Tampa Bay Water and downtown concept
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 24, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 24, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 17m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 96% of 52 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
All right, here we go. Some fun. Fun things. Uh first Chairman I can't thank you enough for your appointment to Tampa Bay Water. And thanks to Chair Oakley for the warm welcome. to that board. It felt good to be there and thank you Commissioner Starkey for the kind words that were relayed ahead of time to folks. And so we had a we had a nice, nice first meeting and You know, talk to regional water supply, South Hillsburg County and what that means. So Large looming projects out there and uh Cherokee
does a great job at the helm, so it's exciting that we have a Pasco Pasco Chairman. Uh be remiss if you're not sure. Didn't mention Moffitt. Pretty neat pretty unique day for our county. Um long time coming and I think Commissioner Bradford's gonna have quite a bit of fun over there. uh the new star of the show. uh coming in. Uh next I'd like to thank the board and and staff for their indulgence uh while I was online out sick on the on
the the the build direct. Comment the built to rent um Dialogue. And uh appreciate what we see with that, you know. Big fan of quality. and consistency and reliability in protecting the values that our people make within our community, whether it's single home or business investment. Like we we talked earlier about Commissioner Oakley and Chairman, you brought
this up. About what what are we gonna look at next for our county? And so we all have folks that come to us And pitch the projects and what's the latest and greatest and the need amenity that that comes in. And so it's dangerous when Start thinking. Uh so really the word of the week in in our office and what brought up was this was Eatertainment in downtowns. What is a downtown? Well we
have And this this is just merely a subject matter to start getting this board thinking. When these projects come in, what's the destination? You know, what's a downtown? So many people, there's so many customer base, there's an opportunity for an entrepreneur to if they can have the space. To create their American dream right here in Pasco if we just provide the opportunity. And so I I'd like this board to start coming up with a with a framework of
When we have these big projects come in, what is a downtown? What's the entertainment? Connectivity, walking. golf carts to get there. Um you know. Eatertainment sp spaces. Folks are are st are you know finding the amenity within the community that they live and they're not necessarily traversing on our roadways and you know people have accidents so that overwhelms our
So when we look at downtowns I like to start coming up with a concept. You know, what do we what do we look at? Do we look at how New Port you know, city of Newport Ritchie City of Zephyrhills, City of Dade City, they're they're these downtowns are revitalizing. And uh I think it's important that we have this conversation 'cause I think it's the next step of what makes Pasco County vibrant. It's in our slogan. So I bring up downtowns
and and planning and the size and the scope and and kind of what we want to see. I know it's May change the game a little bit of of the future of projects in this county, but I think it's important that we have this Big picture policy discussion. And uh uh op open it up for ideas. I'm assuming it's gonna go fifty different directions, but it's it's a start and this can be something fun. that we can work on together to to create, you know, some something neat. So That
I
Open it up if anybody has any any comments.
Mr. Starkey.
So um I love your direction. And um I was talking with um some people the other day about Um a previous attempt, if you remember Joanne Hurley, lived in Land O' Lakes Um along with my brother in law, there was a an attempt to start talking about where is downtown Land O' Lakes. and um they came they started coming up with some planning ideas and Sadly the whole idea
got squashed and No you just have commercial sprawl hell up and down that road. Um But um I I love what you're thinking and and I will tell you that when when I have the opportunity Where's Terry's Terry P Ter Terry and I Um we we really try with developments that come into our community. into my district, and anyone's as much as I can, but especially
Okay. Are you bringing, are you making a place where someone wants to go to on a Saturday night with their friends, with their family? We don't need more drive-through fast food buildings on 54, surrounded by parking lots where You don't you don't you wanna you don't wanna spend five minutes. And if if we let ourselves get stripped out like that, what have we built? We've built nothing with a heart. There's no heart, there's no soul. So
Um if you saw the renderings of what's coming and I'll put it up if you haven't seen it, was coming on the property where Dewey Mitchell's uh house used to be. Um you'll see how we worked with Barbara Will Hide's client.
Shape into more of a main street Downtown Feel. in um as much as we could with the constraints that we have because you know, we can't There's only so much we as commissioners can control. Um Can you, Mike, could you have that picture? picture? Or does if you don't have it, my s I'd like someone to put it up here. Um But agreed and whenever we can we should try and help Um have
built encourage our development partners to to build something with a heart and a soul. And I think when we have our form based code guy come. Um And and as we're going through the comp plan, these are discussions that we can have. I don't know what the law you know, lets us do there's only so much that we can do, right, w uh with development rights.
Um there's only so much you can do without an ordinance, but Okay. But let's talk. But I mean you've got I mean there are a lot of things. Putting aside the the design criteria for um in straight zoning categories that Mm-hmm. You can incentivize um and regulate to get to a sense of place if that's the board's desire.
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I had a conversation with the county administrator yesterday. Um There's some property that's being uh used illegally And we're not gonna get into that one today. We're gonna get into some other ones that are being used illegally. That's why Denise is sitting back there. But You know, sometimes we may have to just buy the land. zone it the way we want it. To achieve what we want and then put
it out on the market. And I can tell you there's a lot of places that operate like that. City Pittsburgh, that's how they revitalize theirs their city. If you If you've ever heard the former mayor of Pittsburgh speak, he's a fellow of the ULI now. I encourage all of you to go to Urban Land Institute meetings. Um this is what they talk about. And um And I'm wondering if this opportunity comes up if we can't do that here in Trinity, because okay, where's downtown Trinity? Um But I I like where you're going.
it's thank you. Oh sorry, m Mr. Chairman Mariano the the my goal here and the intent intent here is Quality of life, a quality product. No. We don't have to sell ourselves anymore in this county. People people are finding us. And I think it's important as new generations are coming here and families are coming here or folks are Making their choice to retire or come here here for work. You know, I don't want them leaving and going down
south to Tampa. There's no reason why each of our communities which are unique in and of itself. Has a
Business district that has the entertainment spaces, which I learned that's a word I learned this week, maybe behind eight fall, but. They Афа фінк дис концеп. Will win. Here in Pasco County. And I think people will appreciate it. I think people who have an entrepreneurial spirit, they have the right kind of square footage, will take advantage and try to live out. their little piece of American Dream because there's a customer base here that we've never had before. So Um it excites
me to have this dialogue and to learn more and understand it and I just hope that y'all will join me in this in the stall process.
I like to say I I I love that you're bringing it up. I think it's great to talk about. Um because I think we want to make sure we're looking We're approving this now. What's it gonna be like in twenty, thirty, forty years? What are we gonna end up with? Um And sometimes we're gonna get hit with projects that sound real good. But if you really dive into it, what have you really got? Um I think we've got a proliferation I think it's slowed down a bit as between storage Units. Uh car washes seem s still seem to be strong. A couple of years ago we're
dealing like Dollar Generals coming in everywhere. And storage units. Yeah. So I I think you know, looking and I and I and I encourage you all to look as far as redevelopment goes as well though, because up and down the coast that should be That should be prime prime real estate. Um The experience I saw down at Fort Myers with all that sand come across a street. took down every house that was on the ground, any building that was on the ground. Anything elevated was in good shape.
It would be just devastating up and down. And I think that's a good thing. you know, we've we've done some things we need still need to do more to help that redevelopment coming in. Um It was kind of very disappointing at the tourist development meeting last week when we showed the area the four areas of the county, the four quadrants. And it showed Hudson as having like No hotels. Two hotels in a hotel. Uh not right down the street in Port Richey as I said they're there, but We've got to try to stimulate some things out there. So people have heard me talk about Sun West for years. We've
done a great job since we took it over. I mean it was like really going down as far as not being maintained. The staff out there is doing great. We've got some projects coming up, a building. I think we just approved the engineering for it last meeting. So some things are gonna come there but we need to make sure we're focusing Not only just with the brand new stuff coming in, but on redevelopment stuff coming in. Uh and I will t say we had a Meaning it took about five months to finally get to resolution, but for a guy who had a house built up and had a uh bathroom down below, where we finally found a solution where
he could actually keep his bathroom there. He couldn't get FEMA insurance, but he could sign a disclosure from it to to go. Now for a guy who would have to have a bucket down below, in case you couldn't make it upstairs or the bathroom, it's a good quality of life thing. It made it made sense. Literally When this guy was sitting down with us face to face, didn't he make an impression, Sally? We could get to feel for how do we how do we solve this? And I think, you know, your team did a phenomenal job coming up with a solution to make it happen. And I think that's the type of thing we need to keep on doing to to keep a
look. But everything we're doing is not just the new stuff but it's also the older stuff too that we gotta kinda work with. And I'm and like I said, I'm I'm delighted you're bringing the dialogue up 'cause it's it does need to be talked about.
This is the Mitchell. And I I feel it's okay to publish it because it was in A B C Action News. 'Cause they did a whole piece on Trinity development and this was there in the news. So This is um M M. Um i if you remember when Dewey s was originally developing all that property It was gonna be a mall. Um and with a class A office and uh a multi-story parking deck. And um they were
given uh pads and pores Um David's not here, is he? Is he here?
David Engelmach. Oh Engel. David Engel was not.
Okay, so um they were given a uh economic development incentive. I think that was before David Engel was here. So this is kinda Mm-hmm. And then they it ended up the mall went away 'cause malls are dying in America and They developed that. Corner as a regular old You know, development. Um And these guys are not going to be able to do that Have they worked really h we've worked with them really hard to get something different that has a main street feel. I I it's gonna be uh people
are gonna gasp when they drive by and see six story apartment buildings. They I I think there's eight hundred units in here. Um But that's already that was already approved a long time ago. Um but I can tell you to have something like this which is their the offices are above the shops and restaurants. You have to have density to make 'em work. And I I there is a project coming in on fifty four and Black Lake Road. Um I think it's Clark's customer. I can't remember.
Um That we worked with to again help them design it so that there was a place where people would want to hang out. And we got a letter today from a gentleman who was hoping to put a restaurant in there. and the corporate office turned them down not enough density. So this is what I keep telling people. I I'm trying hard to get some restaurants over here. And you th you that have been up here for a long time, you know I whenever we approve one on the west side east side, you gotta come over to this area.
Um but over and over again we're hearing not enough density. So Um I'm hoping that's a good one. We're sending it we're sending them some numbers of all the units that are coming in a radius around there so they they can change their minds and and allow this really well known restaurant to come in, but Anyway, this is this is gonna be kind of a cool place for the for the hood to to walk, um eat dinner and Hang out, shop. I hope that's a good idea. Takes a while to get to something
like this. You don't build it like this overnight, but anyway.
Eight eight hundred Eight hundred units. Nine hundred and eighty six square feet of commercial, commercial and office with a parking deck. Am I saying that right, Barbara?
Yeah. So you know with with that sorry Mr. Chairman Mariano. So like when when you describe a project like that coming in, you s my immediate thought is what are these people gonna do for work, for business, and what are they gonna do for fun? And I think those are
hopefully there's fun in there.
Exactly.
And there's offices there.
Exactly.
Second and third floors. Uh instead of
all in there. That's, you know, the the thought process now that we have so many folks. Coming to Pasco and we have such y a unique county with from coastline to the hills to you know, Popstroke and Tiger Woods coming into Wesley Chapel and scalloping We have a real opportunity here. Uh and um it's It's exciting to have this conversation with you all and hopefully we can Come up with s with something. I'm not sure what that is or
how we do it, but
Even on the even on the east side we're we're growing and and need more restaurants. But I mean we have the population but we don't have an Olive Garden. We don't have some of the other restaurants that y'all have on this side or in the middle por like Wesley Chapel have many restaurants over there. Well we need some of those on the east side too so people don't have to go as far to to get, you know, dine and and be out. So we have a c in Dade City we have a great a great community and a great downtown. So You
know, it's good. Zephyrhills has has that and they're trying they're trying the same thing to get more restaurants and things in their downtown area. So
Yeah,
this
this is all good conversation to have. And I tell you Dade City's got some great restaurants down there. And a lot of not they're not the regular chain, they're just great restaurants. I mean phenomenal. Great place to go in. Yeah. Commissioner Bradford.