Pasco Breaks Ground On Wesley Chapel Library at Seven Oaks

(Photos by Charmaine George)

“The mission of a library is one of connection,” said Pasco County Library System director Sean McGarvey at the groundbreaking event for the Wesley Chapel Library at Seven Oaks — to about 50 people in the audience — on Apr. 12. “We connect people to what is important…in four fundamental ways. We connect people to knowledge, to the culture of the community, to economic opportunity and, most importantly, we connect people to each other.”

McGarvey served as the Master of Ceremonies for the groundbreaking event to showcase the architectural renderings for the new library, which will begin construction within the next month or so on a vacant lot adjacent to Seven Oaks Elementary. The 14,000-sq.-ft., $11 million library, designed by Fleischman Garcia Architects, is being built by Bandes Construction and will have a number of unique features that will make it a “hub of the world,” according to McGarvey, who also introduced the groundbreaking event’s other speakers.

Pasco County Library System director Sean McGarvey

The first was Pasco County Board of Commissioners (BOC) chair Ron Oakley, whose District 1 includes part of Wesley Chapel.

Oakley said that when he first became a county commissioner eight years ago, he was told, “We need to save money in the county, so we need to cut out libraries. They’re not needed…everybody’s got a computer. But, I said, ‘I personally think everybody doesn’t have a computer and all of our citizens love libraries. It’s just amazing what is provided by our library system. The use of this library here in this community is going to be amazing.”

Before then introducing Commissioner Seth Weightman, whose District 2 includes all of Seven Oaks, McGarvey said, “I can not wait to see what the stories of the connections that this building will build for everybody else who will use it…from the kids at the school next door, to the citizens of Pasco County to the members of this community, to the business community at large. I can not wait to see what this building will create for the community.”

District 1 Commissioner Ron Oakley

Weightman then thanked retired Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore (Weightman’s Dist. 2 predecessor), “for allowing me to be here today and celebrating the work that you did over the course of your time to (make this library happen). What a fantastic community ‘add’ here to Seven Oaks. And, to the citizens of Seven Oaks, because of your community and your drive and your watchful eye, we’re proud to bring this to all the folks here in Wesley Chapel.

Weightman then introduced former Comm. Moore, “because this was his baby.”

Moore said, “This (library) was a long time in the making. Part of the Seven Oaks development agreement back then (in 2004) was this site, which was always supposed to be a library. The county commission was very, very supportive of this project when I was on the Board and what I’m most grateful for is that once I left, the next Board came

in and continued with the project. Sometimes, what we see in government, is that when people leave, sometimes projects don’t move forward and they stall, but they (the new BOC) saw the benefit of having this library.”

The former commissioner added, “This library is going to be a meeting place, a place where adults and kids alike will learn, a place where you’ll have gatherings…there will be social events, civic events…and classes for seniors, adults and children.”

Moore also thanked the team from Bandes Construction, “that is actually going to build this facility. Hopefully, it won’t take a year and a half, since materials are easier to get now….but thank you so much for all the support. And, we really are excited as a community that this is going to service not just Seven Oaks, but all of Wesley Chapel and Pasco County.”

Moore also thanked his former aide Andy Taylor, for his part in making the library happen.

District 2 Commissioner Seth Weightman

McGarvey then called up all of the speakers, plus county administrator Mike Carballa, Taylor, the representatives on hand from not only Bandes Construction, but also from U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee and State Sen. Danny Burgess’ offices, as well as other Pasco Library System employees for the ceremonial tossing of the dirt.

After the ceremony, McGarvey told the Neighborhood News that actual construction of the Wesley Chapel Library at Seven Oaks would begin later this month and that the expected completion date for it was the end of 2025.

Paula Wahl, the business compliance & contracts manager for the Pasco Library System, said that among the new library’s unique features will be a separate construction project of a trail that will be artistically designed to look like you’re walking through the pages of a book. There also will be, “an outdoor ‘reading porch’ overlooking the walkway. We also will have a flexible space that will be able to host ‘maker activities.’ Where many of our other libraries have very specific makerspaces — woodshop, video production studio, cooking programs and so on — this library actually will have a special parking space for our mobile makerspace, similar to the van we have here today, specially outfitted to bring activities from each of those out into the community. All of those other library makerspaces have mobile activities that we can bring out into the community here.”

For more information, visit PascoLibraries.org.

Mobile Library
Former District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore

Chamber Luncheon Reveals Wiregrass Ranch Plans & Calls Out Pasco For Non-Compliance Of Its Agreement Regarding The Sports Campus

“Pasco County is in default of our agreement regarding the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus,” said Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter at the North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC)’s new office in the Signature Workspace at the Shops at Wiregrass on Mar. 12. ““They are out of time; they are well past the deadline we gave them to get into compliance.”

Although Porter and his development manager Scott Sheridan talked about all aspects of what is already in place and what is still to come to the Porter family’s 5,100-acre cattle ranch (which stretches from S.R. 54 to south of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel) at the Chamber luncheon, the blockbuster news coming out of that meeting, attended by about 70 people, was Porter’s promise to “take back the (160-acre Sports Campus) property and sue the county for its non-compliance of the terms of our agreement,” referring to the “Flycatcher” agreement between Wiregrass Ranch and Pasco County, which was created when the land was donated to the county to build the Sports Campus. “The county was never supposed to manage that property,” despite the fact that Pasco voted to self-manage the Sports Campus beginning on June 1, 2023, after also voting unanimously to find RADDSports — the previous management company of the Sports Campus — in default of its agreement in Oct. 2022. The Board of County Commissioners (BOC) also voted unanimously to spend $6 million of taxpayer funds to buy out RADDSports from that agreement as of June 1 – without ever proving that RADD was in default of its managerial contract.

One of the problems, according to Porter, was that Pasco was already supposed to provide five additional outdoor fields, a trail system, concession stands and additional parking on the property (in addition to the two outdoor soccer fields and 98,000-sq.-ft. arena originally constructed when Phase 1 of the Sports Campus opened in 2020). Not only were those additional fields never built, the county never even put them out to bid until late 2023, when Pasco said it would cost $15.2 million to build them. “But,” Porter asked, “how much less would it have cost if the fields had gone to bid five years earlier, before Covid, as the county had promised?” 

Sheridan also noted that, “We want to make sure that this continues to be an asset to the community…a tourist-development-focused asset — that is its first and primary mission. That is what our agreement with the county says it should be, and not necessarily a county park. The purpose is for it to be a tourist development asset to get people dining in our restaurants, shopping at our retail (stores) and staying in our hotel rooms…adding tax base to our local economy.”

“Scott has a much more upbeat outlook on that asset than I do,” Porter said. “They should already have that (Phase 2) done and they are failing in their agreement with us. The county is four or five years behind on delivering the fields and it’s required that they use an outside operator to manage that asset. We have put them on notice that they have crossed the line on this one and they’ve crossed it badly. Government has no business trying to bring in and run stuff like that. Hopefully, they get it back to where it needs to be because if not, we’re going to solve this ourselves and how doesn’t matter to me.  They made a promise and we’re not going to play games, which is what they’ve been doing. So, we can do it nicely or, if they want, we can go to war.”

When asked about the lack of enough parking at the Sports Campus by Becky Hayes, the general manager of the Residence Inn hotel adjacent to the Sports Campus, Porter said, “I’m not a math genius, but I know that they could have built a helluva lot of parking spots for the money they used to buy out a group (RADD) that they signed an agreement with. They spent more than $5 million on that, instead of using the money to fix a problem.” 

Following the Mar. 12 luncheon, District 2 (which includes the Sports Campus and much of Wesley Chapel) Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman spoke with the Neighborhood News and said that Porter was “absolutely correct in his assessment of the situation with the Sports Campus and he has every right to take back the property because Pasco is not in compliance with that Flycatcher agreement.”

Commissioner Weightman also told the Neighborhood News that he would provide numbers to compare how the county’s Parks & Recreation Dept. has done managing the facility since taking over from RADD, but Porter said that the BOC should never have voted to take over the management of the Sports Campus — regardless of its reasons — and is only now getting ready to send out a Request for Quotes/Proposals from new operators to take over its management.

“So, write the county commissioners because it’s not necessarily them, it’s the staff in that (County Commission) office that keeps making excuses every damn day,” Porter said. “Let’s make it uncomfortable for them until they do something.”

“Downtown Wesley Chapel — Legacy Wiregrass Ranch”

Porter and Sheridan also gave updates on the previously announced (and getting ready to go vertical) 300-bed Orlando Health hospital, the 50-bed PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital (north of the Amberlin Apartments), the other planned medical buildings across Bruce B. Downs Blvd. from the BayCare hospital, the 100,00-sq.-ft. Florida Cancer Specialists medical building (on the south side of S.R. 56, next to North Tampa Behavioral Health) and the highly anticipated “downtown Wesley Chapel that we call Legacy Wiregrass Ranch,” Porter said. “This group is the first to see the update on this, although we’ve been working on it for years.”

He added, “It’s not a  Town Center. I am so tired of it being referred to as a Town Center. There are 28 Town Centers (in Wesley Chapel), and I don’t know what those are but this is an actual downtown. Everybody uses that key word (Town Center) and it’s absolutely incredible because it’s usually a Publix and maybe a Rita’s Italian Ice or something like that and it does nothing. That’s what we call ‘commercial.’ But, this is something that’s legit and it has taken a long time, but this is going to happen. Day One, we will have 150,000 sq. ft. (of office), 100,000 sq. ft. of retail and that’s by design. And we’re investing in it ourselves — we’re building 100,000 sq. ft. across the street. Nobody begins with 350,000 sq. ft. in the county and we have that before it even starts building. We don’t want to pull the trigger too early because if you do, we set somebody up for failure.” 

Sheridan also noted, “Ours will be a true downtown urban development, with a 1,500-space elevated parking structure and five-story rental apartments with truly local businesses, including a food hall, on the bottom floor., plus a large green space area for outdoor entertaining. So, this is definitely urban in nature — four- or five-story apartments, a four- or five-story hotel, all just north of Orlando Health. This will be Phase One, about 25 acres, of a true downtown Wesley Chapel – Legacy Wiregrass Ranch.” 

Porter added, “There has to be residential. These are mid-rise apartment buildings, about 900 units. I don’t understand why the county is against rental units. Lifestyles have changed, so we need rental units, which may be five or six years out, not only here but throughout the ranch. But, if I can get them to do five or six stories here, I can get them to do seven or eight stories someplace else (in Wiregrass Ranch).”

Sheridan added that although the downtown area is likely at least two years away from beginning construction, “We are beginning to seek proposals now and there is some infrastructure already happening. But, by the time Orlando Health opens in late 2025, early 2026, the first phase of this will be on the heels of that.”

Porter also noted that although all of Wiregrass Ranch has a development plan, there will still be plenty of green space throughout the community. 

“Nobody cares more about this land and the wildlife on it than I do. That’s why we’ve taken such a careful approach to this development. People call me a control freak, and maybe I am, but we’ve turned down a lot of different things and we’re building a lot of this ourselves because I want this to be successful.”

“We’ve probably turned down ten gas stations in Wiregrass Ranch,” Sheridan added. “We finally allowed one to open (the 7-11 on Mansfield Blvd.) about a year ago and just agreed to a second one. “We have lost deals  — to great users — because we don’t want to give up control to somebody else.”

Porter noted, “One of my concerns is that everybody loves Wawa, but what happens if Wawa leaves? In our case, whoever takes that over would have to go through me again to make it a Kangaroo or something else.”

And finally, Sheridan says that Wiregrass Ranch currently provides, “about $1.4 billion in tax base to Pasco County. At build-out, conservatively, we’ll probably be about $6.5 billion in tax base. That generates huge revenue for the county.”

Two Local Property Owners Planning To Develop Using ‘Live Local’ Law 

Research by Joel Provenzano 

Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman says that the Adrian Phillip Overpass, LLC, property on Old Pasco Rd. at Overpass Rd. has been negotiating with the county, rather than attempt to force low-income housing on the site under Florida’s new “Live Local” law.

District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman says that he and his fellow commissioners aren’t opposed to more “workforce housing” coming to Pasco, he just doesn’t believe the State of Florida’s new “Live Local” law will actually accomplish that goal. 

Weightman also notes that after the county held a workshop last month where twelve potential sites for possible “Live Local” multi-family developments (such as apartments) were identified that Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners did not threaten to sue the state legislature over “Live Local,” but did threaten to sue developers attempting to develop workforce housing using the new law — which allows those developers to build workforce housing on job-creating sites zoned for commercial and industrial uses, without having to go through a rezoning. This workforce housing is suggested to be affordable housing for individuals to afford the rents near their places of work in order to “Live Local.” 

“The intent of ‘Live Local’ is admirable,” Weightman says. “But, we believe that allowing developers, especially for property owners who are based out of state, to get tax breaks for developing multi-family units on commercial sites is not the way to accomplish that goal.” 

Weightman adds that with all of the new residential development already being constructed in Pasco County, especially in booming Wesley Chapel, “We need as many of our potential employment centers as possible to remain as job-creating sites. If we keep building more and more residential units without places in or near the same communities for those residents to work, we’re not helping those lower- and middle-income renters ‘Live Local,’ as it’s supposedly designed to help. (The law) in turn takes away jobs, rather than creating employment opportunities for those who, in fact, Live Local.” 

The legislation known as the Live Local Act offers developers tax breaks for approximately 30 years, and allows them to bypass local zoning rules if enough workforce housing (at least 40% of a particular site) is built. The act is meant to create more housing for middle-income renters who make 120% of an area’s median income or less. In Pasco, Weightman says, that means these “lower-income” rental units are intended for people making $70,000 or less per year. 

“Those aren’t all low-income renters,” Weightman says. “And, even though the tax break savings given to developers under Live Local are supposed to be passed on to the renters, it seems that these Live Local properties are renting at market rates, so the only ones really benefiting from Live Local are the developers themselves.” 

Two Local Sites With Two Different Approaches 

Weightman says that two of the twelve Pasco sites where developers have planned to develop rental housing on commercially zoned property are located in Wesley Chapel proper. 

The first is known as Adrian Phillip Overpass, LLC, which is located on Old Pasco Rd. at the intersection of Overpass Rd., just west of the new Overpass Rd. exit off I-75 (see map above). The 32.26-acre site currently is zoned commercial, which Weightman says makes sense because of its location near the interstate’s new Exit 282. 

Commissioner Weightman says that the developer of the Woods at Wesley Chapel site on S.R. 54 just west of Curley Rd. has not been willing to negotiate anything other than developing a 320- unit rental apartment at that location, despite the site’s current commercial zoning. 

“Under Live Local, this particular developer could just develop apartments without a rezoning,” Weightman says, “but they have been in discussions with the county about at least keeping the property a mixed-use site. As long as they’re willing to work with us, there’s no reason for us to sue the developer. The threat of a possible lawsuit could put properties like these in limbo, so we appreciate developers like these who don’t want to force the county into a position of eliminating a planned future employment site.” 

Weightman notes, however, that the developers of another Wesley Chapel site have been less willing to work with the county on a mixed-use solution. 

The 25.69-acre property known as Woods at Wesley Chapel, is located just west of the intersection of Curley Rd. and S.R. 54. Developer Denton Floyd Real Estate Group is planning to build a 320-unit rental community at the site, which is part of the adjacent Pine Ridge Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD) but is currently zoned for commercial (C1 & C2) uses. 

A previous development application that was abandoned for this site was a Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse. That plan was abandoned because of the site’s low potential accessibility for the large trucks that would have to enter and exit Lowe’s from S.R. 54 (and other reasons). 

Weightman says that although the county staff has attempted to negotiate with Denton Floyd to at least allow some neighborhood commercial, like a medical or other professional office building, “The developer is pretty bullish on using Live Local to develop the entire site as rental apartments with minimal amenities for its residents and predict no real cost savings on rent. This is the type of development that the county believes is worth suing the developer over, which allows the county to challenge the constitutionality of Live Local.” 

Not Suing The State 

Weightman is quick to point out, however, that unlike what has been written in some published reports, Pasco is not planning to sue the state over Live Local. 

Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples), who has been called the main architect of the Live Local Act, was quoted in a Dec. 7 FloridaPolitics.com article as saying that she didn’t understand why Pasco commissioners would vote to file a lawsuit looking to strike down the portion of Live Local that requires local governments to open up commercial and industrial areas to residential construction that would take away the need for the developer to go through the rezoning process. 

“Why didn’t you call me?,” Passidomo was quoted as saying. “I have a cell phone. Don’t sue me, talk to me. And then sue me if you don’t like it.” 

Weightman says Pasco is, in fact, not suing the state, but rather threatening to sue the developers who plan to utilize the law to develop multi-family housing on commercial, industrial and mixed-use sites without going through the rezoning process. 

“Pasco has more of these Live Local sites than just about any other county in the state,” Weightman says. “We need employment centers for all of the people who are moving here, and we don’t think we should be forced to give up those employment centers to give tax breaks to out of state developers, especially without actually providing any real low-income housing.” 

Weightman says he also fears that other Live Local sites, in addition to the current 12, will likely also pop up in Pasco, especially in our zip codes. “There’s no doubt that these developers are looking at their own pro forma statements, and not at helping low-income people,” he says. “And they definitely want to get into Wesley Chapel.” 

Passidomo also was quoted as saying that the Live Local Act could be tweaked during the upcoming State Legislative session, which begins on Jan. 9. 

Remembering 9-11

On Saturday, the Zephyrhills Museum of Military History hosted an event in remembrance of 9-11 where Wesley Chapel resident and retired New York City EMT Stephen Spelman, Dist. 2 Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman, Lt. Col. Perry Blackburn (from the movie “12 Strong”), FDNY Lt. Michael Basignato and Zephyrhills Mayor Melonie Bahr Monson were among the many guest speakers. There also was a Pasco Sheriff’s Office fly-by and multiple sky divers who landed in a nearby field as part of the event.

Read the full story of this 911 event and others in the Oct. 3 edition of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News! 

Compromise Reached On Seven Oaks Parcel Adjacent To Clubhouse 

A dispute between the residents of Seven Oaks and Crown Community Development, which developed the master-planned community, has been settled with an impressive compromise, brokered in no small part by Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Seth Weightman, who represents Seven Oaks and most of Wesley Chapel on the Board of County Commissioners (BCC). 

Since 2017, Crown has been trying to re-zone a vacant parcel of nearly 1.2 acres (see map) that is adjacent to the Seven Oaks Community Club for both office and possible recreational uses. 

The unspecified recreational uses, which could have been anything from a park to a bowling alley to a putt-putt golf course, was the cause of the dispute between Crown and the residents of Seven Oaks, led by Seven Oaks Community Development District (CDD) supervisor Jon Tomsu. 

The concern was that these types of recreational uses would attract large numbers of cars to not only travel, but also possibly park, on Seven Oaks’ primary north-south thoroughfare, Ancient Oaks Blvd. 

The BCC had turned down Crown’s rezoning request back in 2018, but a mediator ruled in June of 2020 that the Parcel 12 could be divided in two, with the 16.8-acre CDD maintaining its ownership of Parcel 12A (which includes the community center), and Crown retaining the 1.2-acre Parcel 12B, with the ability to add office uses. 

The fate of the parcel still had not been decided when Covid hit in 2020 and the possible rezoning wasn’t brought back to the BCC for a vote until its July 11 meeting. 

Weightman brought Tomsu and Crown attorney Barbara Wilhite together to settle the dispute, with Tomsu saying that although he was OK with a less intrusive PO-1 office use for the 50,000+-sq.-ft. space, he would not agree to any “recreational use” on the site. 

After Wilhite agreed to the office-only stipulation, the agreement was brought before the BCC and unanimously approved. 

“That was a great coming together of two parties — the residents of Seven Oaks and Crown Development,” Weightman said. “Ultimately, the CDD leadership and Crown came together to go with office space and match what was already there. It was a nice negotiation and agreement to have that issue come to an end and I think it was the best possible resolution for that site.” 

Weightman’s legislative aide Andy Taylor agreed. 

“When they were talking about recreational uses, like a Main Event-style use, where people would be coming in and parking on the roads in Seven Oaks, everything about it just didn’t make sense. It was nice to see it finally get resolved amicably.” 

The rezoning was officially approved at its second reading before the BCC on Aug. 8, without objection. Public comment also was not permitted, per Wilhite’s request at the meeting on July 11.