Just east of the intersection of S.R. 56 and Meadow Pointe Blvd. is a busy place these days.
Construction has begun, rather quietly, on the S.R. 56 extension project that is expected to have a huge impact on central-to-eastern Pasco traffic and development.
After years of trying to figure out a way to pay to extend S.R. 56 from Meadow Pointe Blvd. to U.S. Hwy. 301/S.R. 41, and then pulling off a complicated deal to get approval from the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners, ground finally started moving in February on the extension without a big kick-off.
โWe wanted to do something, we just couldnโt make it happen with everyoneโs schedule,โโ said District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore. โBut, they are moving dirt, and thatโs the important thing.โ
Moore and others had tried to arrange a groundbreaking ceremony, but once the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave the okay in early February, construction company Cone & Graham wasted little time digging in.
โWe didnโt want anything to hold it up,โโ Moore said.
The road, which was originally envisioned as a two lanes, is now a four-lane $65-million project that is being touted as a big victory for economic development opportunities in the area, as well as increasing the tax base in both Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel as new homes continue to be built throughout the area. The extension also will relieve traffic on both S.R. 54 and S.R. 56, and provide easier access to I-75. It also will open a new path to Morris Bridge Rd., which also connects into the New Tampa area.
Currently, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills residents only have the two-lane S.R. 54 for east-west traveling between the areas, a trip that can be grueling during rush hours and other times.
But, S.R. 56 will provide more and easier access. And, with a widening of S.R. 54 project set to go for later this year, Moore says it will soon be โsmooth sailingโ for local commuters.
The S.R. 56 extension is a partnership with the City of Zephyrhills and four developers.
Funding for the project, which will cost less than $58 million (not including $8 million in interest), is being provided by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Pasco County, the City of Zephyrhills and the developers of Wesley Chapel Lakes, Wyndfields, River Landing and Two Rivers Ranch.
The developers are expected to add (gulp) more than 10,000 homes along the extended S.R. 56 from where it currently ends at Meadow Pointe Blvd. As for โsoon,โ the road is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
By then, Moore joked, the county will have a ceremony ready to go to celebrate its newest transportation improvement.
Dress Warm! The Coolest Event Ever Will Be Held At The Coolest Venue Ever โ Saturday, March 18, Noon-4 p.m!
The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) was no longer interested in putting on any more big events. The New Tampa Rotary Club just happened to be looking for one.
So, with a little bit of gentle negotiations, the Taste of New Tampa โ formerly a New Tampa Chamber of Commerce fund raiser that was inherited by the WCCC when the two chambers merged in 2014 โ fell back in New Tampaโs mouthโฆerrr, hands.
โThey had an asset, meaning the trademark for the Taste of New Tampa, and it was a great opportunity for us as a club to take on that trademark,โโ says Karen Frashier, the president-elect of the New Tampa Rotary and chair of the 21st (but now-renamed) โTaste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel.โ
Scheduled for Saturday, March 18, noon-4 p.m., at the new Florida Hospital Center Ice, this yearโs Taste has the potential to be the best one ever.
Why? Here are our top five reasons you should attend the 2017 โTasteโ:
1. ITโS INDOORS!
If you attended many of the previous 20 Tastes, chances are there was at least a time or two when you cursed out the weather. Whether you were soaked by the rain or just drenched in your own sweat, being held outdoors sometimes made the food spectacular a crapshoot.
But, youโll want to wear an extra layer of clothing for this one.
You wonโt be standing directly on ice โ but it will be beneath the rinkโs special โsports courtโ floor โ and the temperature inside the FHCI will be below 60 degrees.
Youโll be dry from any rain, though, and you can leave the sunscreen at home. Hurrah!
2. THE FOOD!
The last Taste in 2013, due to the threat of torrentialย rain, ended up having fewer than 20 restaurants show up. This yearโs event already has 41 signed up, with a month to go. According to our own Gary Nager, the restaurant chair for the 2017 โTasteโ, there are another dozen or so still interested in participating at our deadline, so you might just have the choice of sampling food and adult beverages from more than 50 restaurants and beverage providers when itโs all said and done.
Your choices cover just about the whole spectrum of categories. Arroy Thai, Cantina Laredo, Dempseyโs Steak House, Latin Twist Cafe, Little Italyโs, OTB Delights Cafe, Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, Pepeโs Cuban Cafe and Union 72 are among the many participating at our press time.
And, organizers didnโt forget about your sweet tooth, as Blondieโs Cookies, La Berry Yogurt & Ice Cream, 7 Layers Bakery, Happy Cow Frozen Yogurt and The Cake Girl are among those that will be dishing out desserts. For a complete list, check out pages 34-39 of our latest New Tampa issue, or pages 40-45 of our upcoming Wesley Chapel issue.
3. IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE
The New Tampa Rotary Club supports a lot of worthwhile causes, and much of the money raised at The Taste will help the club support about 25-30 nonprofits in this area. The Rotaryโs signature project is Feeding America Tampa Bay, so four mobile food pantries in the USF area, Meals on Wheels and the clubโs meal-packing events โ to which the club devotes $10,000-14,000 annually โ will benefit.
โWe saw (the Taste) as a great potential fund raiser for the nonprofits that we support,โ Frashier says.
Also, 10 percent of the net proceeds will be provided to the WCCC to be used for scholarships for area high school students. The WCCC already gives out mutliple scholarships to students at Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch high schools, but now, thanks to The Taste, you can add Freedom and Wharton to that list, too.
4. THE ENTERTAINMENT
The Taste continues to add new stuff every week, but you can plan on checking out the Wiregrass Ranch drumline, the Bob Thompson Trio and the New Tampa Players, a local acting troupe that plans to perform a medley of Broadway hits, including some from the group’sย latest production of โJesus Christ Superstar.โย
Frashier also said that all of the sponsors will have tables, and FHCI will offer open skating plus hockey, figure skating and perhaps even curling demonstrations.
There will be an area set up for kids to work on projects, and a trophy presentation at the end of the event โ The Peopleโs Choice Awards, where the public can vote on the tastiest food (or beverage) they sampled during the day. The top three vote-getters will win the โPeopleโs Choiceโ awards.
5. GEORGE STELLAย
Famous low-carb chef George Stella may not be the Godfather of the low-carb lifestyle โ thatโs still Dr. Atkins โ but heโs pretty close.
Stella will be on hand, and we hear he will be showing everyone how he makes two of his more popular dishes โ Anaheim Shrimp Scampi and Plant City Strawberry Shortcake Martinis.
Stella, who once weighed 467 pounds before dropping 250 by cutting out carbs, hosts โLow-Carb And Loving Itโ on the Food Network, and his most recent book โ Low Carb Essentials โ sold out in two days on QVC, Frashier said.
He will be signing copies of the book at The Taste, so if you need to drop a few pounds, the day after this event may sound like a good time to start.
For ticket and volunteer info for the 2017 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, visit TasteOfNewTampa.org.
Danny Zolli will give an Acting Master Class on Saturday, March 11, for the first 40 area performers to sign up.
There may be little news to report right now about the oft-delayed New Tampa Cultural Center, but one of the main beneficiaries of the proposed center is keeping busy.
Doug Wall, who founded the non-profit New Tampa Players (NTP) community theatre troupe that will one day call the cultural center home, has a number of projects scheduled that will keep the budding thespian communities in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel busy.
First, Wall is bringing in renowned Broadway star Danny Zolli to give an Acting Master Class as a fund raiser for NTP, at the troupeโs current home at the University Area Cultural Development Center (UACDC) on N. 22nd St., just south of Bearss Ave.
โWe want to reach out to all of the thespians all over the Tampa Bay area,โโ Wall said.
Scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2 p.m.-5 p.m., the class will allow area performers to learn from Zolli, who has been heralded for his enormous vocal range and is best known for his record-breaking number of productions as Jesus, Judas and Annas in more than 25 productions of the Broadway hit โJesus Christ Superstarโ throughout the world.
The cost for the class is $100, and the class will be limited to the first 40 that sign up.
โWith a master class, you want to keep it small,โโ Wall says. โIf youโre working on something, you can audition that piece so he can critique it and work with you on it. There will be pulled readings and improv, a lot of the things that go on in New York and Los Angeles that heโs bringing here.โ
Except for the price โ Wall says a similar class held in those cities would cost at least $350. โThis is a great opportunity for people,โโ he says.
Zolliโs appearance at the UACDC coincides with the NTPโs own production of โJesus Christ Superstar,โ which kicks off the troupeโs 2017 season and will be performed on Fri., Mar. 31, Sat., Apr. 1, Fri.-Sat., April 7-8, 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Sat.-Sun, April 1-2, and Sat.-Sun., April 8-9.
Zolli will actually give two Master Classes, but Wall has reserved one for the NTPโs current โJesus Christ Superstarโ cast of 25 performers.
โAs soon as we chose โJesus Christ Superstarโ as a show we wanted to produce, I reached out to Danny and said, โI would really like to do something special and (have our group) work with you in a workshop environment to understand the show like you do,โโ Wall says. โIt means everything to our group and our production to work with Danny.โ
Zolli starred as Jesus in the 30th anniversary concert of โJesus Christ Superstarโ, and, in the 25th anniversary North American Resurrection Tour of the show, he won critical acclaim for his portrayal of the high priest Annas.
ROCKTOPIA, TOO!
Wall is just as excited these days about a new venture of which he is the associate producer โ โRocktopia,โ which might be best described as putting an opera, a Broadway play, a light show and a classic rock concert into a blender, with a dash of Mozart, Queen, Tchaikovsky and Pink Floyd.
Wall says itโs a brand new concept he has been working on with Rob Evan, a member of the multi-platinum selling rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the developer of โRocktopia.โ
โYou have a symphony orchestra, a rock band, rock singers, a gospel choir, a light show and a video show,โโ Wall said. โItโs a great concept.โ
Wall says the โRocktopiaโ group performed its first concert in June at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest for PBS-TV, featuring six vocalists, five rock musicians, the Hungarian Opera Choir and the 65-piece Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert aired in Cleveland during a telethon and helped raise more than $35,000; you can catch the concert on PBS on Thursday, March 8.
The first โRocktopiaโ tour kicks off Tuesday, March 28, in Portland, ME, with concerts planned in 23 cities over 28 days.
โRocktopiaโ is scheduled to appear at the STRAZ Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa on Saturday, April 22.
โThis is eight years in the making,โโ Wall says. โWeโre hoping to take the same pathย Trans-Siberian Orchestra took โ they partnered with PBS, started in performing arts centers and graduated to stadium concerts.โ
Two other projects Wall is hoping to bring back to the area are his โBroadway Comes To Tampaโ (BCTT) dinner gala, and a two-week Broadway camp that he previously held at Hunterโs Green Country Club 2004-09.
That camp was called the โNTP Broadway Summer Camp,โ but Wall says it will have a different name when it returns in 2018. Instead of a day camp, like it was before, the new camp will be a two-week overnight camp that Wall says he is hoping to hold at Saddlebrook Resortย & Spa in Wesley Chapel.
The camp will be open to actors from all over the southeast, and Wall hopes to provide scholarships to this unique program and to colleges with money raised by the BCTT, which was a fund raiser for the Masque Theatre in Temple Terrace in 2000-01 and for NTP from 2002-15.
โWeโre still working out all the details,โโ Wall says about BCTT and the summer camp. โBut we really want to bring them back.โ
For more information about the upcoming performances by the NTP, visit New TampaPlayers.org or call 644-8285. For more info about โRocktopia,โ check out Rocktopia.com.
A fire set at the Daarus Salaam Mosque on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd., did not cause any major damage or injure anyone, but it was definitely arson, Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn said at a new conference Friday morning.
Standing behind police tape and in front of the mosque, which is owned by the Islamic Society of Tampa, Buckhorn was flanked by a number of members of the local Muslim community and said such acts will not be tolerated.
“There are tens of thousands of Tampanians who are not Muslim, but today we stand with our Muslim community and say not on my watch, not in my city,” Buckhorn said. “We will not tolerate this.”
The fire was set at the men’s entrance on the north side of the mosque around 2 a.m., and sprinklers went off and doused many of the flames and limited the fire damage to the entrance. There is significant water damage to the mosque, however.
“The community, because of current events, has fears that this could be a hate-related incident,” said Thania Diaz-Clevenger, civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Mazen Bondogji, a board member at the Islamic Society of New Tampa, said that the front gate, which is locked every night at 8:30 p.m., was locked when firefightersย arrived a little after 2 a.m.
Friday prayer services (which are equivalent to, for example, Sunday services for Catholics) were cancelled as mosque members were redirected to other mosques. Bondogji said as many as 400-500 worshippers show up on Fridays.
Police found three holes in the building’s bullet-proof glass, but determined that they were not caused by firearms.
Diaz-Clevenger said that there are security cameras in the mosque and that they have been turned over to investigators. She did not say if anything was on the video, or if they had survived the sprinklers.
What did survive the incident: the spirit of Mosque goers, according to Bondogji.
“Who ever did this maybe intended to discourage us to not be a part of this community,” he said. “But this makes us stronger, because of the huge amount of support and solidarity we have received. We are part of this community, and that’s how we shall stay.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the state fire marshall’s arson tip line at 877-662-7766. Callers may remain anonymous.
The Connected City is officially coming to Wesley Chapel.
โI think we realize we actually made history today,โโ said District 2 commissioner and Pasco Board of County Commissioner (BCC) chairman Mike Moore.
After months of delays and negotiations, Metro Development Group finally put forth a polished plan that the BCC could not only live with, but gush over.
The commissioners approved the massive project at its Feb. 7 meeting in New Port Richey by a unanimous 5-0 vote.
Both sides were pleased to see the plan to build the nationโs first gigabit community constructed from the ground up move forward. It was viewed by the commissioners as a seminal moment for Pasco County.
โI think itโs going to turn out to be one of the greatest things weโve done here in Pasco County,โโ said District 1 commissioner Ron Oakley, who was elected in November.
โIโm very jealous this is in your district,โโ District 3 commissioner Kathryn Starkey told Oakley.
The Connected City is a 7,800-acre area running north from Overpass Rd. in Wesley Chapel to S.R. 52 in San Antonio, and west from I-75 to Curley Rd.
Alternative transportation is a big component of the Connected City coming to Wesley Chapel.
It has been touted by developers and planners as a first-of-its-kind, high-tech economic engine that will promote major job creation, alternative transportation along integrated roadways and not just one, but two first-in-the-country, man-made Crystal Lagoons.
One of those lagoons recently broke ground at the Epperson Ranch development off Curley Rd. (see story, pg. 6), while the other lagoon is expected to break ground later this year at the planned Mirada development in the northwest corner of the Connected City, just south of the S.R. 52 exit off I-75.
Metro owns roughly 35 percent of the land and is already building homes in Mirada and Epperson Ranch; they plan to begin selling those homes by the end of the year.
The project is part of a 10-year pilot program created by Senate Bill 1216 in May of 2015. It allows for an expedited planning and approval process for creating city-connected corridors. For the length of the pilot program, there will be no state oversight, although there will be two-year reviews.
More than 100 Wesley Chapel residents showed up to the first public meetings at Wesley Chapel Elementary in December of 2015 regarding the Connected City, voicing concerns about the impact on the Florida aquifer, the effect on sewers and sinkholes and how construction would impact the area, which they said was already prone to flooding.
At the final public hearing and vote, only one person spoke.
The longer-than-expected 18-month process to gain approval required a number of adjustments, from scrapping plans to form a committee that would bypass county oversight to contributing $7 million to build additional roads to rigorous debate over mobility fee credits.
โWe worked very closely with the county throughout the entire process โ they are our public partner on the Connected City, so we were sure to be flexible during the planning process to meet their requests,โโ said Kartik Goyani, vice president of operations with Metro Development and the man credited with being the visionary behind the Connected City.
โEvery hoop, question and demand illustrates the hard work that goes into a project like this,โ Goyani added. โThe success of the Connected City is indicative of true collaboration and dedication to a common goal.โ
With 72 acres of site-ready employment centers set aside, as well as commitments from Tampa General Hospital, Florida Hospital and Saint Leo University for proposed centers, and the potential for a number of tech start-ups, the projectโs promise of job creation convinced District 4 commissioner Mike Wells Jr. of the merits of the Connected City.
Wellsโ father, Mike Sr., was involved decades ago in the development of Trinity on the west side of the county.
โThe Board wasnโt really sold on bringing that forward,โ Wells Jr. said. โBut as a Board, they moved forward on it and look at what Trinity is today. (During this process) I have pondered that. I know more about connected cities than I ever wanted to know. But, at the end of the day, I feel it is right for the county. It comes down to jobs creation to me.โ
Wells Jr. added that despite his support, he would hold developers accountable for those promised job creations.
Ernie Monaco, the countyโs assistant planning and development administrator, has been one of the leading โ and more excitable โ proponents of the Connected City.
He says that as a result of the project, planners have written new development code that could be extended to areas beyond the huge development itself.
He also listed a number of things that will put Pasco on the cutting edge โ things like driverless vehicles, clean energy homes, incentives for builders and employers, improvements in local schools, innovative healthcare and a business community that keeps area residents from having to move away to find good employment opportunities.
โThatโs the kind of future we want,โ Monaco said.
The commissioners agreed, unanimously. Despite the delays and countless meetings, the Connected City promises to be a game changer, Moore said.
โAll eyes are going to be upon us now,โ he said. โSo get ready.โ
