Drivers pulling out of Hollybrook Plaza need to be cautious.
Residents were assured during a sparsely attended virtual public hearing hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in February that the plans to redesign and modify part of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. south of its intersection with S.R. 54 are ongoing.
Construction on the median project is expected to begin in early 2022.
The project centers around the northbound and southbound median just south of the actual intersection.
The median currently has an opening allowing motorists to cross from exits between the Sonny’s BBQ and Sun Trust Bank adjacent to the Publix-anchored Hollybrook Plaza to southbound BBD or straight across to the west, to the Village Market shopping center, and from the Village Market to northbound BBD or across eastbound to the Hollybrook Plaza.
The plan is basically to extend the median and eliminate any cutting across BBD from either side.
The medians along this stretch will be combined into one.
It is not an uncommon sight to see an accident at the northbound side in front of the Sonny’s BBQ or Taco Bell.
According to FDOT, the median project was initiated by an intersection study that showed 233 “crashes” had been reported in that area from 2011-15.
A Neighborhood News Reader Survey in 2017 voted the BBD/54 intersection as the second-worst in Wesley Chapel, behind the I-75 and S.R. 56 intersection (which will have a new Diverging Diamond Interchange by the end of 2021).
The plan to make the location safer centers around closing what is now a split median and constructing one long median from Eagleston Blvd. to the south all the way north to S.R. 54.
Under the current set up, the northbound far left turn lane, when filled during busy traffic hours, extends beyond the median opening and blocks those trying to cross BBD.
Now, with a single, longer median, that left turn lane will be extended to accommodate more vehicles, which will reduce congestion.
There also will be a new traffic signal installed at Eagleston, and new roadway lighting added to the northbound lanes, as well as some resurfacing.
At the southbound end of the new median where the light will be installed, a dedicated U-turn lane will be built for motorists wanting to get to Hollybrook Plaza (this also can be achieved by merely driving east through the BBD/54 intersection and entering via two entrance points off S.R. 54).
FDOT says it plans to let the project out to bid in October, with construction beginning a few months later.
DHI Communities has closed on 34 acres of land it plans on developing as a multi-family residential community just west of I-75 and S.R. 54.
The multifamily division of national homebuilder D.R. Horton says the DHI Communities development is located between Old Pasco Rd, and Oakley Blvd., north of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and adjacent to The Grove.
DHI paid $9.5 million for the parcel, which is zoned for 330 apartments and 82 for-sale townhomes. The $80-million development will be called Ascend at Grove West, and is DHI Communities’ first multifamily project in the Tampa Bay area. It will be within walking distance from The Grove entertainment complex, which will soon include dozens of new restaurants and businesses at the under-construction KRATE container park.
“Developers are taking every opportunity to develop along the State Road 54 corridor,” says Mark Eilers, executive managing director of land services at Colliers International, which represented DHI Communities in the sale. “This is a great location for DHI Communities to enter the Tampa Bay market due to its superior access to State Road 54 and Interstate 75, proximity to major employment centers and walkability to nearby retail and restaurants.”
Construction is expected to begin this month, with completion by early 2022. — JCC
A likely-to-be-proposed development will affect three different communities, according to Quail Hollow residents opposed to it.
Lane Mendelsohn has had his eye on the more than 1,000 acres of land next to where his family lives in the Quail Hollow area for a few years now. Not because he wants to buy it, but because those who own it have plans he feels aren’t best for that area.
SoHo Capital, LLC, the developers of the proposed Dayflower Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), may be prepping to ask the county for a rezoning that will increase how many homes it can build on the land from roughly 1,000 to almost 1,500. Mendelsohn is worried about overcrowding, flooding, damage to wetlands and roads buckling under an influx of new traffic, to name a few.
So, instead of sitting back and waiting to see what happens, Mendelsohn and a group of Quail Hollow residents are on a mission to stop a potential rezoning of the land before it even gets started.
Mendelsohn has spent a good deal of his own money founding the Quail Hollow Alliance (QHA), creating a website and forming a team of land and environmental experts. He has rallied the communities of Quail Hollow, Angus Valley and Lexington Oaks — and residents of those developments account for the many of the more than 2,000 signatures in opposition he has collected — in a proactive effort to save the area.
“I’m not an activist that goes around county looking for a fight,” Mendelsohn says. “I got involved because this affects me, my family and my community. We’ve got one shot to stop this proposed development on a very environmentally sensitive piece of property and once built on, that’s it, there’s no turning back. If someone didn’t step up with the time and financial resources, my feeling was we may blow it and have to live with the adverse effects. If I didn’t do this, I would never be able to forgive myself.”
SoHo Capital is likely to bring its plans to the Pasco County Planning Commission in the near future. It owns 1,007 acres north of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and west of Old Pasco Rd. The property touches three established communities, but mostly Quail Hollow and Angus Valley, communities which date back to the 1950s, where home lots are generally three quarters of an acre or larger.
Mendelsohn owns a 75-acre lot just north of the property, a six-acre plot and a 2-acre plot where he lives next to his parents’ 14-acre lot.
Mendelsohn says Soho Capital wants to fill the developable areas (probably 500 acres, due to how much of the property is wetlands) with 40-foot lots.
While he says he respects a land owner’s rights to do what is allowed under its zoning, he is opposed to rezoning to allow even more homes.
While SoHo is already permitted to build around 1,000 homes (2.2 homes per buildable acre due to its current Res-1 zoning), Mendelsohn says the developer is working towards a rezoning which would allow for 1,439 homes.
“My feeling is development has to be responsible, and has to be consistent and compatible with the surrounding areas,” Mendelsohn says.
Jennifer Seney, a Quail Hollow resident who researches most of the information that fills the group’s website, feels the same.
“I’ll even go a step further,” Seney says, “I’ll say that what is being proposed for this piece of land is completely inappropriate.”
The additional density from a rezoning, not what is currently allowed, is where the QHA finds the problem.
According to Mendelsohn, SoHo Capital estimates the development would add 13,309 additional day trips on three small country roads that run right through Quail Hollow and Angus Valley. Mendelsohn says those roads — Sandy Ln., Mangrove Dr. and Armenian Ln. — are already classified as substandard by the county for not being thick or wide enough, and there is no room to widen them without getting rid of the swales that help control the area’s persistent flooding.
Seney has particularly strong feelings about the roads, because she says SoHo Capital is requesting that the county allow it to pay “fair share” on the road improvements, which means splitting the costs with the county, rather than footing the bill themselves. She believes the county’s share would end up as an assessment on those living near and using the roads. In other words, the residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.
“The road improvements are solely for the benefit of the developer,” Seney says. “We don’t need them (with the current population that uses them), and would never ask for them, but will have to pay for them.”
Seney, who worked for Pasco County as a recycling supervisor from 2008-18, fears the county may see this as an opportunity to bring the roads up to a higher level of service without having to pay for anything.
Following a March 1 required virtual public meeting with the developer, QHA members also claimed the project, which is adjacent to the Cypress Creek Preserve, would destroy “at least 11 acres of pristine wetlands, which help recharge Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater’s water supply through Pasco’s Cypress Creek Watershed.”
SoHo Capital, or SoHo Dayflower LLC, does not yet have any meetings scheduled yet before the planning commission, which would be the next step. Mendelsohn is hoping that such meetings won’t happen at all. The main goal of his group is to convince county staff that the project isn’t worth putting to any vote, due to the numerous questions — which Mendelsohn says have not been answered — put forth by the QHA.
“I don’t want this to get in front of the planning commission and then the county commissioners and have us have to fight this out in front of them,” Mendelsohn says. “If the Pasco County Planning department really takes a look at this, they would see that this project is not a good project for this area.”
District 2 County Commissioner Mike Moore says he has been contacted by the group, but until the project moves onto the planning commission agenda, he has little to say about it.
The QHA is not trying to stop SoHo from building any homes on the land it owns. Mendelsohn says he is not anti-development. And in fact, if developers were only trying to build the number of homes the property was currently zoned for, the QHA wouldn’t even exist.
However, if a rezoning does take place, he feels that more homes will equal more problems for long-time residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.
“My main point is, building 40-foot lots is just not compatible in an area where the lots are bigger and there isn’t that kind of density,” Mendelsohn says. ““I do believe property owners have rights and I respect that, however my hope is that the county commissioners are listening to the people and just because a developer requests a rezoning, that is not something they are entitled to or that the commissioners are required to grant.”
For more information, check out QuailHollowAlliance.org
The connection of Kinnan St. in K-Bar Ranch to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe continues to be a problem, according to some area residents.
A number of emails sent to Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore suggest that far too many cars have been making their way around the barrier, which is a mechanical arm designed to only let first responders and emergency vehicles through.
As a result, Pasco County is taking action. Moore says the county will be installing security cameras and additional barriers to prevent any more cars from sneaking through the small opening.
Chris Dillinger, a member of the Meadow Pointe II CDD, says he also has heard the complaints, including by some who feel the connection is the first step towards opening the connected roads to all traffic. But, he says as long as Pasco County controls the gate, which is part of the agreement with Hillsborough County, which constructed the connection, he is confident the roads will remain closed and adjustments will be made to stop cars from circumventing the barriers.
After years of debate over connecting the roads, it was finally decided last year to make a connection that would only be accessible by law enforcement, fire and other emergency vehicles, and to police it with a barrier gate arm. New, wider bike paths and sidewalks also were added to the connection for cyclists and pedestrians.
However, those wider paths are being used by cars, according to critics.
The Neighborhood News has received some emails making the same charge. As a result, we visited the connection, and witnessed a small black car slipping through the bike path on the east side of the gate, where a generous gap exists (photo), and crossing from New Tampa into Wesley Chapel.
You can see by looking at the picture above that there is still room for smaller cars to get through, although it is a fairly tight fit.
“While there are supposedly things in place to prevent traffic from entering the road…especially on the Mansfield side, it is not effective,” one emailer who did not want to be identified told us. “Those of us who use it for walking, running and cycling were so excited that we would not have to be exposed to a lot of fumes from vehicles. But, no matter what time I walk in that area, there are always vehicles that enter from Kinnan and Mansfield. There are vehicles that, from the Mansfield side, can successfully drive slowly and carefully through there…and there are enough violators for me to be concerned. This road is not closed to traffic; it’s being used more frequently than you know.”
Commissioner Moore contacted both Ken Hagan, the Hillsborough County Commissioner for District 2 which includes Kinnan St., and District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents the New Tampa area that includes K-Bar Ranch.
“The gate is a good idea,” Viera says. “It helps emergency vehicles and first responders get through and it will save lives. Let’s hope we don’t let a few people ruin that.”
Brian and Amy Makarski had the safe life, with secure, well-paying jobs in Baltimore working in the copier industry, in the middle of a pandemic when many people were losing jobs and too many of those who weren’t were living in fear.
However, while everyone else may have been hanging onto their jobs for dear life, Brian and Amy decided to do the opposite.
They let go.
They took their hobby of cooking and catering, married it to an investment in a food truck and moved full-time to New Tampa to start Charm City Eats, a mobile eatery specializing in authentic Maryland crab cakes — broiled, not fried, and don’t forget the Old Bay seasoning — and other tasty regional dishes.
“We were incorporated in June, left our jobs to concentrate full-time on it and started distributing food to focus groups in Maryland to get the recipes just right,” said Brian. “Then, we sold our house in October.”
Neither of them have any regrets. Amy says they have never worked harder in their lives, and are physically exhausted by the end of most days. Some days, she says it feels like they have worked all 24 hours.
“I wore heels and a suit and ran a sales team, sold high-ticket items, but this, this is physically taxing,” says Amy, who was born in Baltimore. “The amount of dishes, the amount of prep sauces, it’s physically demanding. But, it’s more fulfilling working for yourself.”
Brian, a New Jersey native who attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando, had been commuting back and forth from K-Bar Ranch to Baltimore, where Amy lived, for the past decade or so. In fact, he says he was one of the first K-Bar residents in 2012 when he built the home that is now the Makarskis’ full-time residence.
When Covid hit, however, the family — they have four kids ages 7, 9, 13 and 14 between them — was in Baltimore and quarantined, not leaving the house for months. When they finally did leave, it was for a new life.
“Everyone seems to be shocked that we would do that,” Brian says. “Giving up (nearly mid-six figures) to run a food truck? But, we felt we were stable enough financially to do this. We planned it out. We had all the angles covered. A lot of people thought we were a bit nuts. But if we don’t do it now, we’re never gonna do it”
Even before moving to Florida, Amy had arranged bookings for their first two months in Tampa Bay. She and Brian took advantage of a Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC) food business incubator in Dade City to help launch, and business has been even better than they expected. After meticulously laying out a business plan with reasonable projections, Brian says that, after four months, Charm City Eats was way ahead of our forecast. Our success, we feel, has been spectacular.”
Brian says they are filling a void. On his many trips to the Tampa area, he couldn’t help but notice the lack of true Maryland fare in the area. He and Amy even did a tour of Tampa Bay and Orlando, trying every crab cake they could find and found them all lacking.
Brian says the food sold at Charm City Eats is as authentic as it comes. Nothing is frozen, and they prepare everything fresh daily in a commercial kitchen they rent space from in Lutz. Everything is made from scratch — and even the actual food truck was built from scratch.
In addition to focus groups in Maryland, the Makarskis say their own creativity helped forge their menu.
The crab cakes are the food truck’s specialty. Two of their most popular menu items are The Double Down Sandwich, a crab cake topped with hot blue crab dip, and the Crabby Patty is a quarter-pound grass-fed Angus beef burger topped with the blue crab dip. The dip is Amy’s grandmother’s secret recipe, and Amy says she makes up to 16 quarts of it a day.
While the name of their food truck is a nod to one of Baltimore’s nicknames — “Charm City” — so are some of the menu items. The Wire is a nod to the legendary HBO crime drama series, which is based in Baltimore. The pickle-brined, double-dredged Sweet Heat chicken sandwich, with tangy cole slaw, is a best seller. Brian said he spent six months perfecting the sweet heat chicken.
Though you’ll have to ask for it because it’s not on the menu, Brian and Amy (left) say The Gronk sandwich has been a top seller since the Tampa Bay Bucs started their Super Bowl run.
And, The Gronk has become a best seller as well, but it’s not on the menu. You just need to be in the know to order it. Named for Tampa Bay Bucs’ tight end Rob Gronkowski, The Gronk is truffle crab Mac and Cheese stuffed inside a Crabby Melt.
“It’s probably been our best seller since football season,” Brian says.
While Amy and Brian spend a lot of time in the truck, they have two cooks who work full-time as well.
“Amy and I have certain expectations,” he says. “(The food) needs to look the way I want it to look.”
Amy and Brian don’t intend to spend the rest of their lives in front of a fryer. This is not their end game, they say. They are already close to opening a second Charm City Eats truck in Las Vegas, where they finalized expansion plans and got married this past New Year’s Eve.
They see a lot more major expansion in their future. And no, they have no interest in opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“We nixed that idea before we were even incorporated,” Brian says.
Chappie Friess
Instead, the Makarskis take great pride in finding unique, popular spots to set up their truck. Trying to zig while everyone else is zagging, Brian says. They have been to various breweries (including Florida Ave. Brewing Co. on S.R. 56), dozens of local neighborhoods (such as Epperson Ranch, Arbor Greene and Cory Lake Isles), festivals like the Great American Redneck Biker Bash in New Port Richey and private catering events.
As small business owners, Brian says it’s hard work and there are certainly endless obstacles to overcome. But, they have never been happier. He says a good night in the truck is more satisfying than his last $10,000 commission check with the copier company. And sure, he misses his ties and suits, but when someone stops by to pick up dinner for the family because the food is so good, he bursts with satisfaction.
“When someone tells us our food takes them back home and should be illegal it’s so good, that gives us more joy than selling a copier ever did,” Brian says.
If you want to check out where Charm City Eats will be next, or see what else is on the menu, visit CharmCityEats.com.
