This construction entrance on Elam Rd. for a new townhome community in Epperson North is now expected to become a full entrance for townhome residents once the development has been completed, which is a compromise for those living on Abby Brooks Cir. (homes in the distance) in Epperson Ranch II.ย
Although we hadnโt yet received, at our press time, confirmation that the deal has been finalized, it appears that Metro Development Group and Pasco County have come to an agreement that hopefully will help protect the safety of the residents of Abby Brooks Cir. (ABC), Lily Arbor Way and Swift Wind Dr. in the Epperson Ranch II Community Development District (CDD).
As we reported back in May, a new development of 186 townhomes in the Epperson North CDD is slated to open adjacent to those single-family homes in the Epperson Ranch II CDD โ on property that was originally intended to be a school, with an entrance on Elam Rd.
When Pasco County rezoned the property for the townhomes, the entrance on Elam Rd., which currently is being used as a construction entrance (see photo), was eliminated, which meant the only entrance and exit to and from the new townhomnes would be from Epperson Blvd. through ABC, adding an estimated 400 daily trips through the quiet neighborhood by people who wouldnโt live in the neighborhood nor in Epperson II at all.
A large group of concerned Epperson II residents attended the May 6 Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting to complain, and the commissioners, to their credit, agreed that not having an Elam Rd. entrance for the townhomes was a mistake. They also said, however, that they didnโt think anything could be done about it, but had the group meet with the countyโs Planning Dept. director David Engel and Development Services Dept. director David Allen while the May 6 BCC meeting was still in session. Engel and Allen said they would talk to Metro to see if the developer would agree to at least allow the entrance on Elam Rd. to be built as a full second entrance/exit, as an alternative to ABC.
On July 8, Metro VP of marketing & communications Lisa Gibbings sent me an email with the following update:
โข Construction of the Elam Rd. entrance will begin when the county completes final review and approval of the plan modification.
โข The entrance is expected to be completed at the same time as the completion of the overall townhome project, or by the end of 2025.
โข While it is currently an active construction zone, access is not permitted for use by the public until the entrance and overall townhome project have been completed.
โข To the best of our knowledge, there is no agreement in place nor one being discussed between Epperson Ranch II CDD and Epperson North CDD regarding the entrance. On May 13, 2025, the developer and Pasco County staff met with and shared the proposed (new) entrance plan to representatives of the Epperson Ranch II CDD and residents of the [Epperson II] neighborhood that attended. The proposed plan was well received, and the developer is currently working with the county for final construction plan review and approval.
โข It is our understanding that during the Epperson Ranch II CDD meeting on July 3, 2025, the Chair of the Board of Supervisors indicated the entrance road matter is essentially resolved.
โข โMetro is excited to partner with Pasco County to bring this entrance to the new townhome community within Epperson. We hope this adds another layer of convenience and safety for residents while reducing congestion within the [ABC] community.โ
The Epperson II residents would not comment until the agreement was finalized.
As we all remember all too vividly, Hurricane Milton, which was a Category 5 tropical cyclone when it made landfall near Siesta Key on Oct. 9 of last year, was the first hurricane in decades (or maybe ever) to make a direct hit on the Wesley Chapel area later that day and cause widespread damage and flooding.
The after-effects of Milton continued to be felt for many weeks and, among the casualties of that storm were dozens of roadway signs that were knocked down and/or destroyed โ some of which still have not been replaced now nearly 10 months later (highlighted in red in both pictures, above).ย
Pasco County Media Relations & Communications public information officer Sarah Andeara says, however, that the countyโs Traffic Operations & Public Works departments, โhave repaired all damages and replaced all signage on county roads that were damaged by Hurricane Milton. Traffic Operations replaced approximately 40 overhead signs and traffic signals, noting that each overhead illuminated street name sign costs approximately $3,700.โ
At our press time, Andeara did not know how many post-mounted signs were fixed via the Public Works department, but said that for any missing signs on state roads โ including S.R.s 56 and 54 โ the Florida Department of Transportation (or FDOT)โs District 7 is ultimately responsible for the replacement of those signs.
Itโs also important to note that, unlike traffic signal โheads,โ each of the signs โ which are important for tourism, emergency response and local businesses โ has to be custom-designed.
FDOT transportation engineer Megan Arasteh says, โThe Department has inventoried the damaged signs through field visits, and designed the new signs if as-builts were not available, and is in the process of securing the funds for manufacturing the signs.โ
Arasteh also noted that, โThe estimated timeframe to complete sign replacements throughout District 7 is approximately one year. It takes FDOT about one hour to design each sign if as-builts are not available. The manufacturing process requires a minimum lead time of four months, and each sign installation takes approximately three hours.โ
As for how many signs FDOT needs to replace in our area, Arasteh says, โA minimum of 16 signs will be replaced in Wesley Chapel, nineteen signs total in Pasco County, and 203 signs total in all of District 7,โ which also includes New Tampa.
Arasteh also notes that, โFDOT recently completed the process of acquiring federal funds to replace these signs. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires a Detailed Damage Inspection Report (DDIR) for approval of funding. FDOT began the process in December 2024. The report included details of the hurricane damage and pictures. FHWA approved the funds this month. As you can imagine with the extent of the damage due to Hurricane Milton, FHWA has had a very large number of DDIRs to review and approve, [and] they have been a great resource to work closely with the Department throughout this process. Dist. 7 Traffic Operations is now working on a new contract that will advertise for bids in about two months for sign replacement.โ
As for cost, Arasteh says, โThe cost varies to replace each sign. Based on FDOTโs statewide averages for signs, the cost is approximately $7,500, not including design, maintenance of traffic and mobilization. A vendor will manufacture the signs on behalf of FDOT and Pasco County will install the signs.
Now, two months into the 2025 hurricane season, the hope here is that the work will be completed before our area takes another major hit.
A Recent Study Shows That Wesley Chapel Is Leading The Entire Nation In Self-Storage Growth, With More On The Way, But…ย
Story by Gary Nager &ย Joel Provenzanoย
Photos by Gary Nager & Joel Provenzano; photo collage designed by Charmaine Georgeย
Of course, itโs one of the most popular (albeit tiresome) running jokes in this community that Wesley Chapel is overrun by chicken places, car washes and yes, self-storage facilities.
In fact, a RentCafe report published in the Business Observer newspaper shows that over the past 10 years, Wesley Chapel, โhas seen its storage capacity skyrocket 672%, jumping from 76,000 square feet to 587,000 square feet. That leap lands it as No. 1 on the top-10 list cities for storage growth in the country between 2014 and 2024.โ
Of course, the report also notes that, โWesley Chapel is not officially a city but considered an unincorporated census designated [place],โ (or CDP) and itโs also not clear whether the RentCafe report uses the three Wesley Chapel zip codes (33543, 33544 & 33545) as its boundaries of โWesley Chapelโ or if the Wesley Chapel CDP boundary, which extends from I-75 west to Wesley Chapel Blvd. and includes the area around the Tampa Premium Outlets (but not some other communities located within the Wesley Chapel zip code maps) โ but hereโs the bottom line:ย
Weโve got a crap-ton of storage facilities in our area โ nine within zip codes 33543 and 33544 (but just one, at least so far, in 33545) and two along Wesley Chapel Blvd. with either a Lutz (33559) or Land OโLakes (34639) zip code โ and, sorry to say, more are on the way.
By our calculations (see chart below), that adds up to 837,300 sq. ft. in 33543, 33544 & 33545, plus an additional 180,300 sq. ft. along Wesley Chapel Blvd. (or 1,017,600 sq. ft total), and at least two more under construction, totalling an additional 212,600 sq. ft., in Wesley Chapel โproperโ โ one on Curley Rd. just north of S.R. 54 (the second in 33545) and the other on Mansfield Blvd. near Wiregrass Ranch High (in zip code 33543). Without any additional facilities being built, our area will have 1,230,200 sq. ft. of these huge, most would say ugly, buildings โinvadingโ our personal space.ย
So, who needs them?
Apparently, we all do โ and they surely seem to be cash cows for those who develop and own them โ or they wouldnโt keep building them.
According to the RentCafe report, โIn Wesley Chapel, the growth in storage space โ like its growth in housing and retail โ is being driven by more people moving to the area.โ The report found that, โthe central Pasco locality saw its population increase 53% between 2014 and 2023.โ
โIt seems, the reportโs authors write, that โevery new household comes [with] a wave of belongings, and self-storage has stepped in to help manage this overflow.โ
โThe report notes one other factor in its findings on Wesley Chapel: The growth in storage space is unlikely to slow down anytime soon. The area currently offers about 4.6 square feet of self-storage per capita, which remains well below the national benchmark, โsuggesting thereโs still plenty of room for further expansion.โ (A RentCafe spokesperson did not respond to a question about what the national benchmark is.)โ
In other words, here in Florida, where there is no such thing as basements in most houses and attics are, in most cases, way too small to accommodate all of our โstuff,โ these huge monstrosities are here to stay.
And no, they arenโt cheap, either. Although we found that most storage facilities list units โstartingโ as low as $54 per month for a 4โx5โ unit and most list their largest units โ usually 10โx20โ โ in the low $200s per month, we know first-hand that some of those climate-controlled units fetch more than $400 per month. Ugh.
Nationwide, the area from South to Central Florida was the hardest hit during the recession of 2008-09, in terms of housing foreclosures. Construction on nearly everything slowed for years, especially here in Wesley Chapel.
But, the Wesley Chapel area, in particular, has been playing catch up pretty quickly ever since, with both residential and commercial development skyrocketing recently, as well as in the number of storage facilities, which took nearly a decade after the recessionโs peak to start coming out of the ground again in our area.
In a state without truly usable attics and no basements, Florida seems like a prime market for this industry, but thereโs more to it than that, especially for a (literally) hot market, as most (but definitely not all) of the storage units are climate-controlled nowadays.
The RentCafe article cited above says that Wesley Chapel is the fastest-growing self-storage market in the U.S. We confirmed this is likely true, but decided to pull the numbers ourselves (for both current facilities and those under construction), to give a more accurate representation of where our area stands today. In other words, are we actually โunder-โ or โover-โ saturated with self-storage facilities?ย
According to the data in our analysis, we calculated the jump in storage space over the last 10 years for Wesley Chapel to be exactly 700% (close to the RentCafeโs report of 672%), from 175,600 total sq. ft. in 2014 to 1,230,200 sq. ft. by the beginning of next year. Here are more numbers, and the answer to that pressing question:
The average rentable storage area is about 75% of gross floor area, so: 1,230,200 sq. ft. x 0.75 = 922,650 rentable sq. ft., divided by an estimated 110,000 people (in our Wesley Chapel service area) = 8.4 sq. ft. (sf) per capita.
The National Average for self-storage is 7-8 sf per capita, so with the two newest ones under construction on Mansfield Blvd. and Curley Rd. (see chart, right), Wesley Chapel is just now slightly above the national average, putting us on-trend to keep up with the areaโs rapid growth, making us a โbalanced market,โ that is neither under- nor over-saturated.
In fact, thereโs almost no doubt that at least a couple of additional self-storage locations will almost definitely be needed โ especially from Epperson and Watergrass north to Mirada/San Antonio โ over the next few years to maintain that balanced dynamic, as more people continue to move to the area. So, as unpopular and maligned as they may seem, storage facilities provide important support for a healthy, thriving community.
But, Why Are They Needed?
Local social media comments on posts about self-storage facilities are quick to categorize them as โa blight on the landscape,โ โa waste of spaceโ or, at best, โa necessary evil.โ But, are they really any of these things?
The plethora of customers filling these facilities and the nearly perfect Google reviews for all of the ones built during or after 2018 seem to indicate otherwise, as most people who use them seem to be, overall, pretty happy with the experience, with one caveat โ price.
Self-storage pricing changes to match real estate trends โ in other words, as housing, office and retail costs go up, so does the cost of self-storage.
But, Who Are These Companies?
Although many of the local self-storage facilities have changed hands recently โ and several have changed brands multiple times โ the largest current provider of storage space to rent in the Wesley Chapel area also is the #1 or #2 (depending upon which Artificial Intelligence search response you trust) largest such company in the U.S. โ Extra Space Storage, which operates more than 4,000 storage facilities in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
The second largest operator is Public Storage, with more than 3,300 locations across the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Our Google AI search response also said, โItโs worth noting that Extra Space Storageโs recent acquisition of Life Storage significantly increased their store count, pushing them past Public Storage in terms of number of locations.โ
The trend towards more storage facilities isnโt just a local phenomenon, as StorageCafe says that, as of June 2025, there is now more than 2 billion sq. ft. of self-storage space in the U.S., with 62.3 million sq. ft. delivered in 2024 and 56.1 million sq. ft. expected to be added this year. StorageCafe also says that 1 of every three Americans rents a storage space in this country.
The trend increased during and since the pandemic, as more and more people have operated home-based businesses, many of which require keeping inventory for those business somewhere other than in the peoplesโ homes.
Based on personal experience, the growth of hoarding also seems to have been a factor.
But, self-storage also is a good business model in todayโs world, with low numbers of employees, very little upkeep required and literally every available square foot making money for the business owners. Nationwide, occupancy rates peaked at around 92% during the pandemic, but even with slightly lower occupancy now (around 87%), thatโs still higher than most apartment and hotel occupancy rates, with much less maintenance required.
Some Local Insight
While taking photos of the outside of one of the storage buildings, we saw a sign that said โInventory Sale,โ so we decided to check it out.
On the second floor, we met Lisa Gillispie, a business partner with L&J Elite events, a highly rated local business which focuses primarily on weddings. She explained that her business was โneeding to downsizeโ โ selling some of the inventory items the company uses regularly to stage its events โ everything from candle holders and imitation floral arrangements to fine dishes and silverware, all in storage containers on shelving units from floor to ceiling (photo).
โOur biggest unit has been 10โx35โ and we need to downsize from our current five units costing $1,200 a month,โ Lisa said. โWe used to have four smaller units that cost $500 a month, but the price has almost doubled the last few years.โ
Although she lives in Dade City, Lisa said her business partner lives closer to Wesley Chapel and noted, โA lot of our business is in this area.โ
That helped us realize that many of the people who need these units often have a very specific reason for needing them, and for those folks, at least, itโs not really about storing some useless junk.
We spoke with a long-term full-time employee at one of the local self-storage offices (who asked to not be named in the story) to get some insight into the business locally and the customers they end up serving.
โThere are a lot of small business owners, consultants, local medical supply companies and home stagers,โ the employee said, โso storage is a vital resource for them,โ adding that, โWe do have a lot of unit turnoverโ โ meaning that many self-storage customers are only using the units for short periods of time. โFor people moving in from out of town or apartment residents, storage helps. All of the new construction is bringing customers in, people who are waiting for their homes to be finished being built or other sudden life changes.โ
The employee admitted that the cost of owning a self-storage business is pretty low.
โYes, Iโm the only full-time employee, and we have a couple of part time employees, but weโre good neighbors. We keep a clean property (building) and parking lot, maintain our landscaping, and donโt create much traffic.โ
We also visited Morningstar Storage (behind the Audi Wesley Chapel dealership on S.R. 56), where we discovered that some local storage businesses do even more for the community, offering free or discounted storage units to charities and other non-profits, with ten nonprofits listed on a board in the businessโ lobby, with even more that Morningstar offers for seasonal storers, like Toys-for-Tots.
In other words, while you may hate the way they look and wonder why there have to be so f*@#ing many of them, self-storage facilities are pretty much a necessity in most communities, especially those growing by leaps and bounds, like Wesley Chapel.
So, which is our readersโ favorite fried chicken place in the Wesley Chapel area?
Weโre still nowhere close to the answer to that question, but as the publisher and editor of the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, Iโm proud to say that after months of effort and roughly 50 total volunteers who said they wanted to be judges, the contest is at least under way. Round 1 was completed on July 23 and Round 2 is taking place on July 30, or the Wednesday after this issue was printed. The Grand Finale, where our nine judges will finally get to pick their favorite mild and spicy chicken, hopefully will be completed before school goes back in session on August 11.
Picking the nine judges was not an easy task. Of the 50 people who volunteered, I originally planned to only have five judges. But then, I thought, what would happen if more than one of the people we picked ended up not being able to be there for Rounds 2 and 3? I decided that a couple more couldnโt hurt โ it would even allow us to employ Olympic-style scoring where we could throw out the high and the low and just use the other seven scores for each restaurant, if I wanted.
At any rate, the nine people selected, from left to right in the top left photo, were: Bill Johnston (aka Colonel Sanders himself!) and his wife Suzanne Reno of Quail Hollow, Aaron โDionโ Rocha of New River Township, Cindy Cooley of Tampa Palms, Dionโs wife Suzanne Rocha, the father-daughter duo of Joshua & Zoe Paine of Heritage Isles and the son-&-father team of Karson (the self-proclaimed & costumed โKing Chicken Wingโ and Jason Centeno of Live Oak Preserve (and yes, a certain editor is in there, too).
The first round was a blast for yours truly, the judges and even for Jannah, whose unenviable job it was to go and pick up the chicken from the first five restaurants. I thought we were going to split the number of places into one group of 5 and one group of 6, but I forgot to include one chicken place that recently added tenders to its menu, so Round 2 will now have the mild and spicy chicken tenders from seven places being sampled. A few other things I have to mention:
1) Because we are bringing the chicken from multiple locations to one central location, the judges know that none of the chicken will be as hot or as moist as it would be at each of the places.
2) None of the chicken was served with sauces for fear that the judges would figure out whose chicken was whose too easily. But again, it also keeps each placeโs chicken from tasting its best.
3) I have to thank president & CEO Hope Kennedy and office administrator Darlene Hill of the North Tampa Bay Chamber for allowing us to use the board room in the Chamberโs beautiful, new office in The Shops at Wiregrass for all of the rounds of the contest.ย
4) I also have to thank our photographer/videographer Charmaine George for not only shooting still pictures, but also videotaping all of the proceedings. When weโre ready to announce the winning restaurants, we will do so as the premiere episode of our โNeighborhood Newsmakersโ podcast. Look for updates about that event on our โNeighborhood Newsโ Facebook page.ย
5) Yours truly didnโt sample all of the chicken nor did I try to influence the judges in any way.
I was excited to see a sign posted next to Fine Ink Studios (the former location of Pinotโs Palette) that Haraz Coffee House was โBrewing Soonโ at 1722 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in the Publix-anchored Shoppes at New Tampa of Wesley Chapel plaza.ย
Iโll admit that Iโd never heard of Haraz before, but any coffee shop that isnโt Starbucks that opens in our area is definitely worth a try and Harazโs website says that the brand and founder Hamzah Nasser are โon a mission to share the rich heritage of Yemeni coffee with the world. By sourcing the finest beans and honoring traditional craftsmanship, we bring the bold, authentic flavors of Yemen to every cup. As we expand across the U.S., weโre committed to creating unforgettable coffee experiences that connect communities and celebrate culture.โ
Since starting off in Detroit in 2021, Haraz has grown to 31 locations in 13 states (with the closest one to us, and the only one in Florida, in Orlando), with 185 more โin the pipeline.โ
Whether you like traditional lattes or cappuccinos or prefer Turkish, Saudi, French Press or cold brew coffee, or even coffee with cardamom, ginger or other spices, Haraz has got you covered.
Thereโs also hot chocolate, green and matcha tea and pistachio and saffron lattes. Haraz also features milk cakes, cheesecake & cinnamon rolls, and sells items like coffeemakers and bulk coffee.
I called the Orlando location but they said the Wesley Chapel shop is owned by another franchisee, so they had no idea when our Haraz is expected to open. Of course, weโll keep you posted, both in these pages and on our Facebook page.
