand opened its first store in Seattle in 1983, and then 10 years later merged with the Price Club.

Costco is one of the largest retailers in the world, generating more than $113 billion in sales in fiscal year 2015, which ended in August.

Published December 30, 2015

Buffalo Wild Wings planned for State Road 56

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Land is getting pretty expensive along State Road 56, which is exactly what the owner of the Buffalo Wild Wings chain found out late last month.

AMC Wesley Chapel Real Estate Inc., a company affiliated with Buffalo Wild Wings owner Diversified Restaurant Holdings Inc., purchased a little more than 2.5 acres of land along State Road 56 just east of Cypress Ridge Boulevard for $2.3 million. That’s a price just north of $903,000 an acre.

The developer has plans to put that land to good use, however. AMC is seeking final approval to build a 6,400-square-foot restaurant on the site, with an 800-foot patio, with direct access to State Road 56. The Buffalo Wild Wings got initial approval from the Pasco County Planning Commission earlier this month, and will seek to get the same from the full Pasco County Commission in January.

This would become the second Buffalo Wild Wings in Pasco County after the State Road 54 location in New Port Richey. Other locations are in Ybor City and Tampa’s Westchase area, according to the restaurant’s website.

The chain, informally known as B-Dubs, first opened in Columbus, Ohio, in 1982, and now has locations in every state in the country. This particular restaurant will be located at 26725 State Road 56 in Wesley Chapel, next to the Gate gas station on Cypress Ridge Boulevard.

The cost of the land is well above the $542,000 an acre Walmart paid to buy its site at 27621 State Road 56 in July 2009, and even higher than the $697,000 Gate Petroleum paid per acre for the land next door in August 2012. Yet, it’s still not the most expensive land buy — the owners of the PDQ restaurant location at 27757 State Road 56 paid $1.4 million for a single acre of land close to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in January 2012.

Developers have not said when construction will begin, or when the restaurant would open.

Developer wants rezoning for new Dade City apartments

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A new apartment complex in the Dade City area will have a chance to move a big step closer to reality next Wednesday if the developers there can convince county officials to rezone nearly 22 acres of land off Clinton Avenue.

Six Feet Under LLC is asking the Pasco County Planning Commission to rezone land near Floral Memorial Gardens Cemetery from agricultural to high-density multifamily. That would allow the developers to build up to 160 apartments on now-vacant land. The project, according to documents filed with the county, is Quiet Valley.

Six Feet Under lists Vicky Johnson of Dade City as its manager. She’s associated with another company — Matthew 6:20 LLC — that owns more than 100 acres of primarily grazing and orchard land near Trilby and other parts of rural East Pasco.

The land, located on the north side of Clinton Avenue just a quarter-mile west of U.S. 301, was purchased from Hodges Family Funeral Home in late 2006 for $94,200, according to county property records.

Although no start date for the project has been announced, a study filed by Raysor Transportation Consulting said the community should be complete by 2017.

The first step to rezone the land would go through the planning commission, which meets again Dec. 3 at 1:30 p.m. at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey. If the planning commission approves the rezoning, the matter would then have to come in front of the Pasco County Commission, likely early next year.