The grand opening of the Wesley Chapel District Park Recreation Complex, originally scheduled for tomorrow morning, have been postponed. The ribbon cutting ceremony today, and tomorrow’s Grand Opening celebration, will be rescheduled for a later date.
Pasco County Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources will announce the new dates for these events as soon as plans are finalized. We’ll keep you posted.
On what should have been a relaxing day out on the boat, Sheila Haque and her three daughters couldnât help but notice more than just fish in the water.
They noticed trash.
âAnd thatâs sad,â she says.
It was on that boat that Haque, who lives in Cory Lake Isles, hatched the idea to start a zero-waste, eco-friendly business that would help chip away at the ugly sight of plastic bottles and empty containers slapping up against the hull of her boat and littered alongside roads.
Embrace Less Waste USA is Haqueâs plan. It is an e-commerce site (that you can visit at EmbraceLessWasteUSA.com, or on Facebook) that will also have a part-time presence at The Groveâs KRATE container park in Wesley Chapel.
Haque says her site will sell zero-waste products from only the best companies. She will rigorously and thoroughly vet each company, which has to be philantrophic, certified and based in the U.S.
She will include extensive bios with every product from paper-based poop bags for your pets to reusable toothpaste containers to safety razors instead of disposable ones.
âMindfulness is a big thing for people that are living a minimalist lifestyle,â Haque says. âThey want to know where their stuff comes from.â
A few months back, Haque was accepted into the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC)âs business incubator program, which she described as invaluable. She was able to refine her business concept by meeting with industry experts, and is eager to launch her website.
âThey helped me tweak some things and even rethink things,â Haque says. âThey make you think above and beyond what youâve already considered.â
Because of her relationship with the Pasco EDC, she also will have the opportunity to use their container at KRATE, which is expected to open this fall. She hopes to reserve the repurposed shipping container once a month, and she will sell products and host educational workshops there.
And, Haque will keep her daughters involved in her endeavor as well. Itâs an important part of her business, she says, setting an example for her children as she does her part to help preserve the planet for their future. As a family, they bring trash bags with them on walks to pick up any trash they see along the way.
âI think itâs an incredible thing for kids to see what a difference you can make if you recycle and renew versus just throwing stuff away,â Haque says.
She says she isnât sure when she will make her KRATE debut, but it should be in the coming months.
âWeâre really excited to get the site up, and to show people the products we have when we have the container,â Haque says.
All is quiet at the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC), which closed for good on July 31. So, whatâs next?
Homes…probably. Maybe?
PCGC owner Bill Place had all but finalized a deal to sell the roughly 150 acres of land the course sits on to Pulte Homes, which had plans to build 230-240 homes on the property, but told the Neighborhood News last week that the company had changed its mind.
“I think they are a bit scared of the publicity that will come with this,” Place said.
Another builder, KB Home, also appears to have removed itself from consideration to redevelop PCGC.
Place is still talking to other builders.
Place is also still awaiting the results of environmental testing on the course, which was found to have high levels of arsenic and dieldrin from insecticide applications (from before he owned the property, Place says). He says the results have been sent to the Environmental Protection Commission and directions on how to remediate the soil so the land can be developed is forthcoming.Â
The cost is expected to be somewhere between $1 million-$3 million, but Place says a $3-million price tag would be out of the question.
And, thatâs where the fight begins.
Leslie Green has lived on the 10th hole at PCGC for nearly 30 years, in one of roughly 130 (of the 1,400 total in Pebble Creek) homes physically located on the golf course.
She created the âSave Pebble Creekâ Facebook page in March 2019, and is leading the charge to convince the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners to deny any developer the rezoning it will require to build over the golf course..
Green is against building additional homes on the golf course site for a number of reasons â including the environmental impacts, flooding issues, the loss of green space and how new homes would affect an area she says is already densely populated.
She also is skeptical of many of Placeâs claims. She thinks a rezoning could lead to far more than just 240 homes, doesnât feel Place was losing as much money on the golf course as he claimed (while sabotaging it with negative portrayals) and did little in the way of improvements the past few years.
âWhen youâre constantly threatening to close the course, people are going to stop coming,â she says.
Green, who live-streamed on Facebook on July 31, the final day the golf club was open, also was a vocal critic when Place tried to get a brownfield designation for the course, which would have provided him with a tax credit that could have covered three-fourths of the remediation costs.
She was emboldened by the successful efforts of the community to defeat the brownfield designation. And, she thinks it can happen again.
âWe didnât just start Save Pebble Creek, weâve been working together on this for two years,â Green says. âWe have a strong community.â
Mike Jacobson, the homeowners association president for more than 1,000 of the 1,400 homes in Pebble Creek, is taking a more measured approach. Like most residents in Pebble Creek, he prefers a golf course over homes. But, he says that the choice isnât between a golf course or new homes, but rather between an abandoned golf course and new homes.
Jacobson is mostly concerned with the worst-case scenario, and has to look no further than Plant City. In 2013, Walden Lake homeowners recommended denying rezoning of its struggling golf course for development.
Instead, the course shut down, the owner went into foreclosure and the formerly lush green fairways became overgrown with weeds and foliage. The two-story clubhouse became a haven for trespassers. Home values in Walden Lake took a big hit.
âThat is my biggest fear,â Jacobson says.
There are now, seven wasted years later, plans to build homes and a âcity centerâ on the long-dormant Walden Lakes course.
While making it clear that he is opposed to development on the golf course site, Jacobson had met with Pulte representatives before their retreat about the benefits of redevelopment.
At the end of the day, he says, it comes down to what is best for Pebble Creekâs homeowners, and the value of their properties.
âWe are trying to find what is strategically the best outcome for all of Pebble Creek and, quite frankly, thereâs no great outcome,â he says. âThe best outcome is to find a buyer who wants to operate it as a golf course. If thereâs anybody out there that wants to operate it as a golf course, Iâd love for them to reach out to me….we would fight to the end with the commissioners to say we have somebody who wants to operate it the way itâs been zoned and keep it as a golf course.â
He says, however, that to date, no one has done so.
While engineers for a new developer could soon begin forging plans, the fight picks up when the rezoning request reaches the Hillsborough County Commission, possibly in 4-6 months.
âAny full rezoning boils down to the vote of the County Commission,â Place says. âAnd you canât predict that with full accuracy. I expect there to be opposition, and I understand that it will be contentious.â
Here’s some photos from the last day of the golf club.
Despite a number of problems with curbside garbage service in recent months, Hillsborough County Commissioners didnât seem to have much choice but to vote to increase trash assessments for the coming year.
On Aug. 4, commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of the 22% increase, effective Oct. 1, rather than run the risk of having no service when the current contract with Waste Connections of Florida expires.
District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents the New Tampa area, was one of the no votes, along with fellow Republican Stacy White.
âA majority of (Waste Connectionsâ) service failures were in north Hillsborough, including my neighborhood,â said Hagan, a Carrollwood resident. âIt was getting to the point where they were missing up to 50,000 homes a day. Residents were extremely frustrated, and I completely understand. I feel the same way.â
The annual assessment will rise from $289.32 to $352.79, an increase of $63.47 annually, or $1.22 per week.
Solid waste assessments pay for two garbage collections per week, one recycling collection per week and one yard waste collection per week, as well as self-hauled disposals at the countyâs collection centers.
Fuel prices, truck maintenance and population growth have led to the need for higher assessments, according to the county staff.
However, because of recent performance issues with Waste Connections, the timing for a boost couldnât be worse.
The trash service provider missed more than 250,000 pickups in June and July, while hundreds of routes werenât completed. The poor service resulted in thousands of emails and phone calls from angry residents.
Last month, the county threatened the trash hauler with fines if it did not improve service. Hagan says Waste Connections blamed Covid-related issues as well as an employee shortage brought on by not being awarded any of the new contracts, worth $589 million, which were approved in June and will begin in February of 2022.
The new contracts went to Republic Services of Florida, Waste Management Inc., of Florida, and Fomento De Construcciones Y Contratas, Inc.
Hagan said the new contractors are working with Waste Connections of Florida to bring over some of their employees.
âI feel relatively comfortable where weâre at now,â Hagan says. âThey say they are caught up. And, we have procedures in place to prevent this, should it happen again. I feel much better than I did a couple of weeks ago.â
Jeff Miller has seen a lot of things since moving to Wesley Chapel in 2004.
As a Realtor for Charles Rutenberg Realty, he has seen the market take off, then crash land, then take off again. He has seen the area grow and grow. He has seen neighborhoods evolve and new roads appear.
These days, however, Millerâs view has changed….to about 300 feet above the ground.
If youâve been on the web looking for all of the new developments and businesses in Wesley Chapel, you may have come across one of Millerâs many drone videos, which are focused on all of the new developments in our area.
âI really love sharing the videos with everyone,â Miller says. âI think itâs pretty cool.â
Miller has been posting regular old ground-level videos on his YouTube page since 2017, but kept noticing more and more drone videos.
âThey were unique and super visual,â he says. âWhat a difference.â
Miller bought his first drone â a surprisingly compact gray DJI Mini 2 â in February, and has since posted more than 80 videos, from local communities like Persimmon Park, Estancia, River Landing and Avalon Park to area favorites like the Crystal Lagoon at Epperson, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County and the Wesley Chapel District Park.
The first drone video he posted was 47 seconds of footage at the Overpass Rd. construction at I-75, followed by 99 seconds of Epperson Ranch and its lagoon. None of Millerâs first five drone videos topped 100 views, but many of his videos since then have fared much better.
A video of the future Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. has more than 600 views, a drone tour of Winding Ridge by GL Homes has more than 1,000 and an update on the Overpass Rd. construction currently is his top drone video to date with 1,300+ views.
All of his videos combined have nearly 20,000 views.
While Miller started posting his videos as a hobby, he says it hasnât been bad for business either.
âIâve had a lot of people reach out to me because of the videos,â he says. âEspecially the updates on the Overpass Rd. bridge, the parks and the malls. There are people interested in buying homes from out of state and I think itâs pretty cool they can see how the community has progressed.â
Miller said the wealth of aerial video opportunities is a far cry from his first decade or so in Wesley Chapel.
âBack then, there was really nothing to shoot (here),â he says.
A 1993 graduate of Southern Connecticut State University with a degree in corporate video communications, Miller has long had an eye for photography and video. He says he started taking pictures when he was a kid and, when he moved to Wesley Chapel, he took on a role helping the former Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (now the North Tampa Bay Chamber) with social media.
âBefore Facebook, that was pretty impossible,â he says. But, he would attend events, and send out email blasts with recaps and photos.
He says he helped start the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival and art show. In 2008, Miller even ran for the Chamberâs Honorary Mayor of Wesley Chapel. He hosted a wine tasting at the old Cork and Olive on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. hoping to attract voters, and one of his goals was to get signs up in the area that said âWe Love Wesley Chapel.â
âI think I met everyone in Wesley Chapel that year,â Miller says, chuckling.
A long-time promoter of the community, Miller says he tries to get out and shoot something in the area every day. Although he says he graduated from college without even having used the internet or a cell phone, he eagerly dives into new technology.
âThis technology is ridiculously easy to use,â he says. âIt really gives me the chance to make awesome, shareable content. I hope people like it.â
To check out Millerâs drone videos, visit FlyWesleyChapel.com. For more information about Jeff, visit Jeff-Miller-Realtor-Wesley-Chapel-Fl-homes-for-sale.business.site or call (813) 382-8312.