Tag: Wesley Chapel

Synchronized Swimmers Getting Ready For NY

Kids and adults stream in and out of the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms, some headed for the basketball and volleyball courts, others to the activity rooms and exercise equipment. At the pool, kids learn to swim, while other more advanced swimmers churn out lap after lap under the direction of the YMCA swim team coaches.

It’s about what you might expect at any YMCA.

But, tucked away beyond that in the far end of the same 50-meter pool, there’s something you might not expect.

Amongst the din of splashing swimmers, one of the New Tampa Y’s more successful programs toils in relative peace, a group of tightly-coiffed, nose-clipped synchronized swimmers, young and old, dancing beneath the water and working together in perfect harmony.

The Tampa YMCA Synchro (TYS) team, based at the New Tampa YMCA since starting in 2004 and one of the few programs in the central part of Florida — but a regular on the state and region competition circuit — is coming of age.

“The key to a successful team is when swimmers get a taste of improvement and get a taste of excellence and the winning,’’ said 26-year-old Camille Albrecht, who started as an assistant coach in 2009 and has been head coach of the TYS program since 2013. “A lot of our younger girls saw some of the success the older girls were having, and they want those same things and they’re working harder because they already know what success looks like.”

Success is measured by competitors like 19-year-old Wesley Chapel resident Saloni Mehrah, who participated at the U.S. Nationals in Mesa, AZ, along with 13-year-old Benito Middle School student Julianna Silva.

Success also is sending synchronized swimmers to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team, which Silva, 12-year-old New Tampa resident Katie Wieckowski and 10-year-old Jennah Hafsi, who are both homeschooled, did in Coral Springs, FL, this spring.

Success also is sending almost half your team — which qualified with top-3 finishes at Regionals — to the Junior Olympics next month, to compete against roughly 1,000 other synchronized swimmers.

Mehra and Meghan Wieckowski will compete in the 18-19 age group, and Abby Eckhardt, Kyra Okin and Zoe Keegan have qualified in the 16-17s.

Silva, Camila Acuna, Maria Pinilla-Baquero and Ariana Alonso are in the 13-15 age group, while Katie Wieckowski, Jennah Hafsi, Jennifer Lynfatt, Lilly Weber and Teghan Theile are all competing in the 12-under division.

The 14 synchronized swimmers heading to the Junior Olympics, held June 24-July 2 at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY, is the most the program has ever sent, better than the previous best of 10 swimmers last year.

Synchronized Swimmers Ice Cream Fund Raiser

In order to travel to the prestigious event, the TYS is hosting a New York-themed Ice Cream Social on Saturday, June 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the New Tampa YMCA. The synchronized swimmers will show off their latest routines and custom-made suits (that can cost $150 and more), and even the dads and brothers will get into the act as the “SyncBros” perform a routine.

The show is free to attend and the TYS and the parents will be selling ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, salad and drinks. There also will be baskets filled with prizes, and tickets to enter the drawing are just $2 each or $5 for three.

Albrecht has helped grow her team by holding two summer camps each year, to teach the finer points of her sport to younger kids. Her hope is to make synchronized swimming, which until the turn of the century was known as “water ballet,” a primary sport.

A former synchronized swimmer herself for the Tampa Bay Synch Rays, Albrecht says she started competing when she was 7.

“My mom wanted me to have a sport, and I loved to dance and I loved swimming,’’ she says. “I had already broken both my arms, so we thought that would be safe.”

Abby Eckhardt, 15, who has been on the New Tampa team for five years, started her athletic career as a gymnast, competing for three years until a neck injury sidelined her. She found her athletic outlet in the pool.

“It fell right into place for her,’’ said her mother, Amy. “It’s the perfect sport.”

“I think its challenging and I like all the friendships you make with all the girls,’’ said Abby. “We’re like a giant family.”

Many synchronized swimmers on the team come to the sport after trying swimming, gymnastics, ballet and/or dancing. In fact, synchronized swimming has always been described as a hybrid of those sports.

The daughter of former Tampa Bay Buc offensive tackle Steve Young (not be confused with the former Bucs and San Francisco 49ers quarterback of the same name), Albrecht says her girls are hard workers. While most people’s first question is always, “How do they hold their breath so long?,” Albrecht says the swimmers are as fit and strong a group as you will find.

“People don’t know how much work we do outside the pool,” she said. “The basic skillset we look for is flexibility, and then it’s strength. We do a lot of cross training, a lot of land work. You have to be strong.”

Albrecht says it takes years to perfect synchronized swimming. Mastering the solo aspect of the sport is challenging enough, but then to be able to synchronize your routine with others takes years of practice.

To get her swimmers ready, Albrecht has former SynchRay swimmers Amanda Olson and Brittany McCauley on her staff. And Lily Hu, a USF student, joined the staff after moving here from China, where she competed internationally in the sport.

For more information about the synchronized swimming program at the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa, or call 866-9622.

Wiregrass Ranch Prepped For Major Projects

Wiregrass Ranch Map — (Map by Blake Beatty)

West Palm Beach-based commercial developer John Dowd played a pivotal role in the development of the Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch area near S.R. 56 when, with the stalwart help of JCPenney as the lead anchor, he helped spearhead the birth of The Shops at Wiregrass mall.

Dowd admitted that it wasn’t easy. Right before the mall finished, the economy started to slow. Had it been six months later, Dowd doesn’t think the mall would have ever been built. “We had tenants come to us who had literally just signed leases and wanted out,’’ he said. “Everybody was so afraid of what was going to happen to the world.”

But, thankfully, the world did survive. And, so did the mall.

John Dowd shows a map of the Wiregrass Ranch DRI and where some of the planned construction will take place.

Dowd is back in the area, and is again teaming up with local landowner/developer JD Porter to help give the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) another economic shot in the arm.
At the Wesley Chapel Economic Development meeting at Mulligans (inside New Tampa’s Pebble Creek Golf Club) on April 28, Dowd and Porter regaled a crowd of more than 100 local business leaders with tales from the past, but mostly of a future they see as bright and bustling.

The Wiregrass mall, which Dowd said didn’t have the start everyone had hoped when it opened in 2008, is now enjoying the kind of success that was expected. That is triggering further development in the area, as the Porter family carefully and judiciously parcels out its land to businesses and developers who fit into their long-range plans.

Dowd said he was attracted to working with the Porter family because of the family’s deliberate style. Unlike many landowners, JD Porter said he is no rush to sell to the highest bidder and turn an instant profit. Instead, the Wiregrass Ranch DRI continues to only greenlight projects the Porter feel add value to the entire area.

Wiregrass Ranch Set To Expand

Here’s some of those plans Porter and Dowd shared at the Economic Development meeting:

1. On S.R. 54, just down the road from Walmart, the first project between Dowd and Porter will be a 12,600-sq.-ft. strip center, with two nicely designed buildings. Two restaurants are already signed up, with two more close to coming aboard as well. The project will feature a typical mix, including a cell phone store, nail and hair salons, restaurants and “good neighborhood use” businesses.

“We already have more interested tenants than we have space for,’’ Dowd said.

2. On S.R. 56, east of the Wiregrass Mall expansion (which will include restaurants, a movie theater and a grocery store), Porter and Dowd are doing is having site work done at another shopping center, to be called Wiregrass Commons at 56, which will include a “green” or specialty grocery store.

Nothing has been signed yet, Dowd said, and “we’re not doing any of the small stuff until we get an anchor signed up. Once that happens, that will be a 50,000-60,000-sq.-ft. project in total and a nice addition to the area.

3. Porter also said a hotel would be finalizing a deal within 30 days, and that is expected to also immediately east of the Wiregrass Commons at 56 project. He did not say which hotel, but we have heard rumors it will be a Marriott Fairfield Inn.

4. Even further east on S.R. 56, the long-awaited Raymond James Financial campus is close to officially announcing its arrival.

No, seriously.

JD Porter says big things are coming. — JD Porter (left) says big things are coming to Wiregrass Ranch, including Raymond James.

Porter joked that he was sick and tired of talking about the long-rumored project, which some had begun to doubt. But doubt no more.

“We got good news (April 27) and I truly believe within the next 2-3 weeks we’ll have a permit,’’ Porter said. “Having that permit triggers the closing. Having that closing means the other two or three office users, which we are we are talking to right now — anywhere from 600,000 square feet to another 1.2-million-sq.-ft., Fortune 50 companies — they close, and I would suspect we’re going to see movement within the next 4-6 months after that.”

Porter said Raymond James will add between 4,000-6,000 jobs, and that you can double that total to 8,000-12,000 jobs with the other unnamed businesses set to follow.

That will also begin to create some of the day traffic that Dowd says is necessary if the area is going to attract more quality restaurants, as well.

5. Porter said they will be closing on an assisted living facility, “in the next 45-60 days”. Porter didn’t disclose any other information, but the facility will be called Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care, which is owned by the Prevarian Companies.

The facility will be multiple stories when completed next to North Tampa Behavorial Health, which also is expanding and will be adding 48 rooms by the end of the year.

6. As part of trying to force vertical integration into the development plan, Porter said that in 30-45 days construction also should begin on a condo project, called Altis at Wiregrass, which will be located directly north of Wiregrass Commons at 56.

“If I would’ve said condos in Pasco County 3-4 years ago, you probably would have told me to get the hell out of here,’’ Porter said. “Well, it happened.”

Porter hinted at four-story structures, with rooftop pools and verandas. “Something typical of Hyde Park and South Tampa,’’ he said. “But not typical Pasco County.”

The condos, which according to site plans will include 394 multi-family dwellings in 15 separate buildings, are part of Porter’s plan to build new and different projects in the area. “If you wanna play in the sandbox, you have to step it up,’’ he said. “We are very fortunate to be in the right area. If people want to be here, bring something new to the table.”

Just The Beginning Of New Phase For Wiregrass Ranch

Porter promised other major announcements concerning major retailers still to come. But for now, he is pleased with the area’s progress, citing the proximity of an expanding hospital, a state college with room to grow into a full-fledged university and more retail in the area. He also expects an increase in new homes as well, and once the residential areas mature a mixed-use town center can be developed.

DonPorterWEB — Members of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Board, including past President Jeff Novotny (holding plaque) were honored to present the plaque that will adorn the boardroom at the WCCC office in The Grove named for the late Don Porter to Don’s son JD and daughter Quinn (center), during the Chamber’s Economic Development briefing at which JD and commercial developer John Dowd spoke about Wiregrass Ranch.

Porter also said his family is rethinking its commitment of donating 120-acres to the county to build a park in the area. A tennis center fell through more than a decade ago, as did a proposed baseball complex on the site last year. In November the county announced it would be seeking partners in a public-private relationship to build an indoor facility on land that also would include outdoor fields.

But Porter, frustrated with the county’s inability to move forward on donated land, says he may take back some of it back by the end of the year and build the park privately, as part of his long-range plan to provide the area with “synergy”.

“We are looking to create something we can be proud of out here not just tomorrow, but 10-50 years down the road,’’ he said.

Look for more updates on this area at WCNeighborhoodNews.com.

greater wesley chapel chamber of commerce J.D. Porter John dowd New Tampa S.R. 54 S.R. 56 shops at wiregrass mall Wesley Chapel Wiregrass Ranch

Wesley Chapel man finds kidney donor

Can a hashtag help find a kidney donor and save someone’s life?

Count Wesley Chapel mom Dana Richman as a believer, after a Facebook and Twitter campaign she started in January helped find her son Joey, a 22-year-old pre-med student at the University of South Florida, a living kidney donor.

Tampa’s Mike Miller, a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter known by friends as “Muffin Man,” saw a #AKidneyForJoey post on Facebook, and has stepped forward.

The surgery and selfless sacrifice, which will effectively end Miller’s MMA career, is scheduled for Wednesday.

Battling Kidney Failure

Joey suffers from Alport’s Syndrome, a genetic condition that Dana says was passed down from her side of the family, which has suffered a number of deaths from the condition. Alport’s Syndrome causes hearing loss and renal failure. Joey first suffered hearing loss in the fourth grade, but doctors could do little to help, Dana says, until he went into renal failure, which has taken root in the past year.

Joey is fortunate. According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 100,000 people are awaiting kidney transplants. More than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month, and 13 people die each day while awaiting a life-saving kidney transplant.

Joey, who lost 30 pounds in the last year, currently administers dialysis to himself every 4-6 hours, for a total of 10 hours daily. Dana says there are 75 boxes of solution in her home. It has made her son weak and tired, barely able to climb a flight of stairs. He is taking his college classes online because getting around campus is too difficult.

Dana has watched Joey deteriorate over the past year, and can’t work herself because she has been taking him to almost daily doctor appointments. She looks forward to April 20 and the months to follow. She says Joey will be isolated after surgery for 3-6 months, but hopes to be well enough to return to classes at USF in August.

“He will feel amazing, probably back to how he felt in elementary school,’’ Dana says. “He’ll be able to do everything other people his age can do. I have goosebumps already just thinking about it.”

Response Overwhelms Mother

Dana said she was stunned by the outpouring of support for her son’s plight. She says Miller is “the most humble, respectful young man you’ll ever meet.’’ She is also quick to thank the dozens of folks who called Tampa General Hospital (TGH) to volunteer for testing when the story broke.

She said TGH received up to 40 calls a day, and many are still volunteering to be Joey’s back-up if the transplant fails for any reason. A host of others, she added, asked to be matched up with others needing transplants. “Amazing,’’ she says. “That makes me happy.”

For Dana — a single mother of three boys including Wiregrass Ranch High graduate Jason, 19, and current WRH senior Jake, 17 — the amount of community support has been a blessing. The one-time military family has moved up and down the east coast, settling in Wesley Chapel three years ago from Pasadena, MD. Even then, she wasn’t sure what the future held.

“I’ll tell you what, Wesley Chapel is an amazing place,’’ Dana says. “Tampa is too, but Wesley Chapel, we couldn’t imagine any place better. It really feels like home, like we finally have a place to put our roots.”

To donate to the Richman family, visit GoFundMe.com/AKidneyForJoey. To help Mike Miller in his recovery, visit GoFundMe.com/6aunghtw. To become a kidney donor, contact Jenni Binns of Tampa General Hospital at 844-5669 or email her at jbinns@tgh.org.

Alport's Syndrome Dana Richman Donor Joey Richman Kidney mixed martial arts MMA Wesley Chapel

Tennis For Fun Comes To Tampa Palms!

On a slightly warm but otherwise perfect Thursday evening, a dozen or so special needs adults gathered at Tampa Palms Golf & County Club to learn how to play tennis, like they do every week.

They squealed with joy when hitting a ball back over the net, and laughed when they failed. A handful of volunteers gently tossed tennis balls their way, and would swat them back with hands, or catch them and throw them back, to help teach coordination. Some were determined to complete their tasks, while others were there primarily for the fun of it all.

“It’s so great,’’ Judy Moore said. “It’s just a big social event.”

Moore runs Tennis For Fun, a free tennis clinic for athletes with special needs. Tennis For Fun is a volunteer organization that teaches basic tennis skills, and stresses socialization, specializing in working with athletes of all ages who are intellectually handicapped, especially those who have Down Syndrome.

Moore’s son, Nathan, started the program 16 years ago as a high school senior at Tampa’s Jesuit High. He wanted to create something to do for special needs athletes, no doubt inspired by his mother, who had taught special education and religion for years.

Since then, Tennis For Fun has grown, from a humble beginning with just a few athletes in Brandon to now including eight different locations (Fishhawk Ranch, Tampa Tennis at Hillsborough Community College, Sandra Friedman Tennis Complex on Davis Islands, and Tampa Palms in Florida), in three states (Florida, Maine and Minnesota), with more than 100 athletes competing.

At Tampa Palms, they were wearing new, bright green T-shirts donated by ALOT (A League Of Our Own Tennis), and playing with racquets donated by other players and clubs. Interbay Tennis, a large Tampa Bay women’s weekly tennis league, also has provided assistance, and Tennis For Fun also has received grants to help pay for nets and balls. Both Tampa Palms and Hunter’s Green Country Clubs are designated as Special Olympics training centers.

In 2011, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) awarded the USTA Adaptive Tennis National Community Service Award to Tennis for Fun. “We were pretty proud to get that,’’ Moore says.

More than a dozen of the 100+ athletes currently competing in Tennis For Fun are at Tampa Palms, which recently added the program under the direction of tennis player and Tampa Catholic High assistant coach Marla Adams. Adams will run the clinic through May 26, every Thursday, 4 p.m.-5 p.m., for the 18-and-over athletes; Marla’s son Clay, a freshman tennis player at Tampa Catholic, coaches the 17-under group from 5 p.m.-6 p.m.

Clay, who originally got involved because he was trying to earn service hours at school, and Marla first met Moore while volunteering at the Brandon location. Moore had received some requests to start a program in New Tampa, but until she met Marla, she had no one to run it.

“I met her and she asked where I lived, and I said Tampa Palms,’’ Marla says. “She said, I have someone who wants to start a program (out there) but doesn’t want to be the head of it.”

Marla and Clay accepted the challenge. For Marla, it was a personal decision. When she had been pregnant with Clay, she was told there was a chance he would be born with Down Syndrome, or a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21, which alters the course of an individual’s development.

Clay ended up not having Down Syndrome, but Marla said that moment stuck with her. So, when the chance arose to work with Down Syndrome children and adults, she says couldn’t resist.

With the Adamses working closely with Kass Pilczuk, the New Tampa YMCA Adaptive Coordinator, and Tampa Palms head pro Tom Judson, the program debuted last November.

“Kass has been very instrumental in helping us launch in New Tampa,’’ Marla said. “She has filtered a lot of her athletes at the YMCA through here.”

The response in New Tampa, says Moore, has been terrific.

While the Brandon program has more than 90 athletes, ages 8 to 58, New Tampa has seen its numbers steadily grow.

“People started talking about it, and people started coming,’’ says Dora Rattes, one of the volunteer coaches and supporters who helped bring the program to Tampa Palms.

Rattes used to take her special needs daughter Esther to Brandon to play tennis in the program. It was far from convenient, however.

“She really enjoyed it,’’ says Dora. “But I was thinking, we have Tampa Palms here (in New Tampa), and we have Hunter’s Green…”

Rattes knew there were enough special needs athletes in New Tampa to support such a program, and she knew there was a need. For many older special needs athletes, there is often little to do and few programs to participate in past high school.

“It is very important for them to stay active,’’ she said. “This is a sport they can play for life. This isn’t like soccer or basketball where you need a team to play. This is something you can do with just one other player.”

Esther is one of the program’s more advanced and experienced players. She recen

ly competed in the Special Olympics tennis at HCC March 19, and Marla says the plan for next year is to teach and send a large contingent of New Tampa special needs players to the event.

For now, the group is working on the fundamentals, growing their clinics and putting smiles on the faces of athletes learning the joy of a new sport.

For more information, call Judy Moore at 685-3923 or 417-3751, or visit TennisForFun.net.

New Tampa Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel Borders To Be Defined By April?

Pasco County planner Matt Armstrong and Wesley Chapel borders — Pasco County planner Matt Armstrong hopes to settle the debate over Wesley Chapel borders.

Following presentations last month by both the Greater Wesley Chapel (WCCC) and Central Pasco (CPCC) Chambers of Commerce, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) could be set Wesley Chapel borders with Lutz/Land O’Lakes that ultimately should finally settle a long-simmering dispute at the BCC’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 26.

The commissioners are expected to vote on a recommendation from Pasco planners on definitive borders between the two Census Designated Places (Wesley Chapel and Land O’Lakes/Lutz together are both CDPs) during the meeting at the West Pasco Government Center Board Room in New Port Richey.

Until then, county planners and administrators are poring over a stack of documents from each side — and even getting some help from the folks at Google maps —interpreting where those borders should be.

“We are looking to establish a city boundary by legislative action,’’ said Matt Armstrong, the county’s executive planner. “None of these areas that are Census Designated Places have that. That’s some of the reason people have struggled with this.”

After separate meetings with the two groups last month, Armstrong said representatives from both areas will meet with each other in the next few weeks, with the county’s planning department serving as the moderator.

“Ultimately, we will be bringing a report to the Board of County Commissioners with a recommendation on what we think the boundaries will be,’’ Armstrong says. “The Board can hear public comment, and then we will be asking them to establish the borders.”

When broken down, the primary dispute seems to be over the slice of land between Wesley Chapel Blvd. and I-75 in the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which has been exacerbated recently by the steady business development in the area.

Armstrong said he was at one recent border meeting where a representative from one of the new businesses on the east side of Wesley Chapel Blvd. said they were happy to “be here in Lutz.”

But, take a look at the web page for Culver’s, which calls its restaurant on E. Bearss Ave. in Tampa “Culver’s of Tampa,” its restaurant in Largo “Culver’s of Largo,” and its restaurant in Port Richey “Culver’s of Port Richey.” At its brand new location on S.R. 56 west of the Tampa Premium Outlets mall, however (which physically is located on Sun Vista Dr. in Lutz), it is called “Culver’s of Wesley Chapel.”

And it isn’t alone. While all of the area being debated by the WCCC and CPCC has either Land O’Lakes or Lutz addresses and zip codes, many businesses in the area identify themselves as being in Wesley Chapel.

“It’s just a mess,’’ Armstrong says.

Where Are The Wesley Chapel borders?

While the current debate is about borders, it originally began, as we detailed in our last issue, as a disagreement over the renaming of the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension where the extension now crosses southbound over S.R. 56 and continues toward County Line Rd.

The southern portion of the extension, said CPCC member Sandy Graves at the time, needed to represent Lutz-Land O’Lakes, the area through which it cuts. A petition requesting that the name of the southern portion of the extension be changed to Circle O Ranch was presented to the BCC on Jan. 19. But, Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce CEO Hope Allen protested, saying it needed to remain Wesley Chapel Blvd., as all of the businesses in the area already call it that and have for years.

Instead of making a decision, the BCC decided to explore the issue further. The Board members decided that defining the borders between Lutz-Land O’Lakes and Wesley Chapel needed to be settled first.

That set off a fact-finding mission by each side, in an effort to buttress their respective arguments. Representatives of Lutz-Land O’Lakes believe their border extends west to I-75. The Wesley Chapel side thinks its western border extends to Wesley Chapel Blvd. So, essentially, the area between Wesley Chapel Blvd. and I-75 is at the heart of the dispute.

The Wesley Chapel Chamber met with Armstrong and his staff Feb. 19, two weeks after he met with the CPCC.

“I think the meeting went fine,’’ said Allen. “I think we got our point across and delivered the message we went to deliver.”

Allen said her group presented a 70-page document backing their claims, as well as a 2005 Vision Report that the WCCC says was approved by Pasco commissioners.

The CPCC countered that its 2003 Vision Report was adopted first, and brought noted USF political science professor Susan McManus to its meeting with Armstrong to help make their case. McManus has co-written books on the history of Lutz and Land O’Lakes.

Armstrong jokes that he is becoming an expert on the histories of the two places, thanks to all of the material that has been presented to him to help settle the dispute, including volumes of McManus’ work, a trove of newspaper articles and even local historian Madonna Jervis Wise’s book on the history of Wesley Chapel (see pg. 1). The book, entitled Images of America: Wesley Chapel, says that Wesley Chapel was founded in the 1840s, and is shown on a 1879 survey map of Pasco County, before Land O’Lakes was established in 1949.

However, the dispute is not over what town existed first. And, even in carefully-researched historical records, there are no definitive boundaries laid out because neither area was ever incorporated, or essentially created as its own city with its own governmental structure.

But, the respective “hearts” of both areas — U.S. 41 in Land O’Lakes and the area around Boyette Rd. and S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel — are unmistakable, says Armstrong.

“The history points to early beginnings, and we know where the hearts of those communities are,’’ Armstrong said. “But, the boundary in between gets a little fuzzy.”

Pasco County currently only has six incorporated areas — the cities of Zephyrhills, Dade City, San Antonio, Port Richey and New Port Richey, and the incorporated town of Saint Leo.

The rest of the county is comprised of unincorporated Census Designated Places, like Wesley Chapel, Land O’Lakes/Lutz, Trinity and Hudson, to name a few. And, Armstrong says that 450,000 of the 490,000 people living in Pasco reside in those currently unincorporated areas.

Armstrong admits that so many areas without defined borders can create the kind of confusion we are seeing in Wesley Chapel and Lutz/Land O’Lakes, where postal zip codes have changed and there is a myriad of other “boundaries,” which can be confusing.

“Part of the frustration for the citizens who lives in any one of these places is, ‘What the heck, the zip code says this, the Census Designated Place says something else, my kids are going to school based on other boundaries and my voting precinct is somewhere else,’’’ Armstrong says. “It’s been like this for years, and now, it’s coming to a head.”

That’s actually a good thing, he says, because it is being done in the open and publicly. Much of the Lutz-Land O’Lakes anger stems from the belief that past decisions made by the BCC cut the area out of the process to accommodate Wesley Chapel’s growth and ongoing “branding.”

Wesley Chapel Blvd. is an example, according to Graves. It sprouted as a road name for the portion of S.R. 54 from S.R. 56 to Lexington Oaks when the Lutz-Land O’Lakes contingent thought it was going to be Worthington Gardens Blvd., a decision she said “happened overnight.”

The former “Wesley Chapel” placemaker sign was another example cited by Graves. It was put up a few hundred feet west of where Wesley Chapel Blvd. begins, clearly in Lutz’s 33559 zip code. Armstrong said the sign’s arrival “lit a match” in Pasco, and Graves led the fight to have the sign removed — which it was.

“The whole process hasn’t been completely transparent,’’ Armstrong says. “But, this time, it is.”

Both sides have been passionate about their arguments. The claim that the area, its residents and businesses would be much better served if the area was clearly defined as theirs. And, both claim history is on their side.

History, though, may give way to common sense.

“We will collect all of the history from both groups and look at some of the rational (potential) boundaries between the two things,’’ Armstrong says. “There may be a natural feature that divides the two, or a major road. But, it needs to make sense today, and that may be separate from history.”

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