PDE-267897 Mitchell 54 West MPUD substantial amendment hotel
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The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, May 21, 2026
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The next item on the agenda is item PC five. It's PDE 267897, a zoning amendment in the name of Mitchell 54 West MPUD and MM Route 54 West LLC. It's a substantial amendment from MPD Master Plan Unit Development to MPUD Master Plan Unit Development to allow for the removal of the transit-oriented design and mixed-use trip reduction measure requirements and to reduce Reduce the non-residential entitlements to four hundred and sixty thousand square feet of commercial and add two hundred and
forty hotel rooms and associated infrastructure in southwest Pasco County, located at the southwest quadrant of the intersection of State Road 54 and Little Road, containing approximately 330 acres, to be presented by staff.
Good afternoon, William from Million, Planning Development, Economic Growth.
As previously mentioned, this is a substantial modification to the Mitchell 54 West MPUD PDE 267897. Here is the location map for the subject side of the existing NPD. Um For those of you familiar, this is right behind uh
over there on uh fifty four and little
This substantial modification is to remove the previously approved requirement for transit oriented design and mixed use trip reduction measures measures, mutterem, So as I move forward and I say T O D and I say Moderum It's because both of those are a little bit of a mouthful, so I'll abbreviate them as I as I proceed here. It's also to reduce um the existing entitlements. I do have a slide moving forward that shows the the before and after and the built entitlements on the subject site. It
will end up being a total of four hundred and sixty thousand square feet of commercial retail, two hundred and forty hotel rooms. and the associated infrastructure on approximately three hundred and thirty acres. This is at that southwest quadrant of the intersection of Little Road and State Road 54, right behind the Bryant uh the Sprouts there, and uh just north of the Bryant Square development that was a part of this M beauty. Here's the location map. As you can see, the the roadway infrastructure is already built on the subject side as a
part of the original MPD approval in 2015. um with the roundabout there up to State Road fifty four, The current zoning map reflecting M PD. and the P D future land use.
Here is the uh the existing entitlements, the originally approved entitlements, and the proposed entitlements. You can see there in the approved it was originally approved for nine hundred and eighty thousand square feet of commercial eight hundred residential dwelling units and it When it was approved it had a an older loom that allowed the exchange of entitlements to multifamily, which is something that PDE has moved away from in the future. So as a part of the the modification to this, the loom being proposed prevents the
conversion of any non residential land use to a residential land use. Um the existing entitlement's 175,000 square feet. of the commercial retailer currently built. Which is that that shopping center. 240 single-family detached and 422 townhomes are currently constructed. So that the new total entitlements reflect those existing and proposed the total of 460,000 square feet of commercial. The six hundred and sixty two residential dwelling units because they already exist. and
the addition of two hundred and forty hotel rooms, Uh it is worth noting the hotel rooms were a previously approved use as a part of the original 980,000 square feet. Whenever the applicant proposed to reduce um to 460, we specifically called out 240 hotel rooms as a separate entitlement from commercial. Um it actually ended up being a little bit easier in terms of estimating the impacts transportation wise. Because when you study commercial on its face it is
a little bit of a different trip generation than hotel. The impact's infrastructure are a little bit different. And then as I move forward. there are some implications to the removal of T. O. D. and Mutterum, the most substantial of which is going to be in a companion EDA at the board, which is a clawback of the reduced fees that were originally granted to the development and received COs for. So those those fees were already paid. So the the applicant is responsible for an approximate
three point five nine one million repayment. to the county as a part of those reduced fees that were granted. either with the twenty five percent reduction for moderum Or the uh uh fifty percent reduction that's with T. O. D. All the transportation mitigation requirements from the original MPD as I move forward with the master plan, they all remain the same. Um because of with the reduction of entitlements to the actual trips being generated on the state road. fifty four and at the different intersectional
locations has been reduced.
And I guess it it is worth noting that even though the at this project is having less transportation impacts and their mitigation requirements are still the same as if they were doing the original nine hundred and eighty thousand and the original eight hundred residential This is the original master plan so the subject side of the modification within the MPUD is actually just a portion of You can see up there in that red red commercial area you can see a little bit of the roundabout that's currently built.
But more importantly. Um the first exhibit that I'm going to be showing from the packet that was sent to the Planning Commission is the the binding concept plan which shows the building footprint of uh several commercial end users here as well as the existing transportation infrastructure and as I move forward What what really gives the the binding concept plan color both literally and figuratively in this case. is the binding connectivity
plan which is now shown in the slides and the applicant does have um a printout of the new connectivity plan. This was revised this morning as um The applicant continued to have meeting with the surrounding neighbors. It's also been sent to the clerk's office. each of the uh the color coordination that's occurring there is showing the existing or proposed widths of paths as well as pedestrian crosswalks and flashers. throughout the site, allowing the existing residents to be able to negate navigate the existing infrastructure
as well as um the newer infrastructure that's coming in in terms of the parking and access ways. It also shows the um signalization that is required of this project. to the north, which is that's uh existing cattle ranch way in fifty four. It's a requirement to be signalized as well as if you move over to the west. that connection will be fulfilled by this obligation. Currently, there's a little bit of a stub out there to 54 on Metal Way, but it doesn't fully connect to 54.
this will become another secondary access point for this particular pot of development within the M PewD.
There is a also a binding material palette which is a little bit unusual in an MPUD. Um where the applicant was wanting to commit to specific building materials for a unified pattern Um between the different non-residential users that end up locating within the site and co-locating with one another that the that the themes are are matching.
Secondly, there is a binding exterior landscape plan, And I'm gonna Click through these slides. rather quickly because there's quite a bit of information on all of these. This is the overall binding exterior landscape plan in which there's a key associated for the color which shows what the buffer is. So as I move forward It's now breaking down the individual colors into what they look like in the specific plant species. width and typology that's associated with those buffers. this
particular section here is showing the walls. as well as the buffer that would be seen from um the existing residential and how that relates to the scaling of the buildings that are being built within this MPD that abut the residential lots.
As we move forward here, this shows the various buffers both type A, B, and D2. And as I move forward here, um which I failed to mention on the connectivity plan. The multi-use path along State Road fifty four is also being improved with this proposal of the MPD. Uh you can see there that the the trail kind of meanders, but the applicant worked extensively with the power company to make sure that they could fit An enhanced buffer. um
within the right of way and still not affect um the overhead power lines.
This is an example of some of the uh the parking island buffering.
And then as we move into the uh the perimeter buffering, the patio, the service screening and water management buffering.
again into the this is the walls and the intersectional nodes. uh particularly the roundabout, what the roundabout looks like, and what it feels like from a pedestrian scale with these plantings.
and uh with this binding Um Landscape plan, the two variations requested with this project from the code are both from that nine oh nine oh five two is specifically D five and D four which deals with the buffering requirements and the reason that Um the applicant is requesting these is that Typically the when the preliminary site plans and the construction plans are submitted, um
the buffering and landscaping is done on a parcel by parcel basis and What they've done here is um treat the development holistically with its buffering instead of waiting until site plan to treat these parcels one by one buffering uses from one another. Um just in compliance with the code. And given that PDE was amenable to this request. I will also back up whenever I went to the uh the connectivity um portion. the other signal that's worth noting that isn't a developer obligation, the
signal at Mitchell Ranch and fifty four is well built runs north to south to Mitchell Ranch and then Mitchell Ranch connects to uh fifty four. that is in the county's CIP design is under way. this year in fiscal year twenty six with construction expected to kick off in fiscal year twenty seven. With that, it comes with a recommendation of approval with conditions from PDE and I'm available for any questions.
All right, so do we have any questions? Anything?
All right.
Thank you. Thank you.
Will Hight, how are you?
Hello, Barbara Wilheite, formally Barbara Willheight, 6327, Graham Boulevard, New Port Richey Florida, actually here for an applicant. Um Wow, I those presentations are getting better and better. I I shouldn't have woken up at six o'clock this morning. Um but I do have my own PowerPoint and I'll run through it. Um a lot of what he was saying I've forgotten. We've been at the I've been working on this so long. We meet every Monday as a team and we obsess over every detail about this project. Um And
Mr. Remillion remembers some of those details even more than I do.
Approved versus proposed. I think we'll went through this. Hotel is a permitted use. We were just trying to work the entitlements in a way that tried to make sense and make them clear. I know there's a lot of Social media, 'cause I watch it, um concern about a hotel that's our ready permitted use, it could be happened today on the property.
Okay. The approved versus on the residential side. Do you can have the Loom allows unlimited exchanges from um commercial to uh residential and apartments. This this particular client, the applicant here, has approvals for 684. Um can't read that that far. 684 five-story apartments at the moment.
Sixty four.
Sixty four. All right. Thank you guys. And uh this this but by what we're going to do is just we're just gonna wipe all of the um residential entitlements out. What hasn't been used by this amendment, they're gone. The ability to convert commercial to additional residential apartments is gone. The ability to construct the apartments pursuant to the approvals the clients have are gone. So we've just been really trying to be thoughtful about how we move this forward in a specific manner. This is the build-out of this project, this is the end
of Mitchell 54 West MPUD. So we can when we do that we can be really we can clean up the paperwork. I would say that there are single family detached homes, 240 that have been built, and there have been town homes, 422. also in in Will's presentation as single family detached. A large portion of those town homes are owned by invitation homes. They are billed for rent. They're rented. along our southern boundary, they're all rented. Along our most of our west boundary, at least to the BJs, their rent d adjacency
is is rental town homes.
S.
Thought Will did a great job of going over the infrastructure. Um, I would be redundant if I went through those three improvements there because he went over them with you. The mobility fees not only does the repayment of the $3.5 million for the TOD versus urban, and mind you, when they repay that, they repay that for all the Lenar project, Bryant Square, every residential permit, and they're also repaying for every commercial permit in the um the Sprouts project. that commercial project to our west. Our estimated
fees about $2.7 million for the project you see on the binding concept plan. Those are 2025 rates. Of course your rates have gone up, so we'll see how that works out if it'll probably be more effective July 1st. And then we also, the developer had in their economic development agreement the ability to get credits, mobility-free credits for the construction of what we call the internal spine road, and that's Legend Pasture Road and Bear Landings Way. So I think if you look at the infrastructure it
is significant because those are Those are tr a traffic signal that When I go out there It's hard to get across that road. Three lanes of traffic. And I can also tell you that the our traffic signal is gonna line up with Mrs. Spears' property. I know she has passed away recently, so we'll see what happens with that property, but the infrastructure's going to be in there if that ends up being um developed in a different manner. So giving the residents more ways to get out, uh better ways to get out, will be the bene a benefit
of this project, as well as giving the county some nice bit of nice bit of mobility fees. Hopefully they can be used in this area. What comes to mind for me is Mitchell Boulevard Extension. It's always been an issue, how do you get that done? This will give the county quite a bit of money. Um hopefully hopefully maybe that'll make that get that road done finally. 'Cause that's a bypass to the Little Road fifty four intersection.
As Will had mentioned, we did quite a bit of work. We had a neighbor that collaborated with us on the Binding Connectivity Plan. I didn't know. Uh we've been representing this project for quite a while. Did not know that they had a quite a extensive trail system. within this project, including looping around this project. um and it connects to the to the high school and the middle school and it comes up and it goes around and So we really we hadn't had anything. We had a great connectivity plan. based upon we looked at
where there were gaps and where we could enhance Just based upon our project. But our one of the neighbors in Bryant Square who owns one of the homes out there, said you need to look at these issues relative to this trail and these driveways and the trail and connectivity and safe crossings of driveways. And so we did quite a bit. We added the solar flashing beacons at eight crosswalks. We added an at the our southern portion of our project where Hong Kong has their southern driveway.
We have a no-right turn, so we limited that turn movement that goes down towards the residential portion of the project. Similarly on the BJ side we're we're eliminating the left turn so that again There's no left turns, they'll go from the project down into the residential portion. We added trail stop signs so that we're going to do that. The trail folks on the trail will know to stop at those driveways. Um This morning at six thirty Uh this morning Joe Simoneau and Steve
Henry and I decided that there was a five hawk five foot existing sidewalk. along the east side of Bear Landing Way. And we looked at that and we said How can we make that an eight foot? So that again the residents can have better ways to move around um as our project comes online. Our project was always anticipated to come online. You know, when if you look at a a project that's got eight hundred uh had 980,000 square feet of commercial approved. I don't think I'd represented a project that has that much. It was always
anticipated that we'd be we'd be uh developing this property commercially. But any event. So we thought that would be a good benefit and we were able to to fit eight feet so we'll improve that sidewalk and and help uh people move around. We also had um added a lighting note to make sure there was special attention made to the driveways. So that there's good lighting between the pedestrians that might use the trail in the evening or at sunset and the lights um when they come on.
and other conditions of significance uh We wave liblocal. and all the binding plans that Will went through. And I had forgot about there's special condition number nine that we did um relative to what can we do with raw retail. Because we have some buildings that um We don't have end users for So we actually limited, we only can have one drive-through. We have to have in our parcels G and F. The thought was on
our end caps, let's make sure it's a place, a place where you can go and and sit outside and eat. So we actually have a condition that makes that happen. We we looked at the the two parcels, there's two parcels at Little Road and and Bear Cat or Bear I'm gonna mess up the name of that road. Um, Bear Landing Way. These are the most interesting names that Mr. Dewey Mitchell put on this project, huh? Um but there's two parcels, vacant parcels there on Little Road. We we have standards for those, what we can can and can't do there either.
So I hope you can see the attention that's been put into this project. To um to make it a a good project and to fit well. It's been very thoughtful. Um if you have any questions, my team is here. Joe Semino, Steve Henry, um we are here. So
Barbara, just one question.
We
do. I'm only asking because um obviously BJs and Home Depot aren't exactly the most You know. Not a lot of people walk to those uses. I mean those are tend to be more drive up. You know put a bunch of goods in your car type uses. Do you do you have uses on do you have N users for the L parcels long fifty four that are
out parcel C and D. We have those end users. Are there plans then? Dia. No they're not quite yet. They're not in yet. He's working on their plans. Um and those are that's actually the form that you'll see with the the little courtyard in the middle between the two, so that there's outdoor space. Um so that form is there. Out parcel A is a bank. C and D R restaurants. B and E are not decided yet. G and F not decided yet. I I did
want to say one thing. With regard to the landscape plan and I thought Will pr presented it pretty well, when you look at the the neighboring project and I go over there and shop every once in a while and If you park here and you need to go there because it was different parcels when they were developed there was this raised landscape and island. And so I gotta go from here to there, I gotta go through it with my heels, 'cause I always reach heels. And so I made this team, I said I'm I wanna have a a landscape buffer that's a Barbara Wilhite landscape buffer that I will not have
to go in my heels. So we have one and it's actually a little bit more than a little bit. It's the one that goes north south between B J's and Home Depot. It's gonna have A nice sidewalk. You can't see all these details. But this kind of details we did with the team and they were very generous to to make sure that I could Walk through my heels and And go really so that's the kind of detail that we went to with this, to make sure it's walkable, even if you know, 'cause you may walk from Home Depot, I probably would, to B J's and so I'll be able to walk on a nice sidewalk and won't
have to mess up my heels.
But C and D are more sit down restaurants that people would actually walk to?
Yes, C and D are sit down restaurants, yes.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Anything else, Barbara?
No.
No. Any questions from up here?
All right. We have anybody on uh on the schedule to speak here on this?
The only individual I have signed up for public comment, Mr Chair, is a Ms Bridget G.
Okay.
Grab you. Commissioner Yeah. I don't know why floatov is floptous.
That's okay. Just take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Okay, first tell us your name.
Bridget Chileo. I live at [address removed]. We put Richie in Pryant Square. Um I oppose this um file. This amendment removes the transit-oriented design and trip reduction measures required in the original approval. The reality, that means no transit lanes, no pedestrian connectivity and no rideshare controls. It strips away or promised traffic mitigation. The big box impact, we are being told, BJ's
Wholesale Club and Home Depot will be added as well. These massive anchors generate heavy, continuous commercial and consumer traffic all day long. Having these big box stores will not look aesthetically pleasing to homeowners, especially the townhouses that face back to the area. the Hotel Battleneck, layering a two hundred and forty room hotel on top of B J's and Home Depot, with morning departures, afternoon check ins, and non stop Uber loops will completely capalize State
Road fifty four and Little Road. There's a roundabout hazard. We have a roundabout, but seeing the driving skills of many motorists, it can already be deemed as dangerous. People already have driven across the roundabouts rather than going around it, knocking over signs. Mixing big box retails and high-volume hotel traffic with our already unstable high collision roundabouts guarantees daily gridlock and slows emergency response times. The environmental crisis, this
adds an environmental crisis disruption to our local wetlands. It's immediate. It's pushing alligators into our residential areas, destroying sandhill crane nesting places. grounds, forcing wildlife onto roadways and onto our driveways. We walked outside, there was an alligator under our car. The infrastructure deficit, our utilities, roads, and public services are maxed out. We cannot absorb this massive commercial hub while eliminating required protections. Allowing
developers to secure approvals with safety safeguards, only to erase them later, sets a dangerous pre precedence. Traffic with the schools are m also problematic. Some residents already on the Bryant Square Facebook page are having issues with people crossing and what they're saying is let's block the crossroads, the the food streets, but that's against the law. Parking overflow neighborhoods. Parking is already a nightmare. The HOA tells us there's one time there's a certain
time we cannot park, but then Pasco County Ordinance says there's another. So parking tickets has been um advised, so you guys are getting money. And then for the protection of our roads, our environment, our public safety, I respectfully request to deny This modification. Um one of the concerns is that many of the homes are invitation homes, so how many residents versus uh tenants. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much for speaking.
Yeah, and there's no one else then? Ms. Wallah, would you like to come up and answer some of those questions?
Absolutely. Barbara Wilheit, uh for the applicant. So the least the what we definitely are doing is stripping away, we are adding A lot of the because we've entitled this property originally, I didn't entitle it actually. Um it was entitled by somebody else. But When it was entitled for nine hundred and eighty thousand square feet of commercial, there was a lot of mi there's a lot of requirements. And um those requirements aren't going away, even though we're developing less here. We took very carefully looked at the connectivity as I mentioned and what Mr. Romilian
mentioned. We looked at everything what's been constructed, what gaps are missing but what's missing. And we even went even further, working with our neighbor to make sure we addressed um interactions between pedestrians and vehicles. Transit still like it was on the original plans and the lo those locations.
I know you heard about the townhomes. A lot of those are actually mostly a multifamily. At least a portion of them to our south and to our west are really more of a multifamily use as rentals. the hotel location, 'cause it's got a lot of I watch social media We have a binding concept plan, so the hotel is not going here. Within this area, because we have what exactly what's gonna go here is on this plan. If there's ever a hotel, it would be on the parcels. Um the vacant
parcels on Little Road, if there's ever one. Roundabout. We are if you look at the landscape plan, we have extensive landscaping proposed in those areas. So I think that'll be an enhancement to what they see today. As far as environmental goes, this property was masqueraded years ago. A lot of this infrastructure is already in. It's kind of just a hole in the donut and finishing the project. But um Mr. Seminode reminded me that the county does still require, and I guess the state requires you go back through the gopher tortoise so that if gopher tortoises decide
to move in after the masquerading, you still have to look for those and mitigate them by removal if they exist. So
It's i it's an amendment um to a plan that's already been in place. I know sometimes residents don't know those kind of details, but you know the this has been approved for our commercial use and uh in a pretty large commercial use for a large time, a long time. So thank you.
All right. Thank you very much.
Uh all right. Any questions, discussion? We need to receive and file the handle. All right. So I hear a motion to receive and file the uh stuff that we were given earlier. No second. Okay, um any further discussion? All in favor? Signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, like, sign. All right. So received in the file. Is there a motion on this application? I actually would like to, before you make a motion to move
and approve. Um Just note that there is a school to the south of here. There's two schools actually. Um and for somebody who lives in this area five minutes down the road who frequently weekly attend visits that shopping plaza. There are a lot of kids out there that are on e-bikes and e-scooters coming in and out going to that plaza. I have a feeling they're gonna be doing the same for this. So I really appreciate um having all those flashers in there for those kids. As a matter of fact I would imagine After school gets
out, those kids now start going through that way to that plaza after school. So I really appreciate all the connectivity that's in this binding connectivity plan and those splashers. So I just want to note that for somebody from the school district perspective, but also for somebody who frequently visits this and sees those kids there.
All right.
It be All right, motion or second? Really? I'll second approve item P5. I'll second. The motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on the motion?
I I just like to add that um I mean I'm appreciative for all the attention to detail and all the things that were added to this plan. I think that it's added a lot of value too and and a lot of the perceived probably problems with the big box with all the provisions and all the landscape requirements and all of the architectural type things that are included in here, I think that they've gone above and beyond what we normally see. I agree.
Yeah. And much better than what was originally planned for that site. And when I drive by that site every day, right now, I think how ugly it looks. Yeah, it's just cleared desert. And uh I think it'll be a big enhancement to that area. Yeah.
So uh all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Like signed? Okay, motion carries.