Hillsborough Seeking New Hearing In Pebble Creek Rezoning Case 

 Judge ‘Quashes’ County Commission’s Decision To Prevent Rezoning Of The Golf Course. So, What’s Next? 

Long-time Pebble Creek resident Leslie Green, who started the “Save Pebble Creek” organization, says her only motivation is to preserve the natural beauty of her community. Green is waiting to see what happens next in the attempt to rezone the Pebble Creek golf course.

 Long-time Pebble Creek resident Leslie Green is still in limbo, but it’s nothing new for the founder of “Save Pebble Creek,” the organization she started two years ago in an effort to prevent Pebble Creek Golf Club owner Bill Place and his Ace Golf from rezoning the golf course land to allow for further residential development. 

Development company GL Homes had attempted to rezone the 149-acre golf course property in order to build 250 single-family homes. At that time, Green and her Save Pebble Creek group began holding community meetings and distributing petitions asking the community to oppose Place’s plan to sell the golf course to GL Homes. And, although there were some members of the community who supported the idea of redeveloping the shuttered golf course, the campaign resulted in a flurry of emails to Hillsborough County Commission Chair and District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan. 

Place then sued Green for defaming his character and for interfering with his attempts to find a developer. She filed a countersuit in May 2022, but then sought to have Place’s suit dismissed under Florida’s Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute. A little more than two years later, that case still has not been decided. 

In July of 2023, GL Homes’ attempt to rezone the golf course property was denied 5-2 by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), after Hagan said he had received 1,800 letters from residents of the community, the vast majority of which were in opposition to the rezoning. 

Green, whose home has faced the golf course for more than 30 years, applauded Hagan’s efforts to preserve the beauty of her community. Hagan said at the time that Place only had a couple of options going forward: 

“He can come up with another developer with a different plan that might be more acceptable to the residents,” Comm. Hagan said after the July 17 meeting. “We’ve also discussed the possibility of the county purchasing the golf club to convert it to a county-owned course, but he (Place) would have to come down in price a lot for us to be interested.” 

Green also suggested that Place might’ve been waiting for this year’s elections, when three of the seven Commission seats are up for grabs, in the hopes that perhaps the new commissioners might look more favorably upon the rezoning proposal. 

But, GL Homes found another option. In October of last year, the home builder appealed the county commission’s denial of the rezoning request to Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Paul Huey. 

At the June 10 Town Hall meeting hosted by County Commissioner Ken Hagan, Leslie Green thanked Hagan for his efforts to prevent the rezoning of the Pebble Creek golf course.

Eight months later, on June 24, Judge Huey “quashed” the decision by the BOCC to deny the rezoning, which means, in legal terms, “to set aside or void.” (Note-For a lot more information about why the BOCC’s decision was quashed, see page 4.) It also meant that now, the county had its own decision to make: Either ask Judge Huey for a rehearing, appeal the judge’s verdict to a higher court, or allow GL Homes to proceed with its development plan. 

On July 5, the county filed a petition to the Circuit Court for a rehearing. 

Judge Huey’s ruling on the developer’s appeal was that, “The court cannot find that the Board of County Commissioners relied on competent, substantial evidence when it denied GL Homes’ proposal.” 

The judge also felt that the BOCC’s decision was more of a personal attack on Place, even though neither he nor his Ace Golf submitted the rezoning proposal. Although the Board’s original decision was based on the rezoning “not being infill and not compatible with the Comprehensive Plan,” the judge saw that GL Homes’ rezoning request was recommended for BOCC approval by the county’s Planning Commission and the zoning hearing master (ZHM), both of which said the proposed development was consistent with the comprehensive plan. 

The judge also noted that Hagan said he was basing his decision to deny the rezoning, in part, on the Pebble Creek resident emails that accused Place of “spiteful tactics, intimidation, vindictiveness, innuendo, and fearmongering.” 

But, in its petition for rehearing, the county claims that Judge Huey, “overlooked record evidence or misapprehended several points of law or fact in a manner that the County believes fundamentally affected the Court’s Order Granting Petition for Writ of Certiorari (“Order”). The County requests rehearing and requests that this Court rescind its Order Granting Petition for Writ of Certiorari and issue an Order Denying Petition for Writ of Certiorari.” 

In other words, the county said that Judge Huey did not consider all of the factual evidence upon which the county based its decision, claiming, “The Application for rezoning as proposed would result in a complete change to the character of the existing community, by eliminating the central feature of a neighborhood which has existed for decades. Further, this decision has the potential to impact redevelopment of other similar communities within the State of Florida.” 

The county’s arguments for requesting the rehearing included the following: 

1. There was Competent Substantial Evidence for the BOCC to Deny Petitioner’s Application. As the Court notes in its Order, the Florida Supreme Court has set forth a framework that requires rezoning applicants to prove that their proposal is consistent with the comprehensive plan and complies with all procedural requirements of the zoning ordinance. If a rezoning applicant provides competent, substantial evidence that its application is consistent with the comprehensive plan, the Board may still deny the application to accomplish “a legitimate public purpose,” at which point the Board has “the burden of showing that the refusal to rezone the property is not arbitrary, discriminatory, or unreasonable.” 

2. The county’s petition also says, “Ultimately, the Court concluded that there was no competent substantial evidence that the Application did not comply with the Comprehensive Plan, nor was there competent substantial evidence to support the County’s legitimate public purpose for denying the Application. However, in reaching the above conclusions, the Court overlooked competent substantial record evidence on which the Board could have relied, or misapprehended several points of law or fact.” 

“Under this Court’s limited scope of review, it must be determined whether the record contains any competent substantial evidence to support the Board’s denial. In evaluating the evidence presented, it does not matter whether there is also evidence to support a conclusion different from that reached by the Board for ‘the point is that when the facts are such as to give the County Commission a choice between alternatives, it is up to the County Commission to make that choice — not the circuit court.’” 

As for the evidence that the BOCC made the correct decision, here is a summary of what the petition for rehearing says: 

1. [The Application] is inconsistent with he Comprehensive Plan. 

2. The open space character of the subject property is an integral part of the neighborhood. 

3. The removal of the open space around which the surrounding existing neighborhood was developed and constructed would not protect nor maintain the neighborhood’s character 

4. The golf course was opened in 1967, five years before the Pebble Creek Planned Development was rezoned. The golf course was included as a central part of the zoning, and integral to the neighborhood design. 

5. The golf course also was an integral part of the neighborhood’s character. The golf course is identified on the plan as the center of the planned development, around which the other uses in the neighborhood were designed and planned. 

6. Because the golf course came first, it is a central component — or cornerstone — of that planned development. To completely replace this use, which currently makes up 25 percent of the acreage of the planned development, with additional residential housing, is a significant change to the character of this golf course community. 

7. There is testimony in the record taken by the ZHM that supplements the other record evidence that the existing 150-acre golf course is the centerpiece of the neighborhood, and that to completely eliminate its use and to replace it with a residential development would be to lose an integral part of the neighborhood itself. 

8. Pebble Creek was “uniquely designed” to incorporate the golf course, and by removing it “you are removing the very thing that built the community.” The golf course was a “primary reason” or “major factor” for some of the homeowners to live in the community. 

9. In the Court’s Order, the Court notes that “[t]he Board argues logically that because the neighborhood was designed and built around the golf course, the land acts as a fundamental ‘centerpiece,’” which appears to imply that that the Board’s determination about the neighborhood having been designed and built around the golf course was based merely on logic and inference, rather than substantial competent evidence in the record. However, the County used future land use maps, zoning maps, the prior approved plan, and lay witness fact-based testimony to support its determination. 

10. The Board also cited evidence that supports that the retention of the existing zoning accomplishes “a legitimate public purpose.” As argued at the Hearing, the legitimate public purpose is to protect the character of the neighborhood, which is not only a recognized public purpose under current case law, but also a mandate of the County’s Comprehensive Plan. 

11. Judge Huey also ruled that the Board’s decision was based, in part, on the belief that the president of Ace Golf “lacks good sense and common decency.” However, the basis for the Board’s denial must be found in its adopted resolution, and not in singular comments made by a particular commissioner regarding an application or voting on an application. 

The Board’s petition concluded that, “The record contained competent, substantial evidence that the Application was inconsistent with the County’s Comprehensive Plan, and that there was a legitimate public purpose to maintain the existing zoning, and therefore support a denial of the Application. Moreover, the Court misstated the Board’s reasons for denial of the Application by relying on a commissioners’ comments rather than the Board-adopted resolution.” 

Comm. Hagan says that once Judge Huey rules on the Petition for Rehearing, the county has 30 days to accept his decision or appeal the judge’s ruling to an appellate court. 

Meanwhile, Green says, “We still feel that the BOCC made the right decision and the rehearing will give them the opportunity to give the judge more clarity to see that they did in fact use proper evidence in making their decision.” 

The bottom line, she adds, is that, “This is my home. Rezoning the golf course will change completely the character and beauty of our neighborhood forever.” 

She’s holding out hope that the county’s Tampa Sports Authority will be able to purchase the golf course and reopen it, as Comm. Hagan mentioned could happen at his June 10 New Tampa Town Hall meeting (as we reported last issue). 

In the meantime, all Leslie Green can do is continue to wait. 

Looking Back At The Top-5 New Tampa News Stories Of 2023! 

The cast of the New Tampa Players’ “Preview” performance at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on March 25. 

Although there’s no doubt that there were (and still are) more major news stories coming out of Wesley Chapel in 2023 than there were in New Tampa, zip code 33647 certainly had any number of big news stories of its own the past 12 months. Below are the five that made the biggest splashes. 

1. The New Tampa Performing Arts Center Opens!
“Grease” officially opened NTP’s 2023-24 season in July of 2023. (Below) The group known as “Save Pebble Creek” helped get a redevelopment plan for the community’s shuttered golf course rejected by Hillsborough County. 

It took more than 20 years for it to become a reality, but the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) did finally open in March of 2023, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a New Tampa Players (NTP) “Preview”show. The NTPAC was dedicated to the memory and in honor of NTP founder Doug Wall, who passed away nearly six years before his dream of a local place for his theatre troupe to perform came true. 

I was in the cast of the first show of NTP’s 2023-24 season — “Grease,” which was true to the original Tony Award-winning Broadway version, but also incorporated songs from the hit 1978 movie starring John Travolta and the late Olivia Newton-John. The Performing Arts Center’s first-ever Fall Festival was held in September and was followed by “Shrek The Musical” in October. NTP will next host performances of “Dreamgirls” (see ad on pg. 5) in February. 

2. Pebble Creek Redevelopment Plan Rejected!

As 2023 came to a close, we still had no idea what will happen to the former Pebble Creek Golf Club golf course, which has been shuttered since July of 2021. 

The plan submitted by GL Homes to redevelop the 149-acre golf course property into 251 single-family homes was rejected on July 17 by the Hillsborough County Commission by a vote of 5-2, as Commission Chair and District 2 (which includes all of Pebble Creek)

Commissioner Ken Hagan told his fellow commissioners that the feedback he had received from the residents of Pebble Creek was overwhelmingly against the GL Homes plan, leaving property owner Bill Place with few options moving forward for his property. 

With three County Commission seats — including Hagan’s District 2 — up for grabs in a presidential election year, it’s possible that Place is waiting to see how the election changes the Board’s makeup before trying again to redevelop his land. 

3. Lotte Plaza Market Opens!
Lotte Plaza Market’s Grand Opening in November was attended by hundreds of New Tampa residents and continues to attract large numbers of people for everything from its Korean beauty products (below) to its Sijang Eatery food court. 

While the opening of the new Aldi supermarket in the former Ruby Tuesday location in New Tampa did receive some fanfare a few years ago, it was nothing compared with the expectations and reaction to the opening — finally! — of the new Lotte Plaza Market Korean/Asian grocery store in the former Sweetbay/Kash N Karry location next to Home Depot. 

The long-vacant 49,000-sq.-ft. store became the 15th link in the Lotte Plaza chain (the only other Florida location is in Orlando) of Korean/Asian superstores on Nov. 3 and immediately attracted large crowds of people (photos on next page) of all backgrounds and nationalities to its huge selections of produce, fresh fish, meat and groceries, as well as its unique Korean beauty products and its Sijang Eatery food court, which features a half-dozen eateries never before seen in our area. 

Although the crowds have died down somewhat since that opening month, there’s no doubt that Lotte Plaza Market’s opening is still one of the biggest 2023 news stories for New Tampa. If you still haven’t visited it yet, what are you waiting for? It literally has something for everyone! 

4. Live Oak Property Sale To Help Build Pride Park
The developer of Anand Vihar in Pasco County purchased an adjacent parcel of land in Live Oak from Hillsborough County that will help the county pay for its planned rec center at Pride Park. 

Hillsborough County has had a plan in place to build an indoor rec center and expand the outdoor facilities at Pride Park (just south of Pride Elementary) for some time. The county also has owned an unused 61.89- acre parcel of land intended to be a county park, but didn’t have enough money to construct facilities at either location. 

That is, until Anand Vihar (in Meadow Pointe) developer Santosh Govindaraju decided to purchase (for $6 million) the unused park site in Live Oak, which means the county will be able to begin construction on the Pride Park rec center early this year. 

5. Early Storm Causes Damage In New Tampa

he unnamed first major storm of 2023 hit New Tampa hard on June 4. Fortunately, no other major storms blew through our area (or Florida) for the remainder of the 2023 hurricane season.

Thankfully, 2023 was a relatively quiet hurricane season throughout Florida, especially coming on the heels of 2022, which saw two major hurricanes decimate portions of the Sunshine State. 

And, although Florida and New Tampa were virtually unscathed by any of the 20 named storms (including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes) that hit the Atlantic in 2023, our area received an early dose of hurricane-like Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera had to call for assistance to remove uprooted and downed trees in several New Tampa neighborhoods. 

Nibbles & Bites: Bang-Bang! Bowls Is Open In Pebble Creek! 

Even though I grew up in New York, I had no idea what to expect from the new Bang-Bang! Bowls (located in the space previously occupied by Coffee Speaks & Tea Talks in the Pebble Creek Collection), which bills itself as “NY-style Indian rice bowls.” 

Well, following our first visit, Jannah and I really like Bang-Bang! Bowls, which has only one other location — in Nebraska. I ordered the “make-it-yourself” bowl (above photo), which I got with long-grain yellow rice, jerk chicken (with a semi-spicy jerk sauce) and fresh veggies. Jannah loved the spicy chicken taco (left photo), especially the mild white sauce and the clearly house-baked soft taco shells. 

Bang-Bang! Bowls (19651 BBD Blvd.) is open every day, 4 p.m.-midnight, except Monday (when it is closed). For more information, visit Bang-Bang-Bowls.com or call (813) 406-4366. — GN 

What’s Next For Pebble Creek?

Although I never considered Pebble Creek to be its own suburb — to me, New Tampa is a Tampa suburb; Pebble Creek is a subdivision within that suburb (more on this below) — semantics aside, this community of 1,300 or so single- and multifamily residential units has been in the news quite a bit lately.

First, owner Bill Place and his Ace Golf’s attempt to rezone the shuttered Pebble Creek golf course into 251 homes was voted down 5-2 by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on July 17.

Some were surprised that Commission Chair and District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has long been considered to be pro-development, was the commissioner who proposed turning down the rezoning. 

Hagan said that although there was some duplication of resident feedback received, he and the six other commissioners received more than 1,300 emails and letters about the proposed rezoning, “and more than 80% of those were telling us to not allow it. Candidly, I do not recall another rezoning request that generated so much feedback. We’ve got like three binders full of resident emails and correspondence.”

Even though some of the residents who filled the commission chamber on July 17 and another 60+ in an overflow room supported the rezoning — because proposed developer GL Homes would clean up what can only be called the blighted former golf course and help increase the value of the existing homes — and also spoke at the July 17 meeting, Hagan said it was clear that the vast majority of Pebble Creek residents did not support the rezoning plan.

And, while the Save Pebble Creek group, organized and led by long-time Pebble Creek resident Leslie Green, cheered the commissioners’ rejection of the proposed rezoning, Hagan said that Place only has a few options going forward. 

“He can come up with another developer with a different plan that might be more acceptable to the residents,” Comm. Hagan said after the July 17 meeting. “We’ve also discussed the possibility of the county purchasing the golf club to convert it to a county-owned course, but he (Place) would have to come down in price a lot for us to be interested.”

Meanwhile, Green, who is still the defendant in a suit brought by Place and Ace Golf (that hasn’t yet seen a judge’s decision rendered) that she defamed the golf course owner, said that what happens next isn’t her primary concern. “Let’s see what he comes back with,” Green said. “Maybe he’s waiting for new commissioners to be elected (in 2024) who might vote differently.”

Two weeks after the BOCC vote, Niche.com named Pebble Creek as the second “Best Suburb to Live In” the Tampa area, 3rd “Best for Families” and #9 “Best to Buy a House,” according to Niche.com’s analysis of reviews and a number of statistics.

Zio’s NY Bagels Now Open In Pebble Creek Collection!

The last time New Tampa had its own bagel place, it was called The Ultimate Bagel, which closed its location in Tampa Palms about 20 years ago. 

In other words, the people in the community just south of Wesley Chapel have been waiting quite a while for a true New York-stye bagel place to open in zip code 33647.

Well, the wait it over, as Jeff Cofini (left in photo) and his nephew Nick Cignarella have opened Zio’s New York Bagel & Deli in the Pebble Creek Collection (at 19651 BBD Blvd.) and yes, the bagels are legit! 

My fried egg, bacon and cheese (photo left) on a sesame bagel was outstanding and Zio’s has not only your favorite bagel varieties, but also everything cheddar, cheddar bacon (with real strips of bacon baked in) and more.

Breakfast, including freshly-made omelets, is available all day, but don’t forget the Boar’s Head meat-and-cheese sandwiches, like The Melvin (below, left) with pastrami,, corned beef, melted Swiss & cole slaw.

For info, call (813) 388-9498 or visit “Zio’s New York Bagel & Deli” on Facebook. — GN, photos by Charmaine George & GN