Pasco commissioners adopt stormwater master plan after residents press for Green Key drainage fixes

Pasco County commissioners approved an updated stormwater master plan and a ranked list of 15 priority projects after residents and civic speakers pressed officials to act on chronic flooding in the Green Key neighborhood and other coastal areas.

The plan's adoption followed public comment from multiple Green Key residents who said local drainage and infrastructure failures leave streets and properties inundated after even modest rain events. “Chronic flooding for decades rainy season and high tides,” resident Cheryl Orchard said, reading a prepared summary of the neighborhood's history. “The current drainage system is causing property flooding, even small rain events, leaving properties inundated for days.”

County public-works staff and the consultant team told the board the master plan catalogs 141 stormwater projects across Pasco County, scores and ranks them by a mix of criteria and highlights 15 projects the county can move toward design and permitting. “We spent a lot of time collecting all the information from the county,” Mark Hilliard, principal at Geosyntec and project lead, said during the presentation. He described the plan as a “road map for the county to move forward” that balances flood abatement, constructability, environmental benefit and resiliency.

Public-works director Jason Mickle said the county intends to pair the plan with a funding strategy. “We would like to execute this list of 15 projects in five years,” Mickle said, adding that the county's existing capital and stormwater fee revenue cover only a fraction of the estimated costs. He told commissioners the county will return with a rate-sufficiency analysis from Stantec showing options for pay-as-you-go, bonding and the use of outside grants.

Speakers urged using federal and state disaster and resilience grants to accelerate work. Residents and commissioners mentioned Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and other federal programs as possible sources for larger projects such as Magnolia Valley and Green Key neighborhood drainage. Commissioner discussion stressed both the need to prioritize projects that are immediately constructible and the value of assembling a funding plan before seeking outside grants.

Commissioners also heard updates on near-term work. Mickle said some “legacy” projects — including previously funded items such as Magnolia Valley and Sea Pines-related work — are already in design or under way and therefore were not re-listed among the 15 new priority projects. He added that the Green Key neighborhood drainage project is near bid stage pending permitting, but the larger Green Key Road project will require more time; the board was told drainage work must precede any paving.

After discussion the board voted to accept the master plan update and the prioritized project list and directed staff to present the funding analysis and a proposed schedule of work. The county stressed the plan is intended to be flexible: priorities may shift as funding, permitting and property-acquisition issues arise.

Why it matters: the master plan is the county's first comprehensive, countywide prioritization of stormwater needs since recent storm events exposed system vulnerabilities. Residents told the board persistent flooding is damaging homes, blocking safe access to a public beach and depressing quality of life. Commissioners flagged the mix of funding sources — capital budget, stormwater fees, grants and possible bonding — that will determine how quickly projects move from concept to construction.