Planning Commission Votes For A ‘Connected City’ Moratorium! 

Will The County Commission Follow Suit? Commissioner Weightman Says He’s Been Asking For Connected City Details Since Nov. 2023 

 I watched the Jan. 9 Pasco County Planning Commission meeting online and was surprised to find the Planning Commission Board agreeing with residents like Michael Pultorak and David Terino, who came to the meeting to oppose a rezoning request for the Tall Timbers Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), the last 38-acre piece of the so-called “Connected City” (see map). 

My surprise came when Planning Commission Board member Jon Moody, P.E., agreed with the residents’ claim that the Connected City has not lived up to what was expected when the state first approved the Connected City in 2015, as a partnership between Pasco County and Metro Development Group, which is developing both Epperson in Wesley Chapel and Mirada in San Antonio, both of which are located within the boundaries of the Connected City (see map). 

“The residents were promised that the Connected City would not be the same as every other suburban subdivision in the county,” Moody said, noting that it was supposed to have cultural and recreational facilities, which were supposed to be more than just another playground at another apartment complex that, as Pultorak pointed out, would not be used by anyone except the residents of each apartment complex. To that end, the Planning Commission ultimately voted 4-3 for the moratorium at the Jan. 9 meeting. 

Of course, the Planning Commission is only an advisory board that makes recommendations to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BOC), which has the final say over all rezonings and plan amendments for the county. 

District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman says that rather than a moratorium, what he would like to see — which he says he first started asking for back in Nov. 2023 — “is for the county staff to provide us (the BOC) with an overlay of what the Connected City was supposed to be when it was approved, with all of the changes to the plan that have now been approved. I wasn’t on the BOC when this was approved and I think it would be helpful for all of us — my fellow commissioners, residents and staff — to see where that project stands today.” 

Weightman also says that a moratorium should only be considered as “a last resort” and that he is “disappointed” that the county staff still has not provided the commissioners with the overlay he requested, “more than a year ago. I’m a visual person. I need to see the differences between what the project was supposed to look like and what it looks like today.” 

Speaking of visual learning, as we reported back in November, Pultorak has been a regular at Planning Commission and BOC meetings and he always brings a variety of photos, charts and other graphics with him when it’s his turn to speak at those meetings. He also has organized the Pasco Connected City Residents Group on Facebook, which today has more than 1,100 members. 

“This community deserves the parks, open spaces and thoughtful planning they were promised,” Pultorak said on Jan. 9. 

The Connected City moratorium recommendation is expected to be heard as an agenda item at a future BOC meeting, but at our press time, we hadn’t heard of such an agenda item being set. Comm. Weightman told me that he doesn’t believe that a Connected City moratorium agenda item will be set before February or even later. 

How It All Came About 

As mentioned above, the Planning Commission’s Connected City moratorium discussion came out of the agenda item about the Tall Timbers MPUD, which is a 38-acre parcel that sits in the so-called “Community Hub” Special Planning Area (or SPA) Zone, one of five such zones in the Connected City. (Note-The others are the Business Core, the North Innovation Zone, the South Innovation Zone and the Urban Core; see graphic, right). 

As shown in the graphic above, the rezoning request for the Tall Timbers MPUD would allow the parcel, which currently is zoned as “AC Agricultural District” to a “CC-MPUD” (Connected City Master Planned Unit Development District) within the Community Hub Zone. If approved by the BOC, the rezoning would allow for 380 multi-family dwelling units (apartments) and 180,000 sq. ft. of non-residential uses. 

Following the presentation by the county staff and attorney Shelly Johnson representing the developer, Xtreme Team 41, LLC, Moody and chief assistant county attorney David Goldstein both questioned how every MPUD approved for the Connected City bypassed all of the parks and cultural requirements outlined in the Connected City development plan. 

In fact, the Community Hub Zone, of which the Tall Timbers MPUD is part, is supposed to have a “Large District Park,” but Goldstein noted that although the District Park and the funding for it have already been moved to the planned “Superpark” in the Villages of Pasadena Hills, which is located to the east of the Connected City, there is still a requirement for a large district park in the Connected City itself, and he asked Nectarios Pittos, the county’s director of planning services, to look into why that district park requirement was still included in the Connected City documents. 

Meanwhile, Pultorak raised multiple questions about the neighborhood parks, which are required to be in each of the Connected City’s SPA zones. 

“Every Connected City rezoning project so far has turned into another subdivision with a playset for the people that live in it and no amenities,” Pultorak said. “The two fancy swimming pools (meaning the Metro Lagoons in Epperson and Mirada) have turned into pay-to-play operations where the developer is making the money from them. They are not amenities. We (local residents) can’t use them. There is not a single park, not a single recreation area, not a single amenity that’s in the Connected City that’s accessible to the Community Hub.” 

Pultorak also noted, “We have concluded that the county never etched out, in the Connected City, in the Community Hub, a location for the parks and recreation area. A neighborhood swing set at a townhouse community is not ‘parks.’ That is for individuals in those townhouses.” 

The main reason the Community Hub was supposed to have the large district park, Pultorak said, is because it is where King Lake, a 213-acre lake, is located (it’s the large area in blue inside the orange area on the map above). 

“But, what happens when we take slices of grass around retention ponds & call them parks?,” Pultorak asked. “What happens is the CDD has to, for liability reasons, put signs up that say ‘No Fishing’ and ‘No Swimming,’ so you don’t get eaten by alligators. The problem is when the boys try to get out in these neighborhoods and try to go put a line in the water and catch a bass, or do something away from technology, the HOA will go out there and say, ‘This is private property, you can’t fish here.’ You’ve gotta have some space in the community for the kids.” 

Among Pultorak’s biggest concerns about the Tall Timbers rezoning request is, “this site plan itself. The access and egress to this is going to be based on the Aprile and Kenton MPUDs, with Kenton Rd. coming in from the south, and you have a two-lane dirt road from McKendree Rd., so everybody traveling west to the interstate, all of the service vehicles coming in or out to the distribution center or the ‘Eatertainment’ district will be traveling on a two-lane dirt road. And, everybody traveling to the east to come through San Antonio to Dade City will be traveling a two-lane dirt road. This road can not handle it, even though Kenton Rd. will be the access and egress to this project.” 

He also talked about natural resources and conservation, two more cornerstones of the original Connected City development plan. 

“Natural resources serve as a significant asset to a community,” he said. “Wetlands serve as a natural flood control resource and house a diverse ecosystem for animal and plant life. When I left on Monday morning to meet with staff, I drove past this property and there was a bald eagle in a tree. That told me we’re fighting the right fight. This site plan does not have any wetlands listed in it — no wetlands that are protected.” 

Pultorak also mentioned flooding concerns, especially considering that most of the parcel remained flooded a month or more after Hurricane Milton came through in October. 

“The bottom line is that the Community Hub is not designed for apartments. It is not designed for vertical integration (apartments that are situated above ground-floor retail businesses, as in Downtown Avalon Park). The Community Hub is the center point of the entire Connected City. It’s supposed to have parks, recreation and a place where people want to live.” 

Moody said, “What I see is a special planning area (referring to Connected City) that got done on a piece-by-piece basis, rather than as a regional planning exercise, and in the overall scheme of things, I think the mark was missed.” 

Despite that, and all of the evidence Pultorak presented, Moody said, “Even with all that being said, I don’t think you can punish the [current] applicant for the sins of the past…So, I don’t think that denying this project is going to solve the overall, large-scale problems of Connected City. And I don’t know how you fix those.” 

He then moved to approve the Tall Timbers rezoning, which passed 4-3, with Planning Commission members John Girardi, Matthew Muniz and chairman Charles Grey voting “Nay.” 

Moody them moved to recommend to the BOC to impose a moratorium on all development in Connected City for one year, “while we figure out how to implement land development regulations that better achieve the goals of the Connected City.” 

When asked by Goldstein if he was only talking about a moratorium on rezonings, Moody said, “No. I want to change the land development code, so that would be a moratorium on land development, including all site plan approvals, building permits, everything.” That motion passed 6-1, with only Girardi voting nay. 

“I think the public has legitimate concerns regarding this whole issue of cultural facilities, district parks and whether there are trails,” Moody said. “I just know it needs to be fixed.” 

Goldstein said, “I don’t know how to best convey that to the BOC because I’m not sure it’s best to tie it to this particular application. It should be presented as a regular discussion item for the Board.” 

To be continued.

Will Historic Flooding From Milton Impact Pasco’s Future Land Use Decisions? 

Pasco Officials Hear About Flooding Woes & Fears From Local Residents During Nov. 7 Planning Commission Meeting 

By JOEL PROVENZANO & GARY NAGER 

Now that Hurricane Milton has long since passed, is more of this type of major flooding in Pasco County’s future? Wesley Chapel residents are among those who fear the worst if county officials continue to allow additional unfettered major development. (Photo by Joel Provenzano)

In light of the historic flooding that took place this year, following multiple tropical systems that criss-crossed our area — but especially from Hurricane Milton last month — many Pasco County residents have taken to social media and even to governmental meetings to voice their concerns about how they believe the rapid growth of the county has led, whether in-part or in-whole, to these flooding problems. 

Most have voiced generalized concerns, like, “If the county keeps allowing the building of new homes and apartments, where will all the water go?,” while others pointed out that this year’s unprecedented and all-time-record-setting rainfall was bound to cause issues no matter how the land is or is not developed. 

The latter group’s point at least appears to be somewhat backed-up by the fact that large sections of rural counties in central Florida — far away from any recent major development — are STILL underwater, more than a month after Milton passed through. 

But, now that this flooding did occur, is there room for change in Pasco’s approach to new development? These are the questions being asked by local residents. 

Changes to policy and perception can be slow with government. Typically, a few good case examples will help to move the needle toward finding solutions and possible compromises. 

Pasco residents may have gotten their first real good crack at this process recently, with a proposed development called the Tall Timbers MPUD (Master-Planned Unit Development) positioned just south of Mirada, off of rural Tyndall Rd., on the “outskirts” of Wesley Chapel. 

The owner of this pristine 38-acre site (Xtreme Team 41, LLC), which is currently zoned Agricultural, is requesting to rezone the property, located within the “Connected City” MPUD area, to allow for 180,000 sq. ft. of commercial and 380 multi-family units (which the plan shows as townhomes). 

On Nov. 7, the Pasco County Planning Commission held a public hearing for this rezoning case, giving residents an opportunity to speak, and they definitely took advantage. Out of a handful of passionate speakers — both before and after the agenda item was presented — one person really stood out as the main objector, with some well-crafted and researched arguments — Michael Pultorak. 

Pultorak (photo) is a Realtor® who lives just down the street from the proposed development on Kenton Rd., in an area of rural residential lots. His main concern was flooding and he had plenty of visuals to back-up this concerns before Tall Timbers was even discussed. 

“I’m speaking here for all the residents of Pasco County,” he said. “The thousands of flooded-out residents on the east side of the county.” 

Pultorak added, ““The problem is that this area is the most sensitive piece of the Connected City. “Everything that has purple lines on it (graphic right) was flooded,” Pultorak said as he showed the commission a map with marks indicating how the subject property and the property immediately to the south were affected by the recent storms. 

“All of the commercial in this proposed development is supposed to be on the south side of that red line on this (below) photo. The red line is where the road is going to go. The 106,000 square feet of commercial is all in what flooded. This is an issue now like it never has been before because of the media and because of emotions. We don’t want to stop development, we don’t want to stop future neighbors from moving in. But, we need your help before any more developments are allowed to come in, increase density, change comprehensive views, or get elements of the current plans approved to make it cheaper or faster [for them] to build. Please meet us in the middle and protect us, your current residents, thank you,” to which the audience applauded. 

Professional engineer Jon Moody, one of the Planning Commission’s main speakers, said that the county already has stormwater regulations “up to the 100-year flood” in its Land Development code, and that, “Florida has some of the most stringent water regulations of any state in the country.” 

Pultorak responded that the King Lake drainage basin, next to his house and Kenton Rd., was a primary concern because the water has nowhere to go. 

“This is frustrating for us because the argument is always that the county is following state building codes,” Pultorak said. “But state building codes are a minimum. Pasco County is a higher risk flood area because this was all cattle pastures and now we’re putting high-density developments on these pastures. So, when we cover the surface with non-permeable roofs, foundations, driveways and roads and shed water into retention ponds, there’s a capacity limit and developers have refused to exceed that minimum to protect their neighbors from the 100-year storm during the wet season.” 

Moody answered, “We are all very concerned about the flooding that occurred because of back-to-back hurricanes, but what type of plan do you envision or would like to see? I practice stormwater for a living and we follow those regulations. What level is enough protection? The state may look at its regulations and say that maybe looking at a 24-hour event isn’t enough. In my own experience, one day isn’t usually the problem. It’s when you have three or four days of rain in a row. Unfortunately, what we saw with Milton were rainfall amounts that came in an extremely short time. Heavy rain is usually 12 inches in a 24-hour period, but with Milton we had 16-18 inches of rainfall in some areas in a 4-6-hour period. That’s an unprecedented event that no one could have contemplated. But, what level of protection is it that you think we need?” 

Pultorak thanked Moody for being reasonable and constructive, “In contrast to some of your predecessors who have asked me where I got my civil engineering degree. I don’t have one, but I do have three Master’s and a Ph.D. in common sense at this point. Common sense tells me that when the environment is changing, that however we’ve been looking at things, we should consider sliding that scale and make improvements if we have proof that what we are having developments abide by is now threatening our current county. My neighbors here were flooded with two days of rain before the hurricane hit. So, maybe we need to reevaluate the standards we hold new developments to. Because currently, with what we’re using, they’re flooding out their neighbors. So, can we maybe tap the brakes on some development and figure out how to protect our current residents.” 

Moody responded, “I don’t think there are easy answers. Are there things we can do to reduce stormwater runoff? Sure. Maybe we can require less impervious surface and more green space.” 

Pultorak also said that there have been so many individual approvals on portions of the Connected City that the county and developers may have lost sight of that project as a whole. 

“I think it’s long past time to have a public workshop on the Connected City,” he said, “because, when that project was originally brought to Pasco, it was supposed to be a community that would make Lake Jovita jealous. But, I’m watching and I’m seeing a heck of a lot of warehouses and light industrial in these zoning amendments and warehouses don’t look to me like the South Tampa ‘vibe’ we were promised. When the Connected City turns into 2 million sq. ft. of distribution space, it doesn’t bring to mind the South Tampa vibe that was going to make Lake Jovita jealous.” 

Power-Pointing 

Pultorak had a chance to come back later in the meeting and present his specific observations about the proposed Tall Timbers development. 

He displayed aerial images of the subject development property which he said were taken the morning of the meeting, that clearly showed the 38-acre parcel still holding significant amounts of water (that wasn’t clearly visible from the road). 

Pultorak also showed topographic (topo) maps indicating on the property where the multiple existing (historic) lakes and wetlands were located and noting how the development showed a commercial building over one of the existing ponds (which he says have expanded since the storms) and potential parking over other wetland areas, an issue that he said is likely to affect the natural flood plain that serves the surrounding properties, including his. 

He noted that the site plan also proposed two very large retention ponds (totaling 9.5 acres) in areas where two existing ponds were, and two parks (green space) totaling 1.7 acres, in addition to the townhomes and commercial. 

Pultorak stated that perhaps the best use for the entire property would be for it to be used as green space for the Connected City. The Planning Commission members echoed his concerns about the wetland impacts (as well as the need for a comprehensive Connected City public hearing) and asked county staff if a building was not placed over the wetland (to avoid impacts) would it still meet the conditions of the binding site plan? 

In light of the drainage concerns and outstanding questions, a proposal was put forth to continue the meeting to Thursday, December 12, and before adjourning, the commission asked for an engineer (representing the development) to come to the next meeting to explain how the potential impacts to the flood plain could be addressed. The continuance passed unanimously. 

Pasco Restores Public Access To Accela System Shortly After Shutting It Off 

It sort of felt like something out of a Hollywood movie: A fresh, new face arrives on the scene and quickly captures the imagination of the public, only to have the government pull the rug out from under them and their many “fans.” 

But, this was no movie and, thankfully, the rug in this case has seemingly been neatly replaced and the young “starlet” and her supporting cast are back to doing what they do best — keeping people informed about new development projects throughout Pasco County. 

Wait, what? 

Yes, it’s true. The fresh face in this case is Kelly Gilroy of the super-popular Pasco County Development & Growth Updates (PCGDU) Facebook page (which I discussed in last issue’s page 3 editorial, too) — who admits she feared just this type of retribution from either the county government, developers or both — and the “villains” at least appear to be one unnamed member of the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BOC) and Pasco County Planning Commission member and civil engineer Jon Moody, who at the Planning Commission’s meeting on Sept. 6 said, “You shouldn’t believe everything you read on Facebook. Ms. Gilroy spreads false information.” 

Moody was referring to a post Kelly had made on Sept. 3, where she said that a land owner whose property is located inside the Northeast Pasco Rural Protection Overlay District was seeking to rezone their property from agricultural to high-density apartments and 1.5 million sq. ft. of warehouse and commercial space and was attempting to remove said property from the Protection District. Moody said that Kelly’s assertion was false. Whether it was true or not, that’s a discussion for another day, but it appears to be what set off a chain reaction of craziness. Or was it? 

Less than a week later, on Sept. 12, Kelly sent me a Facebook message (that she also posted on the PCGDU Facebook page) that said, “Pasco County has taken the extraordinary step of blocking public access on their Accela Citizens Portal (to) all pre-application developer site plans future and past because of the info I post in my group. Despite being public records, they literally paid their software vendor (Accela) to remove the search function from the public-facing website, apparently at the request of a county commissioner. Now, to get the same info, they (Pasco) require an “Open Records” request (to the county’s staff), which they delay responding to and charge fees to retrieve.” 

Were the two events — Moody’s “call out” of Kelly and the removal from the public access of all pre-app development information — related? And, which of the five county commissioners made the request? Is it a violation of state law to allow electronic access to public records and then take it away, while still allowing governmental officials and developers to continue to have access to that info? 

Consider this: Chapter 119.01 of the Florida Statutes (the General State Policy on Public Records), Subsections (e) and (f) clearly state that: 

“(e) Providing access to public records by remote electronic means is an additional method of access that agencies should strive to provide to the extent feasible. If an agency provides access to public records by remote electronic means, such access should be provided in the most cost-effective and efficient manner available to the agency providing the information. 

“(f) Each agency that maintains a public record in an electronic recordkeeping system shall provide to any person, pursuant to this chapter, a copy of any public record in that system which is not exempted by law from public disclosure.” 

And, after I had given Kelly those mad props for helping us lock onto the updates on her page that affect Wesley Chapel, and the fact that our editorial researcher and correspondent Joel Provenzano admits that the county’s Accela site was where he was getting so much of the background info for his stories, I vowed to help Kelly get to the bottom of this unfortunate situation. 

So, while she talked about possible lawsuits and injunctions to restore the access, I started calling county commissioners to find out if they knew which commissioner initiated the removal of the public’s access to Accela, and why this seemingly drastic step had been taken by the county. More than one of the commissioners I spoke with said that no only did they not know about which of them initiated it, they weren’t happy that they weren’t consulted or asked to vote on such a proposal before the public access was taken away. 

To continue my earlier analogy, before I got very far into my investigation into the “whodunit,” in stepped Dist. 5 Comm. Jack Mariano, who publicly stated that the public’s access to Accela needed to be reinstated “as quickly as possible” and his legislative assistant Sonya Walling put that demand in writing: 

“Comm. Mariano has requested staff to reopen the access to Pre-Application items on the Accela portal as soon as possible. Please reach out again if the PREAPPS are not available by Monday (Sept. 23).” 

Around the same day that email was made available, an unnamed admin on the PCDGU page said, “We sincerely thank everyone who contacted their commissioners about this. Hopefully, we can all move forward. We also learned that the county may repeal or waive the requirement for developers to submit a pre-application proposal altogether at some point in the future in an effort to streamline the application process [since, according to one commissioner, not all Florida counties require it and the process takes up a lot of staff time] and instead only accept site proposals the developers intend on actually moving through the permitting/zoning process. 

“Regardless, this group’s primary purpose will remain the sharing of raw information about proposed development, zoning and growth in Pasco. 

“If this is true and access is restored, we have no animus towards the county and will move on and try to keep the group non-partisan and non-political. Thank you.” 

Fade to black 

“And cut and print it!”