PDE-26-7914

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Each appearance carries the official title above. Where the county’s wording changed, the change is marked: added and removed. Steps with no marks were worded identically.

TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 61% of 88 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong. 1 of the 2 appearances are not in any recording, so what was said at those is not here.

1. 1Jul 23, 2026
   Planning CommissionPC7Public hearingNo outcome in the minutes

   Open this item →No recording
2. 2Aug 25, 2026
   Board of County CommissionersP52Public hearingApproved

   Zoning Amendment (Consent) – … – Containing Approximately 2.3 acres. Acres

   Approved minutes

   Approved as a part of the Public Hearing Consent Agenda by roll call vote.

   Open this item →▶ Play from 1:14:04
   ▶ 1:14:0417m

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:14:04Aye. Motion passes. Now item 52. We have a presentation from staff.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:14:15Do we need a presentation?

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:14:17Or you can I can recommend it. Just or make your comments.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:14:23Good afternoon, Commissioner Oakley Savoplas, Planning, Development, and Economic Growth. And just looking for the clicker here. Very good. So this is item PDE 26-7914. This is a zoning amendment for rezoning from R4 High Density Residential District, C1 Neighborhood Commercial District, and AC Agricultural District to a C2 General Commercial District. The future land use is ROR, Retail

   1:14:54Office and Residential. And the purpose of this rezoning is to allow for C2 general commercial uses, including a gas station and convenience store, quick service restaurant, or strip retail. This is located at the northeast corner at the intersection of Little Road into Cubulus Road. You can see a county location map here showing that the property is located in the West Area Market.

   1:15:20An aerial location map?

   1:15:24An additional context map showing the thousand foot radius around the subject site. To the immediate east is the Newport Corners Northeast Village. And then a little bit to the south you can see the remainder of Newport Corners along with some of the other sites in the area.

   1:15:43You'll see here on the future land use map that we have two parcels highlighted. The subject site does take those two parcels and they are both designated as retail office residential. And then on the existing zoning map it does get a little bit more complicated in terms of the lining. So you'll see that on the southern parcel there is a um a cutoff there where part of it is C one and part of it is A C, while the northern parcel is R four.

   1:16:15And so as mentioned, those two parcels do contribute to a total acreage of two point three acres. Um access to the property is being proposed from Little Road, a county main maintained arterial roadway, um and it is adjacent to DeCubellis. road. Um in addition, the applicant did volunteer to a deed restriction for the Live Local Act, as well as a prohibition of uses to maintain um you know consistency with the area and compatibility with surrounding uses. Additionally, the applicant did agree to a binding concept

   1:16:45plan for the use of a gas station. That binding concept plan was based on specific standards that allowed for compatibility with Newport Corners, enhanced architectural detail, and pedestrian facilities to accommodate the general theme behind Newport Corners and walkability. Uh in addition to that binding concept plan, there was also a provision in the deed restriction that required the applicant to not use a gas station on the site until one of the other two gas stations had

   1:17:15been removed and ceased operations, or if um De Cubulus Road was expanded to four lanes, which is currently on the CIP project list for twenty twenty nine.

   1:17:28And so with that, P D recommends approval of the zoning amendment.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:17:31Okay, thank you. For the applicant? Is there an applicant here? Yes. Okay.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:17:38Do you have that?

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:17:40Any any questions for staff? I'm

   Seth WeightmanVice Chair

   1:17:41sorry. Uh just comment. Uh it's nice to see what three of the four corners are usable. That's we don't normally get three of the four corners. We might get one or half uh of the four corners. So uh planning wise it's an improvement. improvement and recognize that so that that's all true.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:18:01Yeah but but is it if three of them are gas stations?

   Seth WeightmanVice Chair

   1:18:05It my point is that there are hard corners and they can be using or not stormwater ponds, which is poor planning. Okay.

   Kathryn Starkey

   1:18:17Commissioner, can I speak?

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:18:20Uh Mr. Starkey, go ahead. Sorry.

   Kathryn Starkey

   1:18:22Yeah, um at first I wasn't in favor of this uh of a gas station being allowed here, but the applicant had the uh the The gas station candy corner to this site has indicated that they are going to be taking out their gas station and putting in, I think I'm uh something else. So um That made me a little more comfortable with this one and I also like the way the

   1:18:52siding is required to make it kind of a pedestrian friendly. uh neighborhood

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:19:00store type video. So which which one do you think might might be going on, Commissioner Starkey? Smack with.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:19:08So the one on the southwest corner um did come in for a site plan. Uh it hasn't been approved yet for through its first round of review, and that's all the further information I have on that. Um but the idea is there for them to to reestablish a new use on the site.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:19:23The mobile station be going away.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:19:24Yeah.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:19:24I just I just want to go back to three at the four corners will be brown fields.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:19:31So I d I do remember um and and the applicant can correct me if I'm wrong. I think there was mitigation on the one site that that he's proposing gas station use on that was already mitigated. It was previously a gas station some years ago. Um but I can let him talk about

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:19:46that if you'd like to see the area I live in and I don't know many areas other areas that have three gas stations on three out of the four corners. I I do not think it's a good look. I don't think it's it's good for our soil when you have three brown fields. Um I'm just I'm just not for this project at all. So

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:20:07So I understand your concerns, Commissioner. I think the the intent behind the deed restriction was to um try to enhance the gas station in any capacity. If they were to go to C one and they were to make the whole the whole plot C one, they could still get us a a gas station under a special exception use, which would be very similar in terms of submitting um you know, specific criteria and standards that they would have to follow. So we did our best to kind of follow suit with that.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:20:30So can I ask a question. So we're trying to make walkable communities right in our planning. So we have this community, Newport Corners, that we want to make sure that we have trails and we have paths so people can get to what, three gas stations?

   1:20:44I mean that sounds great.

   Unidentified speakerVoice B

   1:20:46Uh

   Nectarios Pittos

   1:20:47Victoria's Pito's playing Development Economic Growth. Uh that that was the impetus behind a lot of the deed restricting that's taking place on the particular property to get a better design out of the site, uh, rather than just getting a typical gas station like my like Ez R on the south side of DeCubellis on the east and west.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:21:04You can make it look however great you want. It's still a gas station, Terry. Like you can walk to this gas station, this gas station, or this gas station. But it's still a gas station. So why can't we have something better in our community on four of the corners?

   Nectarios Pittos

   1:21:22Correct. And ultimately the C two zoning district enables the capability for a gas station on there. Okay,

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:21:30I'm fine with it without a gas station.

   Nectarios Pittos

   1:21:32Right.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:21:33Yeah.

   Nectarios Pittos

   1:21:34So to the but to the extent that there would be a gas station, there are far more stringent controls on this property through the deed restriction than there would be on a typical C two lot.

   Unidentified speakerVoice C

   1:21:50Good afternoon. Uh Joe Kokolakis. I have been sworn in. And uh uh number one, I want to thank you, thank you, Commissioner Yeager. I met with Commissioner Starkey and Commissioner Yeager separately to discuss this project. and and and try to communicate that I'm not here to plan a gas station. Um over the course uh and and you know and I want to commend the commissioner for letting me know way back then that she was against this project because she did have concerns about three gas stations on this intersection. And what

   1:22:21I'd like to clarify is there will never be three gas stations at this intersection because the only way that I would ever be able to build a gas station on this intersection is if one of the other two closed. So at the most there would be two gas stations on this intersection. Secondly the commission that keeps on referring to this as a Brownfield site and saying it would be one of three Brownfield sites. And I'd like to remind the commissioner that When I bought purchased this property twenty years ago,

   1:22:51just before the ribbon cutting of the Pasco County Courthouse that my company built, where Commissioner Mariano was there and we were both a lot younger. Um That property was a gas station, it was a mobile station, it was contaminated, I cleaned up that site and obtained an F F NFA letter, no further action letter, from the state. So it is not a brownfield. It was previously contaminated. Now it's a clean site. Since then, over the course of the 20 years, I bought Joe Little's

   1:23:22house that was immediately to the east. And then we bought Coastal Engineering's property immediately to the north. For the sole purpose of assembling this corner that has been an eyesore. for twenty years. Um And developing that corner to its highest and best use. I never came with a plan for a gas station. I signed um a a an accepted a a site plan in the event that I did

   1:23:52come with a gas station that had the setbacks and different uh limit the pumps, a limit things like that, just so we can kind of keep it on the table. What I could not do was agree in perpetuity for the rest of my life that there will never be a gas station on that corner, because this is a property that I assembled over these years to have something for my children. You know, I agreed to limit, you know, I wanna have a car wash. Not that I have anything against car washers, but I'm just as frustrated as you. You know, cabinet shops, self-storage facilities,

   1:24:22auto repair garages, lumber yards. I went through the entire list that staff proposed and agreed to them. Um and I agreed because I've also been a property owner in this county for 40 years. The first land that we bought in Pasco County was to go hunting on on State Road 52, and we still have that land, but unlike the other people in the previous thing, we can't shoot there anymore. Things changed on 52. But what I will tell you is that I'm here to create value for

   1:24:53my family, for the county, and and find a way to develop that site properly. I had someone call me yesterday about a hotel. I had someone call me, you know, previously about the gas stations, which again, today's gas stations aren't like other years. Um, you know. But you know the My objection here is the county requiring that in perpetuity I eliminate a use just because there's two others currently

   1:25:23on the site. We kinda know one is already going away, and I agreed that I would never even propose one. unless one of the two went away. So I appreciate your concern. I get it, you know, l live living here as well. But I sincerely believe that, you know, we went through a lot with staff to reach this, you know, amicable, you know, mutually agreed upon solution. And and I would urge that you that you vote for it. Um and in the event that sometime

   1:25:53in the future we come up with a gas station, you have significant controls over the appearance of it and everything else. But all I want to do is reinforce A There'll never be three gas stations. B, you don't have three Brownfield sites because my site's clean. And C, I'm not here pitching a gas station. All I want to do is assemble three pieces of property, rezone them. One's residential, one's commercial, one's professional. And that's it.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:26:19And just just so we're clear, I was talking if you had a gas station on it, we'd have three brownfields because I remember having the conversation with you. And also to the point where I said, If this was in your neighborhood, would you want three gas stations on each corner? And you said no.

   Unidentified speakerVoice C

   1:26:34If it was a nice one like a Thornton's or a Wawa where I can get lunch. But anyway, number one, it's only a brown field if it's contaminated. And you know, and I don't really understand the technology, honestly, of gas stations, but it you can't call any gas station a brownfield. It's a it's a service that we all actually use at least once a week. So I you know and the two gas stations that are currently there are outdated, and probably it's time.

   1:27:00Um, If, again, in the remote chance that we were going to move forward with a gas station proposal, it would come before here, the design would be within your y control and you know and and in that chance, you know, I would have to submit to everything. But for you to ask me In perpetuity, for my kids to be looking at this site in 30 years and never be able to put a gas station on it because you don't want one in your neighborhood is not fair.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:27:32So So to be clear, there'll never be three gas stations because you will put a third one in when there's short two there. That's in this agreement, yes.

   1:27:43Right. Alright. Are you willing to bring the site plan back, if it is to be a gas station, before the board?

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   1:27:50Yes. That's already in the deed restrictions. That's

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:27:52a nice.

   1:27:55Before the this board? Yes, before this board. Okay. That's a pretty good condition.

   1:28:03Sorry. Okay. I'm for public comment.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:28:07Actually, I think that's a good thing.

   1:28:10So the um expansion or widening of the cubulus or one of the gas stations removed, we can change that to and if that's preferred by the board.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:28:20I mean it's already on the CIP, so we know it's

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:28:22Correct.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:28:23So there we go.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:28:25I think just to restrict it's purely if there's already two gas stations the third one doesn't come.

   Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair

   1:28:31And also I don't know why this is on consent because I've not been the my my first and only meeting was with um Mr. Korakis. I've never had a briefing with anyone on this. So

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:28:44And and just for future, uh I really think any time we're having a single person, whether on the commission or not, if this opposition It should not be on consent. It just delays the procedure and and puts misconceptions out there for the public and the rest of the board anyway.

   Mike Carballa

   1:28:59Absolutely understand that. So does the board want changes to that language?

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:29:04I d I definitely think we want to have a language where you can't have more than two gas stations so it that's in the cost.

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   1:29:12Language entirely. Okay.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:29:14I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   1:29:15Just remove the Decubelus road language entirely.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:29:20Okay. We can make that happen.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:29:25Okay.

   1:29:27Thank you. Mm-hmm. Alright, so it's time for public comment for this item. Anyone here in the audience here to speak to this item?

   Madam Clerk

   1:29:32No one is signed up.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:29:33Is there only one line?

   Madam Clerk

   1:29:34No one is online.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:29:35Alright, so it's to the board.

   Madam Clerk

   1:29:39Um

   Kathryn Starkey

   1:29:39if I could make a comment, um, because I met with staff and Joe on this public at least once. I mean I agree with Lisa it having multiple gas stations on those corners is not is not great. But I think that if there were a gas station to come here, it's gonna be a better product than than the one that will be left. And then that that other corner will get redeveloped and you know that's a really old gas station and who knows what's going on with that gas station.

   1:30:09So that's why I'm in support of this as long as we've got all those restrictions that cover the siting and the architecture, et cetera.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:30:21Yeah.

   1:30:23Okay, so to the board.

   Seth WeightmanVice Chair

   1:30:27I move approval with the language change of the cubeless and uh I I agree with the applicant that um to have the government restrict the hard corner to say no to a particular use that's used on a hard corner for in perpetuity is not necessarily a precedent that I I want to want to see uh in our decision making process but with the with the uh amended language from the county attorney I'll make a motion to approve.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:30:55Second. Roll

   Seth WeightmanVice Chair

   1:30:57call vote.

   Madam Clerk

   1:30:58District one, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Yeager? Nay. District five, Chairman Mariano.

   Jack MarianoChair

   1:31:09Aye. Motion passes four one.