The Laker-East Pasco-June 15, 2016

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The LAKER

ee r F

EAST PASCO EDITION

LAKERLUTZNEWS.COM

Dr. Sara is here to help your child grow up healthy and strong.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE Upscale RV park rolling into Dade City Welcome 700 Dade City Families!

By Kathy Steele

ksteele@lakerlutznews.com

Board-certified pediatrician Kousalya Sara, M.D., is now accepting new patients. Same-day appointments are available and walk-ins are welcome. To schedule an appointment, call 352-437-5003.

Recreational vehicles and RV parks dot the landscape of rural thoroughfares surrounding Dade City. But, just north of the historic downtown district, a very uncommon RV park is being planned.This project, an upscale RV gated community with amenities more often found in pricey single-family home subdivisions, is moving toward development. Hill Country Estates is at 17151 U.S. 301, atop one of Dade City’s rolling hills. “It’s a pretty unusual project,” said Jack Buckley, real estate solutions provider with Exit Realty in Land O’ Lakes. The site has 37 ready-to-build one-acre lots.

Construction on the first site is anticipated within 45 days. A standard feature will be a pull-through RV garage. Buyers will have several floor plan options ranging from about 1,200 square feet up to a more customized 5,000 square feet. There will be one-bedroom, one-bath; two-bedroom, two- bath; and three-bedroom and two-bath houses. Amenities can include an observation deck atop the garage, a pool house, garden and courtyard.The base price will be about $505,000. There also would be fees for a homeowner’s association. “We like to think these would be a second residence,” said Buckley. Though for

See WELCOME, page 11A

COURTESY OF BEN WATTERS/SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY

Bradley Bunin, left, holding 2-year-old Ashton Bunin, beams with pride as his wife, Danielle Bunin, holds the master’s degree given to her by Saint Leo University President William Lennox.

A graduation ceremony for one

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B INSIDE, PAGE 1B

Some days don’t go exactly as planned. Just ask Danielle Bunin. The Land O’ Lakes’ resident was in line on April 30 waiting for the procession to start for her commencement ceremony at Saint Leo University. While waiting, Bunin —six months pregnant at the time — stepped away from the crowd to get some fresh air. She passed out, fell down and landed on her stomach.

W

See GRADUATION, page 11A

Member of the Medical Staff at Bayfront Health Dade City.

ksteele@lakerlutznews.com

Publisher

After an ambulance ride and four hours in an emergency room, Bunin heard the good news that her baby would be fine. But, she had missed a graduation that meant so much to her and her family. She had expected to receive her second degree from the university that day — a master’s in business administration in human resource management. “She was really looking forward to making that walk,” said her husband, Bradley

See RV PARK, page 11A

13933 17th Street, Dade City, FL 33525

By Kathy Steele

By Diane Kortus ith this edition of The Laker, we’re proud to welcome 700 Dade City families to weekly home delivery of our newspaper. If you live in the downtown area, or in subdivisions south of town along Fort King Road and Clinton Avenue, you most likely found today’s paper in your driveway, and can look forward to receiving it every Wednesday. In addition to this new home delivery, we’ll continue to distribute 2,000 Lakers every week to 60 newspaper boxes, business locations and public buildings in the Dade City - San Antonio area. In Zephyrhills, we have another 130 outlets and 6,300 papers. Adding circulation is a big deal in the newspaper world, especially one that represents a 35 percent jump in one community, all in one week.And we do so without hesitation, and with much confidence, because Dade City readers and business leaders have been asking for home delivery of The Laker for some time. So when The Tampa Tribune stopped publishing so suddenly and unexpectedly in early May, we decided there was no better time than right now to add home delivery in Dade City.With the help of the fine folks at The Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce, we selected neighborhoods with demographics that matched those of newspaper readers, and decided to take the plunge and add all 700 homes the Chamber was recommending. Our goal is to fill the void left behind by the closing of The Tampa Tribune, which always had a strong following in east Pasco. Earlier this year, we began to step up our East Pasco news coverage when we hired Kevin Weiss as a full-time reporter assigned to Zephyrhills, Dade City and San Antonio. Kevin, a 2014 graduate of the University of South Florida, has the enthusiasm, energy and passion about community journalism that make his stories easy to read and understand. He is a talented, hardworking young man I’m proud to employ, and one I hope you have an opportunity to meet. Joining Kevin in our East Pasco news coverage is Kathy Steele, a seasoned jour-

BayfrontDadeCity.com/Pediatrics

Get all your favorite local news stories online.

JUNE 15, 2016

Pasco property values on the rise By Kathy Steele

ksteele@lakerlutznews.com

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.

FILE PHOTOS

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.


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