Category: News

It’s no secret that the S.R. 54/56 corridor is a difficult drive. Whether you’re going a few miles from Wesley Chapel to Land O’Lakes, or all the way to New Port Richey, the 25-mile stretch from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to U.S. 19 can be a nightmare to traverse, and Pasco County transportation planners are looking into ways to improve the corridor with a new initiative called Vision 54/56.

During the next seven months, the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is holding meetings at Rasmussen College (18600 Fernview St. in Land O’Lakes) to gather input from the public to use while coming up with alternatives to improve the S.R. 54/56 corridor during the next two decades.

A part of the MPO’s “Mobility 2040” Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), the Vision 54/56 study will be conducted using two “Task Forces,” one to study the corridor east of U.S. 41 to BBD (which includes the Wesley Chapel area) and another to study the area from U.S. 41 west to U.S. 19.

Each Task Force is comprised of nine individuals from local chambers of commerce and civic groups. The task force that will represent Wesley Chapel includes Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) CEO Hope Allen, Sandy Graves of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, Steve White of the Pasco Alliance of Community Associations, the Pasco Economic Development Council’s Brent Nye, project developer Joe Cimino, MPO Citizen Advisory Committee members Christie Zimmer and Cliff McDuffie, as well as citizens-at-large Debby Catanzaro and former Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary president Kelly Mothershead.

The Force is tasked with coming up with a total of six alternatives for improving transportation along the S.R. 54/56 corridor, which is the same stretch of road for which a private developer proposed an elevated toll road in 2013. However, that idea officially was abandoned last May. Phase one of the Task Force aims to educate the public and facilitate possible solution alternatives, which will be presented to the MPO Board. Regardless of the alternative ultimately chosen, the corridor will not be widened further than six lanes, which already exists in many sections, including S.R. 56 through Wesley Chapel.

The first meeting of Phase One was held on Sept. 24. In addition to Task Force members, Pasco Transportation Manager Jim Edwards, chief assistant county attorney David Goldstein, transportation engineer Ali Atefi and other members of the MPO and county staff also were in attendance.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Edwards told the Task Force. “There is a litany of alternatives out there, probably about 19, and we’ll be narrowing those down.”

Edwards said that he hoped the Task Force would be visionaries and report what the citizenry thinks should be done

As Edwards and staff went through a presentation of many of the alternatives that already have been identified—including raised express lanes, overpasses, express bus lanes, light rail and other options, Atefi said that Pasco’s population is expected to grow to 905,000 by 2040 (an increase of more than 446,000), with 135,000 people moving into the S.R. 54/56 corridor.

“That’s 35-percent of the county’s growth,” Atefi said. “Imagine if development moves faster.”

Executive planner Matt Armstrong also addressed the Task Force, encouraging members to take the job seriously and try to really look ahead.

“We can’t go backwards in development,” Armstrong said. “We have to make these decisions now. (Pasco is) not urban yet, but (it) will be. As urban planners, we try to look at the crystal ball and be ready.”

Phase Two will evaluate the alternatives submitted in Phase One and gather more public input about the alternatives. The Task Force will then select a preferred alternative and develop an implementation plan to present to the MPO.

“The first meeting was primarily an educational session to give everyone background on the challenges already addressed on the corridor and some previously proposed solutions,” Allen says. “I learned a lot and the county has done a lot of work to prepare for the future of that corridor.”

Allen explains that she and her fellow Task Force members have been armed with a lot of information to review about previous proposed projects, possible solutions and corridor studies. She says that a much more in-depth conversation about the alternatives and possible solutions will take place at the next meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1, again at Rasmussen College in Land O’Lakes. The public is welcome to attend and provide input to the Task Force.

For more info, please visit Vision54-56.com.

Chris Wirt doesn’t live in Wesley Chapel anymore, but he still has a soft spot for the area.

So, when the Westchase-based trapper received a call from a Quail Hollow resident concerned with recent coyote activity in our area, Wirt was more than happy to oblige, trapping and euthanizing the predator.

Assignments like that one, Wirt says, are becoming more and more common these days.

Coyotes are becoming a growing menace in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area, he explains. Wirt says he has fielded calls from people who have seen coyotes in Meadow Pointe, Live Oak and even Tampa Palms.

“They’re everywhere,’’ he said.

Along with the handful of local sightings, there have also been recent reports of coyote activity in St. Petersburg and Valrico, as well.

Wirt says he gets 2-3 calls a month because a coyote has killed a family pet.

“They can be aggressive,’’ he said. “They are like German Shepherds on steroids.”

In the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa area, coyotes have been sighted in multiple areas. Wirt, 39 and a Wesley Chapel resident and fireman from 1999-2005, says he even once saw one crossing the street between the Publix on S.R. 56 and the Shops at Wiregrass mall around midnight.

But when they invade people’s backyards, often in search of family pets to dine on, Wirt is called in.

“They do keep to themselves, unless there’s no food source,’’ Wirt says. “They eat rabbits and possums and anything they can get ahold of, but when those food sources are gone, they will eat whatever they can find, and sometimes that’s your cats and dogs.”

Wirt recently posted a picture of two dead coyotes — one he trapped and another a homeowner trapped and killed — causing a kerfuffle on the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page. Because the images were deemed grisly, the post was taken down and he was banned. But Wirt, who actively answers questions about all kinds of wildlife on the Facebook page, was reinstated a few hours later thanks to an outpouring of support by the group’s other members who appreciate his help.

“People will watch (gory zombie survival show) The Walking Dead and they will watch blood and gore all day, but they don’t want to see what is happening in the community,’’ said Wirt.

Wirt was born in Utah, attended high school in West Virginia and now resides in Florida. He said he has lived in every place in between, and the interest in catching animals he had as a young child has only grown.

Two years ago, he bought an A All Animal Control franchise and became a trapper full-time.

“I didn’t get into this business to hurt animals,’’ says Wirt, who sympathizes with animals pushed out of their natural habitat by developing communities and business growth. “We are encroaching on them, they aren’t encroaching on us.”

He recently trapped a coyote pup, and handed it over to an education zoo. But it is against state law to relocate coyotes, which have to euthanized.

“There’s a good reason for that,’’ says Gary Morse, spokesperson for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). “If you have a coyote that has these bad habits, re-releasing them somewhere else is only relocating a problem.”

Morse explains that there are thousands upon thousands of coyote sightings in the state, so it is not unusual to spot one, especially near areas like Wesley Chapel and New Tampa.

“The coyote population is considerable, particularly in urbanized areas,’’ he says. “The coyote populations tend to be 3-5 times higher, frankly, because there tends to be more food, like fruit, rodents and small pets.”

Morse says adults and children are generally not at risk. He said the problem of coyotes preying on home pets is “common and nothing unusual.”

Trapping coyotes, Morse says, isn’t eliminating the threat.

“You may get 1-2 coyotes, but they generally replace themselves very quickly,’’ he explains. “The best protection for small dogs and cats is not to let them roam about freely. Doing so is not a very responsible model for pet ownership.”

Morse suggests visiting MyFWC.com for more information about coyotes and how to handle them.

Wirt continues to field calls and requests about all kinds of wildlife in the area, as people look for help identifying snakes and other unfamiliar animals. The more human expansion into nature, the more business he gets.

And one day, he may have some help while out on assignment: his 4-year-old son Hunter recently trapped his first squirrel.

For more info about Wirt’s services, visit AAllAnimalControl.com.