Anclote River should be protected as former grove sprouts houses

A former citrus grove providing a spate of greenery along State Road 54 and Madison Street in the Elfers area of urbanized west Pasco is going to be developed. No question about it. The county's comprehensive land use plan allows the agriculturally zoned property to become the site of more than 1,000 residences.

A key question for Pasco commissioners to consider today, though, is how the property will develop. A plan that allows all of the permissible residential units plus commercial and light industrial space raises legitimate concerns about too much density because the Anclote River abuts the site.

Certainly the land belonging to the Harvey family trust will not remain pristine. An elementary school sits directly beside it, and residential and commercial development is all around it. Such infill development — building on land already surrounded by infrastructure — should be encouraged to combat sprawl.

But, a comprehensive plan amendment to be considered by commissioners today would allow all 1,043 residences to be built — mostly in multifamily rather than single-family housing — plus set aside 24 acres for industrial land and 40 acres for commercial development. The amendment addresses the need for identifying light industrial space in the western inland area of the county. That the private sector is trying to respond to the 2008 Urban Land Institute's report to bolster Pasco's long-term economy is good to see, but allowing all of the residential density to remain as well strikes us as too much of a good thing.

Some environmental advocates from Pinellas County are concerned about the water quality of the Anclote River, and other natural resource safeguards spelled out in the county's wellhead protection ordinance for special areas like sinkholes. The proposed amendment sets aside more then 30 acres of wetlands as conservation land, promises to meet the county's 50-foot setback requirements from the river and to locate the industrial land away from the Anclote.

Those are appropriate buffers, but as the land moves through the site development phase, county staffers and commissioners must ensure other protections are not compromised. The wellhead protection ordinance likely will restrict what can be built near Madison Street because of an old well in the Colonial Hills neighborhood and likewise could prompt other building constraints if sinkholes exist on the land. (County maps and information from the opponents disagree on this point.)

Commissioners should not prohibit development on the 200-acre parcel, but they should limit how much is allowed and where it will go in order to help protect the Anclote River, a key to the sponging, fishing and tourism industries in nearby Tarpon Springs.