You get a lagoon…and you get a lagoon…and you get a lagoon!
While a good many Wesley Chapel and New Tampa-area residents have been eagerly awaiting the prospects of a state-of-the-art Crystal Lagoon being built in our area, a second lagoon also is in the works as Metro Development Group moves to raise the bar on amenities for new housing developments.
Though it was first reported back in 2014, Metro finally is digging the hole on the former Epperson Ranch that will become the much-anticipated, first Crystal Lagoon in the state of Florida. Next year, construction on a second lagoon, located at Mirada on the old Cannon Ranch, will begin as well.
Construction of the 7.5-acre lagoon at Epperson Ranch, located north of the Bridgewater community on Curley Rd. north of S.R. 54., is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
Crystal Lagoons was founded in 2007 by Chilean biochemist-turned real estate developer Fernando Fischmann, who created a system based on pulses and ultra sonic filtration that can take virtually any kind of water and purify and maintain it at a low cost. Crystal Lagoons is the only company in the world with the technology, which is patented in 160 countries, and claims it currently has more than 300 projects in development in 60 countries.
According to Crystal Lagoons, its system is more efficient than a swimming pool, will use 100 times less chemicals and is 50 times more energy efficient, while consuming only 2% of the energy needed by conventional filtration systems.
The lagoon uses 30 times less water than a typical 18-hole golf course, and its clear, blue water will be surrounded by a white, sandy beach.
The Crystal Lagoon at Epperson Ranch will be 4,200 linear feet in circumference (which is almost 1 mile around), according to Metro Development Group president Greg Singleton.
The average depth will be eight feet, with some spots as deep as 10-12 feet. The water is so clear, Singleton adds, it doesn’t refract as much light, so the deeper spots will give it more of a deep blue color.
The lagoon will hold about 14-15 million gallons of water.
Where Metro Development Group is going to get that water created some consternation locally, when it was expected they would pump it in from the local aquifer. Local residents worried that tapping into the aquifer would create sinkholes.
Instead, Metro plans on purchasing water from Pasco County Utilities to fill the lagoon, although the developer does still reserve the right to find another source.
Another cause for the delay in construction was the uniqueness of the project, which created permitting issues for Pasco County and made finding the right people to build it painstaking.
“Being that this is the first Crystal Lagoon in the U.S., it is a unique construction project and we wanted to make sure we found the right partners and contractors for the job, which took more time than we expected,’’ Singleton says. “Also, being the first lagoon in the U.S. to be designed and permitted, we were methodical in our approach to get it right. We also needed to give our approving agencies time to work through their process, as this was also new for them.”
Epperson Ranch, which is part of Metro’s “Connected City” project currently weaving it’s way towards approval from the Pasco Board of County Commissioners, is already preparing to begin selling homes with the flashy amenity as a big draw. The first lot closing was expected to happen by the end of 2016, and model homes will start to be framed by the end of January.
The other Crystal Lagoon in Wesley Chapel also will be in the Connected City, Singleton says, in the Mirada community, which is just south of S.R. 52, a little further up Curley Rd.
“The two Lagoons in Connected City have been planned for at least two years and provide another compelling reason for people to live, work, and play in Connected City,’’ Singleton says.
Development of the Mirada community is expected to begin in the spring of 2017, and Metro is looking to break ground on that second Crystal Lagoon by the end of 2017.
Metro, which also developed the Union Park community in Wesley Chapel, plans to build four Crystal Lagoons in Florida.
Along with the two in Wesley Chapel, the developer intends to break ground on a lagoon in the SouthShore Bay community in South Hillsborough in spring of 2017, and will build another in a Fort Myers community called Brightwater.
For more information about the Crystal Lagoons, visit Crystal-Lagoons.com. To see what else Metro Development Group has going on, check out MetroPlaces.com.
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