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Pasco’s growth fuels economy
By Kathy Steele Special to The Laker/Lutz News
Apartment construction is dominating residential development along the State Road 54/State Road 56 corridor — a magnet for development in the midst of Pasco County’s surging growth. As rooftops on luxury apartment homes pop up, retail is following, as evidenced by roadside signs and county permits.
Former pastures along the heavily traveled road are occupied now with shops, restaurants, apartments, auto dealerships and Class A offices. The Shops at Wiregrass, near Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, in Wesley Chapel, has added Athleta; go! Calendars & games; and, siKicks (a footwear and collectibles shop); Charming Charlies; and, Hickory Farms. Coming soon are Body Details; Hickory Farms; JABZ Boxing; and The Living Room.
Besides expanding its retail, Cypress Creek Town Center, a massive development west of the Interstate 75/State Road 56 interchange, is jumpstarting its residential plans. County building permits indicate that Garrett Apartments are coming to Grand Cypress Drive, and Silversaw at Wesley Chapel is rising along Garden Village Way See ECONOMY, page 11A
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A new apartment community, Avidity Living, is being built at State Road 54 and Oak Grove Boulevard, in Land O’ Lakes. EOS Fitness will be built at the intersection.
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A Circle K gas station and convenience store is nearing completion at State Road 54, across from the entrance to the Ballantrae subdivision. Woodie’s Wash Shack is coming soon, too.
BMW of Wesley Chapel is building a six-story building on State Road 56.
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SPECIAL SECTION inside this week
Florida passes law aimed Pasco officials: at vaccine mandates Open Ridge Road Gov. Ron DeSantis also signs a law that gives parents the right to make healthcare choices involving their children
By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed four bills into law — adopted during a special session of the Florida Legislature — intended to prevent workers from losing their jobs due to COVID19 vaccination mandates and to protect parents’ rights to make healthcare decisions for their children. DeSantis signed the bills during a news conference on Nov. 18 at Brandon Honda. In making the announcement, which was posted on YouTube, DeSantis said, “We provide protections for people. No nurse, no firefighter, no police officer, no trucker — no anybody — should lose their job because of these COVID jabs. “We’re making sure that people have a right to earn a living, people have protections in their place of employment and that parents have protections to be able to direct the upbringing of their kids,” the governor said.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody told the crowd:“Today, we announced that Florida has filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, which has required all Florida healthcare professionals to be mandated — regardless of even if you are tending to patients. “We know, in our rural counties in Florida, we are seeing devastating losses of healthcare professionals, already. This will decimate our ability to provide needed, vital, crucial, healthcare to Floridians,” she said. Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, put it this way: “If you go back to April and May and June, of 2020, we were in a situation where our healthcare frontline providers were putting their lives on the line every day, prior to there being a vaccine. Prior to there being monoclonal antibodies. Prior to there being the antivirals that we have today. “So, now, that same nursing force, that took us from April of 2020 to November, of now, 2021, now, we’re saying,‘Thank you, but we don’t respect your private, individual rights any longer,’” Simpson said.“We are not going to do that in the state of Florida.We’re not going to do those unconstitutional mandates that are coming down from the federal See VACCINE, page 11A
extension ASAP
By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Pasco County officials are pushing to open the Ridge Road extension to the Suncoast Parkway interchange, as soon as the road is ready. But Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano said that Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise may want to delay the opening. “They may not have the tolling equipment in place.They may hold back, opening the road,” Mariano told his colleagues, during the board’s Nov. 9 meeting. “If they don’t have the toll stuff on the roads ready, I think you guys agree, we should just open the road. Let the people start traveling. It’s the people’s money that built it, one way or the other, anyway. Let’s get it going,” Mariano said. Commissioner Mike Moore agreed, putting it this way: “We need to open this, in the first of December. If they want to continue with holding this up, I will be out there with an orange vest and a flag. And, I’m the last person they want to see on that road, directing traffic every day.” County Administrator Dan Biles told the board there are efforts underway to persuade Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise to change its position. See EXTENSION, page 11A