Community Resists Amazon Drive Apartment Plan

A developer’s plan to build an apartment complex along Amazon Drive in the unincorporated New Port Richey area is getting a cool reception from would-be neighbors.

The legion of folks who came to Trinity Presbyterian Church Thursday for a neighborhood meeting on the complex were eager to voice their opinions.

Everybody who spoke in the standing-room-only crowd voiced outright objections to or concerns about developer J. Chris Scherer’s plan to build a complex with 240 apartment units on 41 acres of property. The site is set blocks east of Little Road and is surrounded by communities with single-family homes.

“It looks like it don’t belong,” one woman shouted at Scherer as he showed concept art of three-story buildings.

“I would like some opinions on what you would like to see other than nothing,” Scherer said.

The complex would be named The Oaks at Riverside Village, which is a neghboring subdivision. Scherer is president of Clearwater-based Scherer Development LLC, which owns the land in question. The property is already zoned for multi-family use. 

Scherer originally submitted a site plan for a 285-unit complex to Pasco County staff in November 2011. The county provided feedback in January. The feedback included requests for road analysis, a greater setback from Amazon Drive and added parks and recreation areas, according to an email from Debra Zampetti, Pasco County’s zoning and code compliance administrator, to County Commissioner Pat Mulieri and others on Jan 3.  

The county requested that density be “recalculated” due to wetlands in the area, according to Zampetti.

She stated that the county was requiring that Scherer hold a meeting with neighbors who live within 500 feet of the proposed project.

“We will not approve anything until the community meeting is held and folks are able to share their concerns and suggestions,”  she wrote.

However, she also said in regards to the developer, “They have their zoning, and if they comply with the code, then as a matter of law, (the project) would be approved.”

Scherer presented a revised site plan to the gathered community members Thursday night, which he still needs to officially submit to the county. It detailed fewer apartments. There are fewer buildings, but the plan does suggest adding three-story structures. It also describes adding park areas and a wider setback.

Residents, including representatives of nearby homeowners associations, expressed concern about the project not fitting in an area heavy with single-story residences. Members of the Southern Oaks, Riverside Village and Heritage Lakes homeowners associations were invited to the meeting.

Residents complained about the project possibly bringing increased traffic to streets, adding rentals to an area heavy with single-family homes and the possible compromise of safety of children. Some were concerned about the risk of it being converted to subsidized housing. 

Carl Annalora is president of the homeowners association for Heritage Lakes, a 55-and-older subdivision off Little Road. He read from a prepared statement citing  concerns, which included ones that the complex would raise traffic and affect “ingress and egress” from Heritage Lake.

"We at Heritage Lake are concerned that rental rental property adjacent to our community will devalue our properties,” he said.   

Complainants interrupted Scherer and then interrupted each other. A line of people formed outside the church, and Scherer said he was prepared to give his presentation twice so everyone could hear. He didn't get a chance to after a question-and-answer session devolved into debate. 

Before that, he said he was "not pursuing public funding." He said he is almost finished with a traffic study.

Scherer said Thursday after the meeting that he would review the suggestions and consider changes to the plan. He said he intends to move forward with submitting his plan to the county.

Mostly quiet during the presentation was state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who owns a house in Heritage Lakes. Fasano stood in back of the crowd and then talked to people after the presentation.

He is “absolutely” opposed to the complex, he said in an interview after the meeting. He said he is concerned that the development would be approved, and that if county staff green light the developers, he and others plan to appeal to the county Development Review Committee and then the County Commission.

“The people there tonight must have their say," he said.

Want to Know More?

An online petition has been started in protest of the project and a website to "Save Amazon Drive" is live.  It's now advising readers to contact county Commissioner Henry Wilson at hwilson@pascocountyfl.net and Pamela Shaw, the development review technician who has been assigned to this project, at pshaw@pascocountyfl.net.