Zoning Amendment (Regular) - New Port Corners MPUD Master Planned Unit Development - DCH East LLC, et al - A Rezoning Request from an A-C Agricultural Zoning District and an A-R Agricultural-Residential District to a MPUD Master Planned Unit Development District to allow for 3,400 residential units and 1,400,000 square feet of nonresidential uses on approximately 956.3 acres.
What the county recorded
Staff recommendation
Approval with Conditions
DispositionApproved
Approved Staff’s recommendation.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Apr 19, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Apr 19, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
This case, across meetings
PDD-22-7598 in full →PDD-22-7598 was taken up 2 times between Mar 17, 2022 and Apr 19, 2022 — this is appearance 2.
- Mar 17, 2022PlanningP4▶No disposition in the minutes
- Apr 19, 2022BoardP61▶Approvedthis item
What was said
Machine transcription of 59m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 60% of 202 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
And I will present pre sixty one.
All right. Hello again, Amy Heiler with Long Range Planning. Today you'll be hearing item RZ 7598, which is the Newport Corners Master Plan Unit Development Rezoning. So as previously shown, this is this site is located in the s uh central and spring districts of the West Market area as well as Commissioner District 4. This is your visual showing the aerial where it's north of Place, south of Decubulus
along the Little Road Corridor. So the proposal for the rezoning petition is to rezone the existing AC Agricultural District and AR Resident Agricultural Residential District to MPUD master plan unit development on approximately 956.3 acres of real property to allow for a mixed-use development of residential office retail and other commercially or community-scaled non-residential. residential uses. The intent of this area is to
be developed as a companion downtown to the city of Newport Ritchie through a series of well-connected street networks, trails, and land uses designed to complement and serve the surrounding community. So I'll go through a little history of Newport Corners. You heard this previously at the BC at the Transmodal hearing and rezoning action. So as stated, as Clark had mentioned, on August 10th, 2010, the Board of County Commissioners heard and approved the reclassification
of the existing residential future land use classifications at that point in time. To the Newport Corners flu amendment through the adoption of ordinance number 10-26. The improved entitlements at that time for Newport Corners considered existing densities set to set by the established residential land uses, as well as increase the intensity to allow for a maximum development potential of 3,397 dwelling units and four. 4.8 million square feet of
non-residential uses. So that was approved in 2010. Here is the visual for the existing land use that was approved at that point in time. And so in on December 9th, 2021, the local planning agency held the public hearing on the Comp Plan Amendment and approved the proposal of increasing the density from 3,347 units to 3,400 units and reducing the 4.8 square feet of non-residential to 1.4
million square feet of non-residential uses, as previously noted. Or at least, or as previously approved. On January 25th, you had the authorization, and today we went ahead and heard the adoption for the comp plan amendment. So on March 17th, we did hold the rezoning petition at the Planning Commission, and there was a recommended modification at that point in time to allow for the connection. connection or allow for connectivity or
inclusion of multi-use path to connect to the Cody River Elementary School along Plath Road. That change has been incorporated into the master plan, connectivity planning conditions for the MPUD, conditions of approval. There's also minor modifications that occurred to the following conditions as approved by PDD and the applicant.
There were a couple variations from the code as stated. Um some variations included uh LDC section eight oh five point six for the restrictions of post-development wetlands along to ensure some so these were buffering components of the wetlands that were approved. Um neighborhood park requirement was reduced. This was as a result of the location. of the urban rec center that's going to be proposed alongside the village village, northeast village area,
as well as 402.5 for the distance of the alcohol waiver for consumption because there are no schools or churches within the vicinity of that regulation. So the proposed entitlements are set forth in the conditions of approval for the MPUD. As previously stated, there's approximately a total of 3,400 residential units and a maximum of 1.4 million non-residential units. Those are defined as follows: 1,825
single-family units, or entitled as follows: 1,825.
And 1,050,000 square feet of office and target industry. So as previously stated, this is the sub-area map that identifies the village areas for Newport Corners. And I'll go into some detail on what that means. So this is going to be your connectivity plan. This is also adopted within the conditions of the MPUD. They will be bound to this and will be bound to the location of the roadways, the park requirements, wetlands,
uplands, and sidewalks and connectivities.
So the Northeast Village, um so the intent of the Northeast Village is to act as a primary location for employment generation with a mixture of residential dens densities and the establishment of an urban recreational or possible establishment of an urban recreational center in this location. This is going to be north of Decubulis and east of Little Road. In this area, we have had extensive negotiations with the Office of Economic Development as well as Parks, Recs, and Natural Resources. So with Office and
Economic Development, the applicant and planning and development came to an agreement for this area to prioritize office and target industry uses. To include, but not limited, to professional office, medical office, as well as a 25-acre flex space, which is defined in the conditions of approval for the MPUD. And then with Parks and Rec. We have been in negotiations with Parks, Rec and Natural Resources, and the applicant has agreed to preserve 10 upland acres for a period of
two years to allow for an urban rec for the potential for an urban recreational center. The intent of this urban recreational center is to act as a companion to the Magnolia Valley as well as Mitchell Park. Park to fulfill the level of service for the regional park in this area?
And the neighborhood general is going to primarily be your residential uses. So the neighborhood general is going to include your residential, single family detached, single family attached, alley loaded, and age restricted developments or uses within this area. And then the village center is actually going to be more of your downtown core. So previously, this was of an open space that we converted or changed to speak more to the village center. So this
is going to be your downtown component for Newport Newport Corners. So the village center is going to provide for a mixture of retail office and residential unit uses. And these uses are actually Only going to be primarily commercial uses, neighborhood serving restaurants, those downtown uh uh components. We're also priorities prioritizing ver vertically integrated uses in this area. Um and we've spoken with the applicant and prohibited various uses that um
may be considered dirty or not a companion to the character of the area, i.e. um M uh uh clerical or not clerical. Um Uh Sorry. Uh RV, electrical, mechanic, RV uh warehousing, and car washes are gonna be prohibited in this area. And then we also have a companion within the connectivity plan that shows the parks and trails and sidewalks and open spaces that are going to be in this area. And
then the accompanying master plan delineating the wetlands and the general range of uses, location locations, and access points. And with that, we recommend that the BCC approve the rezoning request subject to the attached conditions of approval. And I can answer any questions that you may have.
Thank you. Any questions for staff? Yeah. Okay. Time for the applicant.
Yeah, okay. Okay. Sorry about that, Mr. Chairman Clark Hobby again. Had to remember how to advance the clicker. This is the difficult thing in my day. Okay. Uh here today, very happy to be with you on behalf of a large planning engineering team and our client Lenar Holmes and Joel too is working with me and represents the uh the seller who's going to retain some of this project. But the big things I want you to know today is that Our
team has known and has been working on this project for almost two and a half years now. We're very much cognizant of the importance of this site to West Pasco County and to our neighbors and to the development of West Pasco in general. So when I think about this site I always think about the history of our county And if you go back and you look at the aerials of this area in West Pasco County, a lot of people don't realize we did not even have a bridge over
Little Road until the early eighties. So if you lived up in this area where the county government center is and you had to go see somebody down by 54, you had to drive all the way into downtown New Port Richey to do so. And so if you look at the larger area that we find ourselves in, a lot of the build-out lots that you see there, there was virtually nothing in 1974 in this area. And most of West Pasco, the development occurred in close proximity to 19. Well,
why am I saying that? Well, it's because if you go back and you look at your history, the landowner of this property gave the property for Little Road and for the bridge over Little Road to be constructed. And if you read this article from this, I think it's from the St. Pete Times, no, I'm sorry, it's from the Tribune, uh, they basically, the chairman uh says that we could not have built Little Road and the bridge but for the dedication of the right-of-way for this area. And what happened
is once Once the bridge was built and little road was built through this area, it's responsible almost single-handedly for the majority of the growth that we now know on the east side of Newport Ritchie and all of this area. So because of that And what the board could see happening even at the adoption of the original comp plan, this area has been planned for res 3 and res six density since at least 2000. And all of the plan amendments
coming forward to the adoption of Newport Corner continue to show Res 3, Res 6, and Res 9 in this area, which indicates that the county knew this was going to be urbanized over time. And moreover, the number of residential units that are in Newport Corners have already existed going back at least since 2000. So after the board adopted Newport Corners in 2010, which you all heard heard about. The board then created
our market areas and created the harbors plan for for the West Market area. And as you all are undoubtedly aware, conducted all kinds of community workshops and there were all kinds of working teams that worked on this for like a year and a half. And the goals for this site were set out in the harbors plan. And they really Boil down to a few things. We wanted to preserve open spaces. We wanted to open up some access to the river and have good trail
systems. And we really more than anything want to create a sense of place that is something that we can be proud of in this area and not have more of the same stuff we've seen on 54 for the last 25 years. This is a strategically important system. Site, our client is aware of that and because of that, gave the planners at Clearview Land Design. a real free hand in designing the community. So you've seen the MPUD and you've heard some discussion about
the uh I'm gonna come back to that. You've heard some discussion about the overall plan, but let me just walk you through just a few things and I won't belabor it. The central focus of this project is the four corners at Newport Corners. As I said The previous comp plan already allowed all this residential. And what we need to do is have a really nice downtown area around which we can plan. So what we've done here is these corners which were already appropriately
sized when Newport Corners was adopted, they're only 12 and a half acres in size. So they're really only appropriate for neighborhood scale uses. The planners at at Clearview Land Design and working with Lenar and with the sellers representatives created this beautiful green space area through the the downtown area, running through here and a big greenway down to the river in a park system and amenity area. They also, and this is again, some of this stuff is unprecedented
for Lenard, never done this, all of these cross-hatched areas you see are all alley loaded product. The point being we're trying to create a downtown community feel here, uh maybe, you know, similar to Bexley but even more powerful than that area based on the scale we're talking about. And all of these units will be looking over the green space in the downtown area. Moreover, and again the sellers never agreed to do anything like this before, the seller agreed
to move all of the buildings up on the green space so that the parking's gonna be in the rear. and agree to create with the county as the site plans come in. standards for building orientation, the facades of the building, architectural, signage, landscaping, and parking. Now do you all have you ever heard of another time that that's been done in the county? You haven't, because it's never been done before. And the reason why we're doing all this is to show you
all we're committed to the plan you see today and that connectivity plan and creating this sense of place. We're going to continue to work with your planners on the commercial standards, but we have to do this right. We have to do this together to make sure we fulfill the mission that the Board adopted in. Yeah. You've seen the Greenway uh plan, and I won't belabor these slides, but what we're showing you here is these this is what our Multi-use paths are gonna look like some of the larger
ones are along the river system. Uh and we we've given great thought to the crossings of Little Road and on Little Road we're going to have uh a brick paver uh system there with pedestrian relief in the middle so that our pedestrians can safely cross little road. Then when we get down to the green space area, we're gonna have a series of amphitheater type feel or open spaces, some of which are gonna be more passive in nature. Then there'll be some
more active areas and and I'll flip to a slide in a minute which shows you where we may have some kind of a bike park or skate park. uh and and so forth. But the planners at Clearview have been working with a top notch firm out of Utah on the trail system. I'm sorry I need to go back. um about the plan that we're going to have down by the river and really where our focal area is there. A lot of thought has gone into it, something we can be really proud of. Um you heard from
staff and you're gonna hear from some of our neighbors that they are concerned about open spaces and what we're doing in that. And I can assure you the Clearview team put a lot of effort and a lot of thought into this so that the green spaces throughout the community complement the areas where the wetlands are already located and the ponds are then located around them as well. So again, Just in the area south of Decubelis where creating or
preserving over four hundred acres of open space. And to me that's really remarkable. Um I think you've seen the majority of the connectivity plan and we've gone through most of the stuff before. So I I I'm not gonna belabor this, but I do want to point out uh just a few other things because I know you're likely to hear some concerns from our neighbors on these things. Again, when we started this project before we did the plan amendment. the traffic would have been significantly worse than where we are today.
and through a combination of reducing the huge and I mean mall regional mall scale retail on the site And reducing some of the other non-residential, but still keeping enough to have really good job creation here, we reduce the total number of trips that could have been allowed by over 70 percent. Okay? That's very significant. Moreover, we agreed as to transportation to a series of conditions that will
require us to build two roads on the east side that will ultimately uh be parallel relievers to Little Road. So the people who live on the east side of the road, if they're going north to the cubelus, won't have to go on little road. They'll be able to cut through the community and go out over there. Then we created a lockbox system for all the mobility fees that will be created from the site. And I anticipate that number is going to be somewhere between 20 and 25 million. And
the way the conditions work is rather than that money going to some other area of the county, some other area in West Pasco, the funds can only be used by the county for improvements to Little Road, Starkey. Or decubelus. And staff feels very strongly, and they've told me that they want to see how Ridge Road works once the third and fourth lanes are open and do some further traffic studies to decide where to best spend those funds. So that's the plan on
traffic. You heard about the parks. Again, there's a in addition to what we're doing on our part, there's another 10 acres being reserved. uh for a park that uh natural resources wants north of Decubelis. Uh you heard about the employment numbers. We're reserving plenty of entitlements and there's a 25-acre employment site which is being reserved. Those are both specifically what staff asked us to reserve. And to the sellers' credit, they did
everything that staff asked of them. Um again preserving huge open spaces and preserving a lot of wetlands. The only wetland impacts that we propose on site are to some isolated category threes. None of the cat ones are proposed to be impacted. I'm very proud of the work that went into the connectivity plan and the overall design of the development. It's been a two and a half year process that we've gone through with your staff. Uh
and I specifically want to thank Amy Heiler, Terry Pitos, David Goldstein, the transportation staff, and and I just want to point out for on the transportation side. When we took this project on. there were two big collector roads that were gonna go right through the middle of the eastern portion of the project and we could not have built the downtown that we're going to build with that roadway system and we had to work for six months with your staff to reach an accommodation so
that the land use principles and the transportation principles could meet together and still create a grid system that will distribute the trips. But then we'll also allow for a downtown field that's walkable, bikeable, and so forth. Um And again, we knew this day was coming two and a half years ago, and my my question to our client. and to our planning team two and a half years ago was Can we and
have we done everything that we can do? to make sure that the end of this project and the planning that leads up to today that we've created a special sense of place and a community destination. And to my clients' credit and to the sellers' credit, I believe we fulfilled that mission today with a lot of work with your staff. So I appreciate your consideration of it and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Any questions for the applicant?
That's good.
Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go to public comment and it's important as a clerk calls your name, that you give your name, your address, and that you have been sworn. Madam Clerk?
Thank you. All right. Um the first individual signed up is Laura Jesky.
Thanks for the opportunity to share my concerns. My name is Laura Jeske. I live at [address removed], and I've been sworn. Um the Newport Corners development has been in the works for years, and I'm sure the property owners, developers, and county planning folks. Work very hard to reach this point. But as a resident who will very likely be here for the next few decades, paying for the full impact of their development, I'm terrified of what these folks are leaving in their wake. They will be
long gone when the next drought hits. They'll be long gone when their high density living space turns into a slum. Of course they're paying impact fees, but those fees don't cover anywhere near the full cost of their high density developments. I know others speaking today are covering the runoff and flooding concerns and the awful displacement of wildlife. No, there is no safe route for those poor creatures to migrate to Starkey Wilderness. But those impact fees don't come anywhere near the budgets of all of our first responders who
are now understaffed and under-equipped for the population of Pasco as it stands today. Obviously they're in a pretty bad state for a projected spike in population. In the whole planning exercise, no one thought of paying for this need. before recommending a project for approval. The commission saying they will discuss the matter at a May twenty-two budget meeting seems like a little too little too late. Um I only have three minutes to share my concerns, but I'd like to enter the public record an article
from a local newspaper citing a 2020 report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to you, the Pasco County Commission. It describes the extremely distressful ranking of our Pasco County Sheriff's Department at number 64 out of 67 counties in the state of Florida for the ratio of deputies to residents. That's near the bottom. While I don't have news articles about other first responders' capacities concerns from first hand conversations, I know that they are all suffering from the same lack of funding and
trained personnel. You, the Pasco County Board of Commissioners, are in a powerful position. You can throttle back the explosive development track we are on so that the support systems for your current residents catch up. Or you can accept the responsibility when people die waiting for basic services to arrive.
Can I submit my newspaper article for the public record?
Yes.
Motion to receive and file. Second.
All in favor say aye. Good.
Uh thank you. Thank you.
Uh next uh person signed up is Mark Jeske.
And folks, please know clapping as we go forward. Thank you. I'm sorry, what? I was saying. For the folks in the audience, please no clapping.
Thank you, members of the commission. My name is Mark Jeske and I live at [address removed]. I wish to make reference to a few important articles that I
Yes.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Uh and I would like to please request permission to submit into the public record the first identifying page of each article.
Move receiving file. Second.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Thank you.
I have an article where County Administrator Dan Biles said that in 2021 the County issued permits totaling nearly $4 billion in approved property value, 56% above 2020 and double 2019. I have an article where assistant county administrator Sally Sherman advised that the County had to hire 10 new staff in planning and 14 in building construction administration because of all the
development. I have an article where County property appraiser Mike Wells states that Pasco County's population could reach almost a million by 2040. That's almost double the current census number of five hundred and sixty-two thousand. I have several articles in which experts have studied the effects of uncontrolled development sprawl. They all conclude that uncontrolled development ends up costing the
communities a lot more than it generates in economic growth and tax gain. I reference Florida Statute Section 145.031, which increases the salaries of county commissioners as the population of their county increases. That statute explicitly permits commissioners to voluntarily freeze their salaries so that they are not influenced by the drive to maximize
development. If you have not done so already, I request that each of you consider Voluntarily freezing your salaries at the current Pasco County population level. So that increased pay runs no risk of influencing your development decisions. I note that some of you accepted political donations from developers and their consultants. I request that any of you who have received donations from
a developer or consultant who will can benefit from the new Port Corners project. Consider recusing yourself from today's decision making process. Considering the millions of dollars at stake with this project and the long planning period, it is probably unrealistic to think we can stop this speeding train. Бой кантви слова? Слот дан алот. A project of this size should be phased in over a
long period of time, especially given the current construction madness in our county. A phase development over fifteen years or longer. Would give the current residents and the wildlife an opportunity to acclimate to the change. Please step back and truly think about what you are doing to this county. It's time to emphasize planning for the quality of life of the current citizens. It's time to put the brakes on development.
Thank you.
Okay. Um Miss Julia um Barterneck.
Hi again, I was sworn in and I'm still sworn in. Um thank you for the opportunity to speak. I speak on behalf of the Sierra Club, Pasco Conservation Committee, and myself. The Sierra Club has developed principles attempting to guide entities in matters such as this. Sierra strongly discourages suburban sprawl as represented by this proposed zoning change. Sprawl fails to maximize in-placed infrastructure. This change will require Pasco County to expand its infrastructure in multiple arenas,
including schools, roads, sewers, water, resiliency, fire protection, and even government. Two, suburban sprawl fails to recover the costs associated with expansion. Citizens who derive little benefit from this change in zoning will at some level wind up paying for the expansion. Three, moving into what will become urban sprawl. Creates a scenario where the underfunded costs of project A are attempted to be recovered by project B. Of course, project B itself is underfunded
and this process continues in a losing battle of new projects. For Sierra Club's principle of walkable communities, walkable communities are designed in such a way that any resident is within walking or biking distance of services and amenities needed on a day-to-day basis. Street plans provide for curved cul-de-sacs, no-through streets, and broad sidewalks. All of the focus, all of this focused on residents who live there. Rechargeable EV stations, dark sky lighting, and
solar roofing is optimal. Pasco is a beautiful county. Sierra Club supports neighborhood renewal, an approach that allows Pasco County to maximize current infrastructure. By the same token, Sierra Club supports the principle of infilling, again, maximizing utilization of in-place facilities. Both of these approaches allow Pasco County to be able to use the easy to to maintain green spaces and vibrant places which support health both mental and physical. As myself, I'd like to request another
park adjacent to the river on Plath Road, similarly along Plath Road, um, on the east. On the south side of Plath Road, similar to James E. Gray Preserve. This has added deep concerns for flooding issues of New Portie residents post-development of the zoning change for the Newport Corners development. I'm also concerned with the runoff pollutants into the Pithclucchi River impacting its estuaries, river beauty,
and potential increased tourism. May I please submit this to public record?
Motion to a receive and file. Second.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.
Okay.
All right. Um The next individual signed up is David Robison.
My name is David Robison. I live at [address removed], and I have been sworn.
Thank you.
I really salute your uh power to control and your duty to control the growth of Pasco County. I lived in Orange County, California and I witnessed it go from a private road to build the new communities. to ten lanes on I five. in both directions. One to go San Diego, ten more lanes to go to Los Angeles. So you have an awesome power and duty to keep Pasco County and control its growth. And that I really salute you for that. It's a tough job.
to keep beautiful Florida for its residents and its tourists. If we could pass a law that says Build only where there are already existing sewer, water, and electric meters.
that way No more land. or lives. Livelihood. And the habitat of the people and the animals on that land would be destroyed. In other words, if you build on sites that have already been developed, you can do it. You can build up and you can build a little bit bigger on that site and you don't destroy any more land or lives.
You still developed.
You can't stop the people from moving to Pasco County. But you can control where they live and how much land is developed. And How much land is not developed? For the residents that are already here. And the tourists. I I think in that way everybody wins. Thank you.
Okay, next person signed up, Barbara Costa.
Or Costa. Costa.
Thank you, Commissioners. My name is Barbara Costa. My address is [address removed] and I have been sworn. I'm here to speak in opposition to Newport Corners. The woods that would be gone are adjacent to my house. The woods are the reason that me and my neighbors live there. Osteen Road is where everybody walks. All the neighbors walk on Osteen at night. We all know each other. Um many of my neighbors
asked me to say that they're not here 'cause they're at work. They can't get off the middle of the day to come down. But my concern is for the animals that would be displaced. I live there. I see the gopher tortoises on Osteen Road. I've seen gopher tortoises no bigger than the size of my hand out on that road. There are Rossiate spoon bills in those ponds. Bald eagles fly over. There are so many animals that will be impacted. Animals don't know to walk somewhere
else. They don't know to watch for traffic lights. Every time there's development in Pasco County, you see them dead on Little Road. I mean, I know I live there. Um my concern as well. When Debbie stalled over here ten years ago or so, my backyard floated. The stormwater goes through my yard. I'm fine with that. We all have to take a little bit of it. But adding all of these new residences, I think, is going to be a disaster. I'm also concerned I never received a
definitive answer on what was going to happen with Osteen Road. At the present time it dead ends at night, which is where I live. If that is extended down to Plath That means our neighborhood won't be a neighborhood anymore. It's gonna be a thoroughfare. People gonna use it to cut through from Massachusetts down to Plath. The developers have stated they want to keep traffic off of Little Road. I I don't see how they're going to do that unless
they're doing just that, using Osteen Road, which would destroy our neighborhood. I also don't think making Little Road four lanes is a good idea. I I'm Had I known this was coming, I would not have bought my house here because this definitely affects our quality of life. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
The next person signed up, uh Dixie Sparks.
My name is Dixie Sparks. My address is [address removed]. I'm an advocate for the And have you been sworn? Yes. Okay. I'm an advocate for the Sand Hill Cranes. And I personally have witnessed what's happened in this area. Um Lenar built in Trinity, and I have um videotaped what has happened over there. The well wetlands have been filled in. Beautiful wetlands.
I mean beautiful lakes with s hundred year old cypress trees. Sand hill cranes walking around, just a beautiful area, all kinds of wildlife, from Anna Incas, great great blue herons. Um
Cormorants, we have deer. We've uh all kinds of wildlife.
These wetlands were just filled in with animals and them. Huge piles of dirt with baby alligators. Just displaced. Probably their families covered up with dirt. I literally broke down and cried. I've never witnessed anything so painful. as to what we are doing to wildlife. I see you have a picture of the Sand Hill Crane here. What are we doing for them? They are protected. They're
supposed to be protected. You say, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna build around the wetland and the development. What happens there? People come by with their dogs, they have their dogs off leash, the dogs run, chase the cranes, cranes can't live there. Cranes are territorial. When you build over in Trinity, that's where they live for hundreds of years. They still go back there. So when you fill in those wetlands, what happens to all these animals? They either get buried as they're filling them in or they get chased
out on the highway where they have run over by a cars. I picked up, I don't know how m I've lost count, how many cranes have been run over. They're foraging on the highway 'cause there's there's no place to forage. There's no land. Okay. We as a human race, we have a responsibility to the earth. They can come in and develop all this land today. Make all this money? And who suffers? We're all gonna suffer eventually because
wetlands are important for an ecological system. Wetlands purify water. Wetlands provide protection. From storms. Trees, we get oxygen. We need when they put in these huge developments, they put up an a tree. And they destroy everything that's been there for years. What's happening to our earth? What's happening? I I beg you You have you're in a position. to
help the earth, to help the environment. I beg you to look beyond Beyond Money. And these considerations and use what we already have. Use use areas that are not being developed, that that's already here that we could utilize. I have one last thing to say. Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has
been caught. Will we realize we cannot eat money? Thank you very much.
All right. Um last person I have signed up is Margot Robison.
Hi, I'm Marco Robison. I live at [address removed]. And I'm
ma'am, have you been sworn?
Pardon?
Have you been sworn?
Yes. Okay, you may proceed. I stood up.
The uh I was very happy to hear that four hundred acres is gonna be preserved. My concern is that it is it the original trees or is it the Landscaping they bring in from the nursery trees. Because that's that's a huge difference in the wetlands mitigation, et cetera, et cetera. Because if they can preserve the ex four hundred acres of existing trees and nature there, that would be phenomenal. Uh
What I'm seeing happening out at Mitchell doesn't show that at all. They've just bulldozed everything. Just boom, everything's gone. filling everything. It just looks like a hellish landscape out there. And we certainly don't want that to happen here. So I understand that these Uh designers and engineers did a lot of work for a long time to get this to be a better d development and uh I'm sure it's going to be but
better if they could preserve Yeah. Set aside uh areas that the animals are not killed off. And I know the biggest problem is gopher tortoises, 'cause I know it's what, five grand to relocate a s gopher tortoise, so they'd rather bulldoze them and and pay the fine. It's cheaper. Uh When I don't see that we can afford to lose any more gopher tortoises because they are the mainstay of the uh uh environment
for the rest of the animals. They dig the burrows for the rest of the animals. So I think it would be very important to preserve those gopher tortoises. Uh I uh understand there's a spring in there. Uh that would be a biggie to keep that area as is, not bring a bunch of bulldozers in there. Uh so I just think that it's very important that this development does a completely different plan of action than the other developments in
out on 54. 'Cause the ones out on fifty four just rape, rape, rape everything. I think these guys have probably done a lot of work to try and preserve some goodness here. And I would really like to see that happen. Thank you.
That's all we have signed up.
So you have signed up and there's no one on WebEx for the
Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak? Please come forward and just line up one by one.
Is there anyone else other than these two that want to speak? And have you two been sworn?
I did stand up for your swearing, but the clipboard wasn't there at all.
That's okay. you mm you have Mits One in? Okay. All right, we'll swear you went afterward. Go ahead, sir. Name and address on your Sure. Uh
name is Lance Levy over here at [address removed], exactly bordering the uh Northeast Village. Okay, it's a little dirt road. I did stand up for your swearing.
Thank you. I have to have it on the record. Thank you.
Okay. Um so it's not so much of a statement. I've been trying to find out for a while now. It's more of a of a question. I'll state it if anybody can answer. Uh I know there's people here that sh definitely should know the answers.
village. I mean it runs between Little Road and it ends at um Old Homestead which is a dirt road. Okay, it comes up like yay. That's a big wetland area up there, Hales property, and there's about five of us here. Um I've got an autistic child. Um I specifically move there because there's like zero traffic. I mean there's a few vehicles every day. And that road I've been told and I've been told contradictory that that's gonna be all paved, uh we're gonna have to have a paved road in there now. They're gonna put
sewers in, we're gonna have to pay for all that stuff. Um I'm concerned about traffic on on that road. I mean if they're gonna make that a thro a thoroughfare, which I don't really know how they could, but they could bring it in and use that as a backside to your industrial complex or whatever you're gonna put in there, that's really what I like to know is is that road gonna be touched at all or are they just gonna leave that as a buffer on that uh bordering property? Okay. We'll we'll find the answer in. Okay. So tha that's really what I'm looking for guys. Uh I mean I'm not naive, I don't expect to
change all this. It looks like people are putting a lot of work in. Hopefully they'll do a good job for us. So you
know. Thank you.
Uh this will be the last speaker and we're gonna swear you in.
Uh could you raise your right hand please? Yes. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth, so help you God.
Yes.
Okay, if you could state your name and address for the record and then you can begin.
I live in the uh neighborhood right next to the main wood line. Um My fear is if you open up to Osteen, even if they are promising to pave it under their own funds, that it's going to cause a lot of traffic, especially with the multi-use trails. We're going to have a lot of people with golf carts cutting through to get down to the actual downtown of Newport Ritchie. Um and it's not gonna be safe. It's not gonna be safe for my kids. I have two toddlers. I take them for bike rides in the tow behind and
I can't do that anymore once they open that up. I will not feel comfortable with the amount of traffic that will fly through, especially down Osteen. People already fly down Osteen and now we're gonna add thirty four more thirty four more hundred uh homes in that vicinity. Um Little road already gets backed up with traffic. Even expanding more lanes, are you gonna expand the bridge or is it gonna funnel? We're gonna add more lights, it's gonna cause more backup. Um There's plenty of areas in Pasco that are available
for lease. I brought them if I can uh submit them. Um in just in West Pasco there's two hundred and ninety-four as of the fourth of this month available for lease. There's plenty of areas to rebuild or lease out for more. Businesses. Um I know last time I couldn't be here because my son had surgery, and they notated that Copper Springs was a failure of a project in the end result, and Lenar Holmes built that. But we're gonna entrust them to do
this project with all this planning, but how are we gonna know that it's not gonna end up being another failure of this area with nothing t to really show for it. I just would hope that in the end, I'm sure it's gonna be approved either way, that we just don't open up Osteen for the safety of the families that already live there. It's a very quiet neighborhood, a lot of nature. I'm lucky enough to have a large backyard and get to experience some nature with my kids and I just know that a lot of it might migrate away. And my kids will never know without
going paying to go to a park, go to the zoo or the aquarium, or have to drive to a state park in another area just for them to know what nature is. That's it. If I can note Forgetting to submit these.
Come motion to receive and five. Motion to receive and file.
Second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. And with no one else in the public here, is there anyone on WebEx?
No one's on WebEx.
So we're going to officially close public comment. Uh back to the applicant.
Mr. Chairman Clark Hobby again. Uh we had a few questions about Osteen Road and I'll try to answer those. Uh actually could we go back to a slide? Yeah, there we go. All right. Let me explain what's going on with Osteen Road. If I can get this come on. Come on. There we go. So some of the residents were asking about this section right here. This is unlikely to ever be built. This is unlikely to be ever be built. The section
north of Vision Road U, which winds through here, we are only going to have a can we we will resurface this when we make a connection to it, but it's unlikely to occur real soon because of the phasing plan number one. Number two, this is the only area that's intended to be gated because this is intended to be an active adult area. So we don't anticipate our residents really using Osteen very much, and there'll be gates over
here and we'll be, you know, they'll be accessing their primary roadway network down through here and into Newport Corners, into the corners themselves. So just wanted to clarify that as to Osteen. Now, as the the one gentleman spoke who lives over in this area, we do not propose any access Over to this area at all. Our roadway system doesn't rely on that anyway. The access to the Northeast Village is primarily
through here. There may be one other connection over in this area that's a right in, right out, but this is where the access points will be. And for that very reason, we actually got a letter of no objection, and the man spoke at the Planning Commission hearing from the Lexi. Washington Oak's townhomes HOA here. So again, we are not proposing any access on this side at all. Um a lot of the testimony that you heard was people simply worried about wildlife. And there are things
to be appreciated for sure. That's gonna happen when you have a project that's the last hole in the donut. But as I think everyone here is aware, this site was an orange grove site for many, many years. And it would still be an Orange Grove right now. It was in a heavily disturbed Orange Grove state, and it still would be, but for the freezes in the in the eighties. And so the landowner planted pines there for two reasons. One to maintain the green belt, and
then the second thing is because they they want to make money selling the pines. So whether or not this project ever occurs or not, those pines are going to be a good thing. to be harvested and people simply cannot rely on your neighbor having planted pines, which again are planted to be harvested for a production crop for cash, uh, as creating some kind of urban panacea. That's not reality and that's not what this site ever has been. Again,
it was a working growth site For many, many years. As you all know, we have to follow the Comp Plan. And the Comp Plan that we're dealing with today, the majority of the policies were put into a place Over 12 years ago. What we're doing today is fulfilling the promise, the promise that you made. as a board to West Pasco County, that instead of just having 3,400 homes, we'd create together a real sense of
place and we do it with a quality, mixed use development that promotes walkability. open access to parks and trails in the area which are so desperately needed in West Pasco County. And together we are fulfilling the promise that was made to the public and all the workshops. And so uh I'm happy to answer any questions that you have, but the other questions that I hear are all either concerning issues like sprawl that simply
don't apply or are concerns about where animals will go and I simply would say This has been a heavily disturbed site for many years, but there are 18,000 acres of nearby preserved areas in the Saranova Preserve and Starkey. This site has never been on the natural resources list for preservation. It's always been planned for development, and since 2010, it's been planned specifically for this form of
development. Yeah. So the board is in a position where it should be proud of where where we are today and we're fulfilling the mission. So with that I'd ask for your support and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Mr. R I've got a question. One of the ladies mentioned the wetland preservation. Right. It looks like on the southern part and on the borders of all around the lower part of the property, you have preserved that without disturbing it. That's right. So you'd just you're not going to disturb the plow over and then replant it.
That's right. None of those class one wetlands are being proposed to be disturbed at all. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. So I do have a few qu um
Commissioner Fitzpatrick.
Thank you. Just to confirm you have four hundred acres that will be untouched for preser open spaces. The ten acres on the northeast corner, that's gonna go for parks and rec? And natural resources?
That's correct. We will have 400 acres of open space, is the correct way of saying it. And there's 10 acres for a park and rec site on the north side, and there is a 25-acre employment site as well being reserved.
Okay. I
think
Mr. Jetsky had quite asked about a time frame. And during the Planning Commission, you said this project would take until 2035.
Well, it was interesting. One of the neighbors, I think it might have been Mr. Jetsky. He said that this ought to be phased in. We couldn't agree more. Our build out date is thirteen years, which is almost the fifteen years he said it should be built out over.
So it's not going to happen overnight. And then any of the flooding concerns they would you would have to go through Swift MUD to make sure there's no runoff on the property?
We have to go through the county and Swift MUD and to the extent it's applicable for a federally regulated wetland, we'd have to go through DEP.
And then as for the concern of traffic, someone had mentioned, I know we're not you're not planning on connecting Osteen, and you were talking about having having interconnectivity for the east of Little Road, but not for the west side of Little Road for Osteen.
Right. Again, I'll just go over this one more time. Again, we are building this east-west vision road and we will have a connection ultimately. Through this, you know, street section that goes through our neighborhood that will eventually go down to Plath. But Osteen is not proposed to come down as a collector road straight through here. We're going to preserve the right-of-way and that's it. And again, the only connections we're foreseeing up from this area are from a gated active adult, i.e. senior
community. So we do
On the bottom left of that circle where O Sing goes down to where the black dotted line is, that is not gonna connect, correct?
D down d from Plath up it will not we we are not building the section from Vision Road U, which is this road here, down to Plath.
Okay, so right
This section already exists up here.
But it's not gonna connect to the blue dotted line.
It will ultimately connect to that. We have to, pursuant to the county's rules, because it's a vision road. it will have a connection. It's unlikely if you think about the traffic pattern, if people are going north, they're unlikely to peel off to go up Osteen as the commissioner, the resident commissioner is aware, this has now this has what they call it a a port chop. and you can only turn right out of here, so there'd be no reason for anyone to go being going northbound to cut through here to come back to only
be able to go east.
Okay. And then the last one was you said there's going to be twenty to twenty-five million dollars for mobility fees that are going to be put aside strictly for this area. So traffic should not be a concern in the future in this area?
That's right. We we believe that the county is in the best position once the lanes three and four of Ridge Road open up to determine whether little road should be improved. Whether to cubeless and and for the board's benefit, you already have Fund it's supposed to be starting this year, the four laning of Decubelus from this center section to Starkey. The questions will be and and the board needs to determine in the in the days to come once lanes three and four open
on Ridge. How much traffic is being diverted and where's the best use of the money being spent? Is it at the intersection of Starkey and Decubelus? Is it on Starkey by four-laning it? Or should we add lanes five and six to little? And the board we believe is in the best position to do that, and your staff believes that as well.
And my last comment question would be pertaining to the sp special needs child is you'll be working with them to make sure there's a good buffer for that area?
Absolutely.
Okay. Hmm.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? Okay.
Motion to approve.
We have a motion. We have a motion.
Oh,
she's gonna motion second.
She made it
okay. Okay.
I didn't hear a move.
Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.
Well, we need to make a motion.
Yeah.
And that is it last of the public hearing. We are we are adjourned. Thank you. Oh, no. Hold on, we're not again.