public comment on non-agenda items
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
This archive found it in the recording: a call to order, a recess, or business the board never listed. The county recorded nothing about it, so everything below is our reading.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, Sep 17, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, Sep 17, 2026
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. 100% of 72 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
We have uh three individuals signed up for non-agenda items, the first being Dan Calabway.
Okay. Mr. Galloway, come forward, state your name and
address. Good afternoon. My name is Dan Callahan, [address removed]. I'm here to speak on behalf of Pasco citizens who call themselves the Green Guardians. May I distribute a packet of our proposals for a nature preserve in Hudson to your members?
Move
to receive
and file.
Second. We have a motion and a second. All in for all in favor? Aye. Opposed, like, sign. Okay. Great. Can I give it to the clerk?
Alright, Dan, go right ahead.
Sure. A group of citizens calling ourselves Green Guardians are working with the Sierra Club and also with Hudson neighbors, seeking your assistance in preserving 123 acres near Hudson Avenue in Nottingham, where huge developments have turned much of that area into houses, pavements, and concrete. We are encouraged with the advice and the assistance we received from Chairperson and Commissioner Jack Mariano in a recent meeting.
And we are now in contact with Commissioner Oakley Wilton Simpson regarding our petition proposal that I just gave to you. We're hoping that perhaps the state can work with the county on this matter. Currently, the five parcels involved in those 123 acres are controlled by public works. They recently decided not to use those 123 acres to park hundreds of their vehicles there. We're hoping to see this site as a nature preserve. Similar to
the Gray Preserve in Newport Ritchie. That gift from the Gray family will ensure that citizens will enjoy Old Florida's natural beauty forever. My wife, Annie, and I are looking forward to cooler days when we can resume walking each morning in that preserve. To those who may think Hudson residents could simply drive to the Great Preserve, it's about a 20-mile round trip. We ask your assistance in seeing these acres become a place that could be a
haven for gopher tortoises and all the animals that benefit from their burrows, and a possible horse trail, now that those open areas for horse riding are gone from along Hudson Avenue. And it could be a place for wildflowers, trees, and wetlands, and of course, Pasco residents. Commissioner Mariano liked the possibility of making an income from providing a safe place for gopher tortoises and long life. In closing, I
want to say I've sat through many of your meetings. I've seen fellow citizens approach to speak who are very nervous in doing so. You've treated them with dedication and decency and kindness and respect. I thank you for that. We hope to speak further with you regarding these efforts in the coming weeks. Excuse me,
Dan. I just wanted to just out of curiosity, um, have you submitted your request to the Parks and Records Department?
Uh we've spoken with uh Mr. Wiley, but at this point uh we haven't submitted anything to them similar to what we gave to you today. Okay.
Alright. Yeah, that's I mean that's I think that's where you'd start the process because uh I've just been through that with uh another piece of property we're trying to preserve. So uh I think the lady that we dealt with is named Rebecca. And she she was very helpful.
Good. Thank you very much. I think.
I thought that would be a good start for you.
Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Dan.
And next.
The next individual is Jesse for the individual.
Hi. Okay, if I could I we could have your name for the record and and the
Jasmine Four Cain, 14191 Family Trail in Hudson, off of Hudson Avenue. Um everything that Danny says goes for me and my job is to uh provide or uh compile list of uh users, potential users and potential um sponsors. So I um uh have at least uh six farms around
the area where they can ride directly onto this property. So I also have a list of people at my feed store trying to put their names as potential users. And I also have sponsors and believe it or not, a next door developer is interested in improving this place for their 116 families that are moving in. that would be ideal for the people they
marketing these homes as um country living and uh I don't think the way they scheduled uh it's most like uh um City block. So this would help them recreate around 123 acres. Every development has a small parcel they they are supposed to dedicate to to a park or something, but this place doesn't have a single tree there. So my commissioner
Mariano was instructing us to come up with these lists. So I have almost 20 people already that are interested in writing this. And for myself, when I bought this 10 acres that I have next door to it. I used to be able to ride in that area and also southside where now a big development is um uh um they can just simply walk across the road and
go go and and uh use this area. I also spoke to the schools. They can bring their kids to uh nature walks, uh bird watching and all kinds of different things like um uh a learning experiences. So I I really feel like I'm coming almost full circle from the day when I bought MILA and and and now that Everything is so developed around this uh Hudson Avenue,
south north, everything between Hicks and Hays is either developed or being developed. This would be the place where everybody, future uh residency can go to. So my head is bursting with ideas of you know how we can use this but we have to re rezon it first. So my my um uh dream is to do to bring this back to original um the way when I f I bought my land I found it. Thank
you so much.
Is this property front on Nottingham?
Yes, it's it has uh it's uh south of Nottingham, north of uh Hudson Avenue, between Hudson Avenue. And and
where does the access come from? Off of Hudson or Nottingham?
Uh there is another access from the north. I never been there because I use Hudson Avenue every day going in and out. Right. But um Yeah.
Because uh the land is pretty much landlocked. So they have this narrow strip to get into the main uh area. And it's full of gopher uh bo borrows. It's amazing. Uh so uh I I think there is a lot more space where they can bring more gophers because every time we take a gopher and ship it someplace to unknown place, we lose two hundred and fifty or more species that, you
know, coexist with gophers. So it would really bring this back to to original state and we owe this to our children. to leave them something that we used to be be able to enjoy.
Right. Well I understand I done some research on that area and I understand that uh Nottingham is actually owned by the people along Nottingham. Their property goes out to the middle of that road. So you need to make sure you look into that. Yeah,
and then you don't
want to have access there, you're gonna have to
I got lost one time because Hudson was closed. Uh there was a fire this summer. So I had to go around and there was really nice um big um spaces like farms, five acres and more. That would also be kind of uh uh you know an extra space for the birds or or um uh animals to enjoy including this hundred and twenty three acres.
Okay, well thank any questions?
I was gonna tell you, when the county got that property, they secured access to their to that property and it's to the east of Nottingham, that access and then it winds back up to the north to their property.
So it's still you know for fifteen or twenty years, I don't know when they got it. I was asking them to fence it off so people wouldn't go in and dump, which they do on a regular basis. and uh we would take care of this hundred and twenty three acres with love and affection and TLC. So, you know, it's like we We um saved the park in clear water. Maccassing Lake Park from being closed because we formed a
group group Friends of Maccassing Lake. So I know this can be accomplished. So Uh there is people that are talking to Elamp and the other groups. Uh so it this is the time where when we really have chance to say this because of all the other developments.
Alright, well thank you for your presentation. Any other questions?
Thank you.
Um hi, uh Julia Bartunik, 2645 Meadowo Tribe. Um there are actually uh four properties. I have the uh four property parcel numbers here because we did submit this to uh for ELAMP. We've also been in communication uh with Parks and Rec and um we're just trying to really get the zoning change to this property. property. Hopefully it could be used for education outings. Also, you know,
different types of outings could be there to, you know, educate people on various habitats that exist there. Just to give an indication on about five acres, there are 25 active burrows of gopher tortoises. There are very Very rare plants and endangered species there. Um we have submitted the the nomination for Elamp, which I'd like to submit for y'all's record. And also I wanted to
say that um a lot of people like in that area really love nature. And as you know, somebody even rode up on a horse that made the news. Um I'm getting nervous now to Someone from that area rode up like on a horse to you guys' meeting. Um, equestrian would be wonderful, maybe a mixed use. Um, but we really want to see the residents use it earlier. You spoke about tourism and you know, Northeast Roll Area is gonna have like big equestrian
uh communities, but let's do something like that in Hudson too. They have a couple of parks. But they don't have anything like that.
Thank you. If I w if I could. Yes,
please.
You and the the speaker before you mentioned that the property needs to be rezoned. Why would it need to be rezoned to be preserved?
Um well I don't I that's what we were told um that it needed to be rezoned by the planning department said to um access rezoning first because it's currently zone industrial, um even though the project for the um fleet program has expired. It appears to
be zoned agriculture. Agricultural commercial.
Agricul it is or it needs to be.
That's what it is today.
That's what it is? Oh, that's good news then. That's great. That's good, that's helpful. So we want something similar to like the gray preserve, which we use all the time and the community loves that.
Thank you. Thank you. Anything else for me?
Yeah, that has the four
properties
on it.
So second? Second. Alright, all in favor? Aye. Okay. Oh shit. All right, very good. Anyone else on that item?
Give me your name and address, please.
Barbara Walker, [address removed]. Um my I uh am formerly a board member of Audubon, Florida, and I'm currently a federally and state permit wildlife rehabilitator. Being located in North Pinellas, um I am receiving many, many, many, many calls from Pasco County to rescue eastern screech owls, red-shouldered hawks, broad-winged hawks, red-tailed hawks, bald
eagles. The last bald eagle that we got was actually hit by a car in northern Pasco County. Both of her wings were broken, but her spirit was not. Today her name is Miss American. She does do meet and greets. Um, but here's the problem. The wildlife, injured wildlife calls are increasing, especially if we look at um Dade City and Zephyrhills. They're underserved, there is not a rehabber there. In the meantime, federal and state law have made it more difficult
to actually become a wildlife rehabilitator, not to speak of how hard it is to actually keep your permits. So, um, to serve some of the your citizens here in Pasco County and Of course the birds don't know the the maps. Um but uh I I actually uh people will collect birds. I have got two veterinarians in your county to help with some of these cases, and then I've got um Uber. Yeah, and I mean it. You not know how many people
in Dade City will rescue a bird, pack it up in a box em and because the distance is so great from Palm Harbor, to Zavor Hills or Dade City or Hudson or Spring Hill that we utilized Uber. My Uber bill was probably over three thousand dollars this year. Um I actually have a relationship with the City of Clearwater, the Maucus and Lake Nature Park, which which Ms. Vorkamp spoke of. I am the permit holder, the um Live Eagle ex exhibit permit holder as well. Um,
when I look at that property, I'm thinking about the wildlife and how difficult it is to find a place to house them while we are rehabbing them. We've allowed a lot of growth. If I if I was standing at this podium twenty years ago to the Planning Commission, I I would have said, Okay, plan everything you want, but could you please save fifty or sixty acres for the rehabber so they can deal with the fallout? That's what I deal with every day on a daily basis. It's been a very long and sad year. So we
run a little program out of Moccasin Lake. They had an existing program there, but it's a small park. It's fifty acres. There are a lot of other things at that park. There is no equestrian at that park. Equestrian bird depre do make a fantastic exhibit. Um, I would love to be a user at that property. We need more space. We need at least a hundred feet for a flight cage so we can recondition the birds prior to them going out. They lose muscle mass after seven days.
I am speaking on behalf not just of myself, I'm sorry, I've gone over. Can I speak for another moment? Thank you. Um of my daughter, my twenty-one year old daughter. I'm the permitted rehabber and she's the permitted falconer. And she's been invited up to Black Prong Resort. It's an equestrian resort up by the Goth Forest and has made a big hit out there. We were also treated very generously by JW Marriott. So we take the birds out there
and we're hitting ears that we don't always hit. If I take birds out to educate continuously to people that are here in the same song it's not gonna do any good, but we're getting to people, newcomers and new people and visitors to our area. And I'd like to benefit your area positively, but also benefit the wildlife in relation to the property on Hudson Avenue. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your presentation. Questions anyone? Okay, thank you. Thank you for being here today. Nice to know somebody's working to preserve those areas. Mm-hmm.