Wesley Chapel & Central Pasco Chambers Dueling Over WC Blvd.

It’s just a 3.5-mile planned stretch of road running from S.R. 56 south to County Line Rd. through the Cypress Creek Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which has lots of progress on one side and undeveloped land on the other, but for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) CEO and the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, (CPCC) the road — an only partially built extension of what is now called (on public street signs) Wesley Chapel (WC) Blvd. — stands for a lot more than just some new pavement.

The WCCC and CEO Hope Allen believe the road — like the entire Wesley Chapel area — is a big part of central and eastern Pasco’s future. But, to CPCC Board member Sandy Graves, the road — which she feels should be called something other than WC Blvd. — should serve as a tribute to the area’s past.

The two sides are now awaiting a Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) decision that ultimately will decide if the road’s name should be changed or not.

Graves, a longtime Land O’Lakes resident, is on the side arguing to have the still-under-construction southern extension (southbound from S.R. 56) of what is already called Wesley Chapel Blvd. (Note-it also is the only roadway we’ve seen labeled “C.R. {or County Road} 54 South”), renamed “Circle O Ranch Parkway” to more accurately reflect the area through which the remaining three miles of the WC Blvd. extension will run. There already is a portion of that extension that is open to traffic, but it is only a half-mile long and currently mainly provides an alternative entrance to the existing Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO).

To that end, Graves and other Land O’Lakes and Lutz residents asked the county to change the name of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and, on Jan. 19, the BCC voted to continue the item to a future date (that had not yet been set at our press time), to allow for consideration of alternative names to Circle O Ranch Pkwy.

Allen says she didn’t know anything about the BCC meeting until she got a Google alert two days after the story was posted on the Tampa Tribune website TBO.com. She says she was surprised that she hadn’t heard about the meeting before it happened and that the name change could have been voted on that day.

Even developer Bob Sierra said he also was surprised, although he told the Tampa Tribune he did find the time to rush to the meeting.

Graves said there was nothing sneaky about the meeting – a public notice was posted in the printed editions of the Tribune and she claims the Land O’Lakes-Lutz plans had been in the news, although she did not elaborate as to what news media may have aired or written a story about the meeting.

Besides, she claimed, it was more notice than her community got in 2004 when Wesley Chapel Blvd. sprouted along S.R. 54 “in the middle of the night,” according to Graves.

Back then, Graves and people in the Land O’Lakes-Lutz community thought the road was going to be named Worthington Gardens Blvd., but it ended up as Wesley Chapel Blvd.

“I don’t know how that happened,’’ Graves says. “We were all very shocked. The county needs to do the right thing this time.”

This isn’t the first time Graves has tangled with a Wesley Chapel sign. In 2013, the Florida Department of Transportation put up a green “Wesley Chapel” placemaker (photo on this page) sign a few hundred feet west of where Wesley Chapel Blvd. begins that was clearly on land in Lutz’s 33559 U.S. Postal Service zip code. Graves fought for eight months until the sign was eventually removed.

Both sides will get their chance to make their arguments for and against the WC Blvd. name. At our press time, Pasco BCC chair/Dist. 3 Comm. Kathryn Starkey was to have met with both sides.

Meanwhile, Allen says that the dispute over the roadway, from her perspective, should be less about geographic borders and more about the thriving and ever-expanding number of businesses that are located on and near it.

“Our Board of Directors believes that we are entitled to just as much conversation with the county as the other people who have petitioned this,” Allen says. “We have businesses that have a strong interest in (all of) Wesley Chapel Blvd. remaining as it is.”

Allen says changing the name of the road could impact the businesses along that corridor by creating an intersection which would then need to include signs for S.R. 56, C.R. 54, S.R. 54, Wesley Chapel Blvd. and whatever new name is chosen for the southern extension.

“It is our (the WCCC’s) position that there not be an unnecessary change,” Allen says. “If it is a wanted change that has gone through a process, we will support that. But, we want to make sure the businesses in this area have the chance to voice their opinions, too.”

While TPO and businesses now under construction like Costco and Culver’s today have Lutz zip codes, Allen says those businesses were sold as “being in Wesley Chapel” and being on or near Wesley Chapel Blvd. helps them market themselves as such. In fact, she says, most of the marketing and advertising materials of nearby businesses use the name Wesley Chapel Blvd.

“Wesley Chapel has a brand, and a name that is appealing to business,’’ Allen says.

Graves says Land O’Lakes and Lutz have a brand as well. “It’s about identity, it’s about branding for us, too,’’ Graves says. “It’s about our history and our reality. This is about the county that did something for one area at the expense of another.”

The disagreement over Wesley Chapel Blvd. may have re-sparked an even bigger debate over community boundaries.

Graves also claims that Wesley Chapel’s boundaries appear to be malleable and based on incorrect census maps, and as a result continue to encroach on Land O’Lakes and Lutz.

“It’s a bigger issue,’’ Graves says. “We have a right to have a brand, too. You can’t create a map for your own agenda and expect people to say, ‘Okay, I’ll give all that up’”

As an example, much of the burgeoning development in the S.R. 56 corridor is credited as being located in Wesley Chapel even though all of the property located west of I-75 on both sides of S.R. 56 have Lutz addresses, meaning they have Lutz’s 33559 zip code.

Pasco officials have said the BCC will address the boundaries prior to considering a name change for Wesley Chapel Blvd. Meetings will be scheduled with the Land O’Lakes and Wesley Chapel communities and coordinated with the county’s Planning & Development Department in the hopes of bringing forward a boundary recommendation to the Board in March or April. Allen says the WCCC also would like to see the boundaries of Wesley Chapel more clearly defined.

Comm. Starkey is hosting a Town Hall meeting on Thur, Feb. 18, 6:30 p.m., at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (20735 Leonard Rd., Lutz). It would be great to have some Wesley Chapel folks in attendance for that open-to-the-public event.