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LAND O’ LAKES/LUTZ EDITION
JUNE 8, 2016
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Cheddars Scratch Kitchen opened on June 6 in front of Tampa Premium Outlets.
Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen opens, Chick-fil-A comes next By Kathy Steele ksteele@lakerlutznews.com
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Pasco County residents looking to grab a bite to eat will have two new dining options starting this month. One of those options, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, opened on June 6. Chick-fil-A will open June 30. The restaurants are side-by-side on Sun Vista Drive, in front of Tampa Premium Outlets, off State Road 56, in Wesley Chapel. Before opening day at Cheddar’s, about 170 employees received training and worked at an invitation-only dinner session to get ready for customers. “I think we’re excited. It’s a new destination, a new area,” said Mark Garcia, a general manager from Laredo,Texas. He was on temporary assignment to launch Cheddar’s at the Cypress Creek Town Center, a major retail center anchored by the outlet mall. Pasco County resident John Seebach will be the new restaurant’s general manager. Diners weren’t the only ones eager to have Cheddar’s on their radar. Garcia said about 1,500 people applied for jobs. The restaurant seats nearly 320 people and serves meals made fresh from scratch daily. Menu items include hand-battered onion rings, grilled hand-cut salmon, homemade chicken pot pie and hot fudge cake sundaes. “Everything is made pretty much in house,” Garcia said. This is the first Cheddar’s in Pasco. Next door, construction crews are busy
Construction is nearing an end at Chick-fil-A on Sun Vista Drive, by Tampa Premium Outlets. Opening is June 30.
getting Chick-fil-A primed for its opening. Owner Britt Young previously owned a Chick-fil-A in Moultrie, Georgia. “I’ve got family all around here,” said Young, who lives in Lutz.“We love the area.” The chicken chain got its start in 1946 as a diner in Atlanta, opened by Truett Cathy. Cathy opened his first Chick-fil-A brand restaurant in 1967, also in Atlanta. From the beginning, Cathy kept his restaurants closed on Sundays, saying employees needed time to spend with their families. According to the company website, Chick-fil-A has about 1,700 locations in 38 states and Washington D.C.
Getting rid of thousands of wet tons of sludge each year – also known as biosolids – isn’t as easy as flushing a toilet and watching it drain out of sight —beyond anyone’s smell. Pasco County is looking toward new technology and biosolids management company, Merrell Bros. Inc., to deliver a solution. Pasco County commissioners heard a presentation during a May 17 workshop regarding a proposed facility that can turn sludge into dry fertilizer that can be sold. Consultants from CDM explained how the system would work to commissioners. Merrell would construct and operate the facility, which would be owned by the county and located at the Shady Hills solid waste complex. County officials estimate a cost savings of as much as $750,000 a year based on a service agreement with Merrell. Construction costs would not exceed $13 million.The facility could be online within two years. The Indiana-based company is the second to seek the county’s business. In 2011, commissioners selected Earth,Wind & Fire Technologies to handle the county’s sludge, but the company folded before negotiating a contract. Earth, Wind & Fire planned to create a synthetic diesel fuel from the sludge. Pasco annually ends up with about 23,000 tons of sludge that fills about 1,100 dump trucks, according to Anthony Pevec, environmental engineer with CDM. Much of it is composted or hauled to landfills in Georgia. But, some also goes to St. Cloud, where the largest bio-landfill in central Florida is located.Tipping fees there rose about 13 percent in the last year, according to data from CDM. Pevec told commissioners that getting rid of sludge is expensive and is getting more so as state regulations limit available sites. Counties worried about protecting clean water also are restricting new site permits, including Pasco. According to CDM, St. Petersburg’s disposal method is estimated to cost about $80 million. Nearly four years ago, Hillsborough County spent more than $25 million on a See SLUDGE, page 11A
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Pasco property values on the rise By Kathy Steele ksteele@lakerlutznews.com
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Pasco County property values grew by about $1.1 billion in 2015, according to tax estimates released by the Pasco County Property Appraiser’s Office. That’s about 5.2 percent higher than the current tax roll and shows accelerated growth, compared to the previous steady growth of 4 percent, year to year. Much of the increase is being fueled by nearly $685 million in new residential and commercial construction. The southern half of Pasco, particularly along the State Road 54/State Road 56 corridor is driving the growth, said Wade Barber, chief deputy at Pasco County Property Appraiser’s office. “I think it will continue to be so,” he said. “Nothing up north is really going gangbusters yet.” County records reflect the rising values. Tampa Premium Outlets, which opened with more than 90 stores in October 2015, currently is valued at about $98 million. A year earlier with only vacant land to assess, the county pegged the property’s taxable value at nearly $12 million. Lowe’s on State Road 54 in Lutz jumped from about $1.8 million in taxable value in 2015 to about $8.8 million now, records show.The home improvement store opened in April 2015. More new housing construction is on the way, including Bexley Ranch in Odessa and Union Station in Wesley Chapel. Florida Hospital Center Ice Complex in Wesley Chapel is expected to open in October. The upward trend in valuations could continue, but Ward cautioned that state-imposed caps on increases play a role in holding values down. State law limits increases in valuations to no higher than 10 percent for commercial, nonresidential properties, and no more than 3 percent for homesteaded properties.
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Crowds gathered outside stores on opening day at Tampa Premium Outlets. The mall was part of nearly $685 million in new construction that is pushing up Pasco County’s property values.
Lowe’s home improvement store on State Road 54 is valued at about $18 million by Pasco County Property Appraiser’s office, and helped boost overall county property values.
“It really holds you to the 5 percent range without new construction,” Barber said. Overall, the boost in valuations spread to
Pasco’s cities as well. Estimated values and percentage increases are: Zephyrhills, $609 million, a 1 percent increase; Dade City, $265.7 million, a 2.1 percent increase; San Antonio, nearly $56 million, a 3.2 percent increase; Port Richey, nearly $252 million, a .08 percent increase; and New Port Richey, $504 million, a .08 percent increase. The Town of St. Leo showed a modest increase of about $22,400 to an estimated value of about $8.7 million. But, the town’s property values remain in the doldrums compared to the nearly $10 million value in 2014. The town lost about 85 homes in the Lake Jovita subdivision when Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill to de-annex the homes in 2014.The homes were added to unincorporated Pasco’s tax base.