St. Petersburg Times editorial: Pasco Transit plan deserves chance, not a change

Pasco commissioners should resist the temptation to start altering their long-term development map before the ink is even dry. Just three months after approving new financing for the future transportation network, commissioners are considering a pitch from a pair of landowners who want to develop property without having to kick in additional dollars for road or mass transit costs.

Though a final answer isn't expected until January, the request means commissioners must confront an imperative question: Is vacant land a candidate for urban development simply because it is near a highway interchange or because it has utilities and a road available? Or, for the time being, should urbanization be contained in the corridors providing mass transit?

The commission's answer will shape the county's long-term development patterns and determine if the county's new way to pay for transportation is destined to be a bust before it even begins.

At issue is the mobility fee adopted by the commission in July that waives or reduces up-front transportation costs for developing offices, industrial space and more intensive residential use in the county's southern tier that is earmarked for mass transit. Other landowners, however, now want to be a part of the so-called urban service areas. The sites in question are the area around the State Road 52 and Suncoast Parkway interchange and a proposed town center area of the Watergrass development in northern Wesley Chapel.

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