DADE CITY – Pasco County Planning Commission members agreed by a vote of 6-1 on Jan. 9 to recommend the Board of County Commissioners impose a yearlong moratorium on new development within the Connected City.
The Connected City is a special planning area of 7,900 acres situated mostly in Wesley Chapel. Metro Development Group is the area’s primary developer.
A comprehensive plan amendment adopted in 2017 designates it as a Community Hub Zone, a Business Core Zone, North and South Innovation Zones and an Urban Core Zone.
The recommendation for the moratorium was made following a lengthy discussion concerning a rezoning request made by Xtreme Team 41 LLC.
The Tampa-based company is seeking to rezone 38 acres in the Connected City’s Community Hub Area changed from an Agricultural District to a Connected City Master Planned Unit Development District.
The zoning change would make it possible for the applicant to build the Tall Timbers development that would consist of 380 multifamily dwelling units – 216 apartments and 164 townhomes – and 180,000 square feet of nonresidential uses.
During its meeting on Jan. 14, commissioners continued until March 11 a public hearing regarding the request for the rezoning for the proposed Tall Timbers project.
Planning Commission member Jon Moody made the motion to recommend the commissioners approve Xtreme Team 41 LLC’s rezoning request and Chairman Charles Grey seconded it. Planning commission members Derek Pontiltz, Chris Williams, Moody and Christopher Poole voted in favor of the rezoning request on Jan. 9 while Grey, Vice Chairman Jaime Girardi and member Matthew Muntz voted against it..
Moody’s motion called for modifying item 50 of the conditions. That condition originally said in part that no stormwater ponds or wetland mitigation areas could be located within the Service Ready Site Acreage site or Mixed-Use areas as depicted on the Master Plan Unit Development Master Plan.
The modification of that condition was that stormwater ponds or floodplains could be located in part of the Mixed-Use area. That could result in a minor reduction in the number of townhomes that could be developed there.
The following uses will be limited within the Service Ready Site Acreage to preserve adequate land within the Connected City for the most desirable land uses (office, industrial and manufacturing) positively affecting economic development.
This occurred after Michael Pultorak, who organized the more than 1,100 members strong Pasco Connected City Residents Group on Facebook, expressed some concerns to planning commissioners.
He lives on Kenton Road near where Tall Timbers could possibly be developed.
A large part of the Connected City as it was originally designed called for parks, nature trails and recreational areas. None of those have been developed in there so far, Pultorak said.
“The Community Hub Zone is not designed for a parcel. It isn’t designed for vertical integration,” Pultorak said. “The Community Hub is the center point of the entire Connected City to have parks, recreation and a place where people want to live. Every rezoning project so far has turned into another subdivision with a playset for the people that live in it.”
The Connected City’s comprehensive plan did include a district park in the Community Hub Area, according to Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein. It now appears the Connected City’s master plan needs to be changed because it isn’t likely a district park will be developed in the Community Hub Area, Goldstein said.
This is partially because the master plan prepared by the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department didn’t include a district park there and a funding plan to put a district park in Connected City hasn’t been established, according to Goldstein.
However, David Engel, the county’s planning and economic development director, told Planning Commission members that “internal leadership discussions” have been held about possibly providing a park for the Connected City.
“I don’t have any official capacity to make an announcement, but I don’t want the public nor the Planning Commission to think that we’re just sitting on our hands,” Engel said. “We are working on something right now.”
