Two Rivers — a community proposed to rise along State Road 56, between Morris Bridge Road and U.S. 301 — is making its way through necessary government approvals, to bring the community closer to reality.
The Pasco County Commission voted last week to transmit a request to state officials for their review. The request involves changing the text in the county’s comprehensive plan and amending the county’s highway vision map.
The state review is required before the county board can take final action on the request.
In addition to gaining approval of those changes, the developer also must secure a rezoning to create the proposed community.
The rezoning request is in process and is expected to come before the board within the next few months.
Once those regulatory hurdles are cleared, efforts can begin to bring the proposed 3,405-acre community to life.
Two Rivers is envisioned as a place that features a mixture of housing types, work opportunities, shopping, recreation and schools.
Details of the proposed project were outlined during a previous Pasco County Planning Commission meeting.
The project has been in planning stages — off and on — for more than 10 years, and there have been a number of ownership changes.
The current proposal calls for creating Two Rivers as a master-planned development, on the southern edge of Pasco County. The project would tie into a community that’s under the same ownership, which is just south of the Pasco-Hillsborough line.
County documents detail the proposed plan, which includes:
- 246 acres of conservation area
- 3,875 single-family homes
- 1,400 multifamily homes
- 1,125 age-restricted homes
- 1.3 million square feet for a targeted industry
- 630,000 square feet retail
Other elements include schools for elementary, middle and high students, on property that would be next to an 80-acre county park.
Two Rivers is expected to be a community that emphasizes walkability and includes an extensive trail system that provides connectivity within the community. Alternate modes of transportation, such as golf carts, also will be encouraged, to help residents get from place to place.
The proposed community also calls for numerous recreational amenities, including recreational complexes, multipurpose fields, ball diamonds, an aquatics center, playgrounds, a dog park, tennis and basketball courts, and open spaces.
Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore spoke in favor of the proposed project.
“I’m in support of this. In the future, this is going to be a really, really nice, very well-done, master-planned community. This is something that has really been on line for a long, long time,” Moore said.
And, while Moore has decried what he perceives as a proliferation of multifamily development, he said he doesn’t oppose including multifamily in Two Rivers.
“There are multifamily apartments in the future of this property, which I understand and am in support of because this is an area that does not have the oversaturation of the multifamily. It makes sense in a large master-planned community,” Moore said.
Commissioner Kathryn Starkey also spoke in favor of the proposal.
She also noted that she’ll be very interested in seeing the proposed trail network in the rezoning request for the master-planned community.
Commissioners unanimously approved the transmittal request.
Published February 17, 2021
