Pasco planning panel approves Mitchell SJP rezoning for business park, with neighbor concerns about notice and impacts

The Pasco County Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to approve a rezoning request that will allow a large master-planned industrial/office campus and a small commercial node on about 92.6 acres near State Road 54 and Starkey Boulevard.

Planning staff described the proposal as a conversion of an existing I-2 industrial-zoned site to an MPD (Master Planned Development) allowing a 515,000-square-foot “business park” component and a roughly 107,660-square-foot commercial retail node along State Road 54. The MPD includes a number of conditions and five requested variances addressing vehicular access, responsibility for open space and stormwater without an HOA or CDD, blended mobility fees in the business park, and internal landscape buffers.

Kurt Cyrus, planning staff, said utilities exist for the site, that a bus-stop is planned along SR 54 frontage, and that the applicant committed $15,000 toward a connection to the Starkey Trail. The staff report recommended approval with conditions and found that the MPD is consistent with the county’s Western Hub/sub-area policies and economic objectives.

Clark Hobby, attorney for the applicant (St. John Properties / the Mitchell family), told the commission his client intends to build a campus-style, light-industrial/flex business park and maintain long-term ownership of the buildings. Hobby said the plan reduces potential intensity compared with historic heavy-industrial entitlements on the site, and estimated the completed business park could generate roughly 1,800 jobs based on comparable developments.

Two neighboring residents spoke in opposition during public comment. Molly Fisher, of Foxwood, said the area currently serves as a rare pocket of green space used by local families and expressed concern that MPD zoning would permit later pivots to denser or different uses, and could start a domino effect of flexibilizing adjacent parcels. Marie Chisholm, a resident of Country Place Mobile Home Park, said tenants there had not been individually notified of the application and described traffic and affordability pressures in the neighborhood.

Staff and the applicant responded that the MPD as proposed does not include residential uses, that many traditionally allowed heavy-industrial uses would be voluntarily prohibited, and that the county’s notice program notifies registered neighborhood organizations rather than every individual tenant on a property-appraiser mailing list. Staff confirmed the applicant had mailed the property owner of the mobile home park and that the owner’s name appeared on the application’s notice list.

The commission approved the MPD rezoning on a voice vote; the record also shows an abstention was entered by one commissioner who had disclosed an involvement in the project. The commission’s approval includes the conditions and the variances described in staff’s findings.

The item will now move to the Board of County Commissioners, where residents were reminded they may testify again.

Why it matters: The rezoning converts a large tract long zoned for heavier industrial uses into a mixed light-industrial/business park and a commercial node intended to generate jobs along a busy roadway. For neighbors, questions about notice, buffering, traffic, and the long-term pattern of development were central to their concerns. The county’s conditions seek to address some of those issues through buffers, access management, and off-site trail funding.

What’s next: The Planning Commission’s recommendation will be transmitted to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners for final action; the staff report and conditions will travel with the item.