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Planning Commission backs Kenton Road commercial MPUD with conditions after residents raise traffic, drainage and notice concerns
Summary
The Pasco County Planning Commission recommended approval of the Kenton Road commercial MPUD (PDE 26-78-72) to the Board of County Commissioners, adding conditions including a property-owners association for the social gathering area, deleting two sentences in condition 5 per the applicant's amendment, and adding prohibitions (pawn shops, certain uses); residents pressed concerns about runoff, dust, private-road access and project phasing.
The Pasco County Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of PDE 26-78-72, a request to rezone land at the northwest corner of Kenton Road and Elam Road to a master-planned unit development that would allow about 110,000 square feet of nonresidential space and a 120-room hotel, while attaching conditions to address neighborhood concerns.
Applicant representative Barbara Wilhite described design commitments intended to create a “community hub” with a pedestrian-oriented social gathering area, limits on uses in certain subareas (restaurants, cafés and bars only for the first two years in areas B and C), prohibition of freestanding drive-thrus and a requirement that storage components provide first-floor retail rather than ground-floor storage-only. She said the applicant agreed to require a property-owners association (POA) and to add pawn shops to the project’s prohibited-uses list.
Residents who live on the adjacent private Kenton Road told the commission the road is a narrow, largely unimproved single-lane route; they said construction traffic, parking, speeding and stormwater runoff are already harming property and privacy. “You put in 10 acres of concrete, asphalt, more cars, more runoff — it’s just gonna devastate everybody that lives down the road,” resident Philip Singletary said.
Bruce Landis, a project engineer, told the commission the site generally drains northwest and that the development will meet Pasco County and Southwest Florida Water Management District permitting criteria, including limiting post‑development runoff to predevelopment levels in a 25‑year, 24‑hour storm. He also said project plans moved runoff away from Elam Road into designed ponds and wetland systems.
Commissioners pressed staff and the applicant for clearer, enforceable commitments: how the social gathering space will be implemented and measured, protections for trees and private access, dust mitigation during construction and a clear timing/phasing plan for Kenton Road improvements. Staff highlighted that the land development code and conditions of approval require social gathering areas to be accessible by at least two modes (automobile, neighborhood vehicle, bicycle or foot) and encouraged collocation with civic uses; staff and the applicant pointed to a suite of dimensional and orientation restrictions intended to protect neighborhood character.
The motion to recommend approval included deleting the last two sentences of condition 5 (reflecting the applicant’s on‑record amendment withdrawing a variation) and adding an explicit POA requirement and a prohibition on pawn shops. The motion carried by voice vote.
The commission directed staff and the applicant to hold follow‑up outreach with residents and to provide additional visual or dimensional clarifications ahead of the Board of County Commissioners hearing.
