The Pasco County Development Resource Council (DRC) held a public hearing for a permit and variance application on August 26th as scheduled. Attendees included approximately sixteen Preston Hollow owners and/or HOA Board/ACC members. There were representatives from the Wellington HOA Board and Leisure Hills homeowners as well. All that attended who desired to speak publically to the Pasco DRC were permitted to do so.
A South Florida developer, Woodfield Properties, Inc., has applied for a permit to mine 650,000 cubic yards of fill dirt from their residential development site of 78 acres and a variance to greatly reduce the perimeter border setbacks for planned home construction. The acreage in question is located in Pasco County on the south side of County Line Road, about half-way between Mariner Blvd. and the Veterans’ Expressway. The County Line Road entrance to Preston Hollow is nearby. Many months ago, Pasco County authorized the rezoning of this property from Agricultural to Residential for the proposed 75 one-acre home sites. The developer has a number of years to build out the development with homes. The proposed development plan calls for the creation of three retention areas, one of which is located on the north border with County Line Road. The retention areas only require the excavation and removal of approximately 146,000 cubic yards of fill dirt to make the areas viable for water control. However, the developer intends to haul out and sell all 650,000 cubic yards of fill material from the site in the meantime which is their right to do. All the fill dirt is projected to be removed over the course of a one-year period using County Line Road as the entrance and exit points to the mining area. Depending on the size of the earth-moving vehicle, this would require the use of 25,000 to 36,000 truckloads of additional large truck traffic added to existing County Line Road traffic, moving in an out of the mining area over that period of time. Left and right-hand turn lanes are to be installed during the excavation & removal period. Hours of operation are projected to be from 7am to 5 pm six days a week if the permit and variance are granted. Sundays and Pasco holidays are non-hauling days.
Preston Hollow attendees who spoke asked the Pasco County DRC the following:
- designate an alternate traffic method for the trucks in lieu of using County Line Road.
- expand the developers liability for damaged wells due to mining from the proposed 500 feet to a 1,000 ft radius.
- require the developer to install and maintain ground cover such as grass or other means to control dust once the fill dirt is removed.
As a result of the DRC’s traffic study issues and other questions left unanswered by the Pasco County support staff members who were also in attendance, the DRC scheduled a second public hearing for September 23, 2010 @ 1:30 to continue the public discussions. The hearing location is the West Pasco Government Center Board Room, First Floor, 7530 Little Road, New Port Richey, Fl. The more members that attend the hearing the better in terms of having our voices heard. The Preston Hollow Board has also asked the support and involvement of our local County commission and State representatives.