Volume 18 Issue 24
WESLEY CHAPEL Inside:
Red Robin (Yum!) & Other Dining News See pages 36-37!
NEWS
November 20, 2010
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District Reworking Middle & High School Attendance Boundaries By Michael Smith Faced with a huge budget deficit and the requirements of the votermandated class size amendment, the Pasco County School District is in the process of redrawing the attendance boundaries for middle and high schools in the eastern part of the county to relieve overcrowding. In October, District officials appointed a boundary committee made up of school administrators, parents and School District staff members to look at the attendance boundaries for several of the schools in our area, including Dr. John Long and Thomas E. Weightman middle schools and Wesley Chapel (WCH) and Wiregrass Ranch (WRH) high schools, in addition to others in the Dade City and Zephyrhills areas. After meeting several times in October and early November, the committee has come up with a proposed plan that will redistribute the
students who attend those schools, beginning in the 2011-12 school year, although that plan does still have to be officially approved by the members of the Pasco County School Board, who will vote on it in early 2011. Before that happens, parents of the students who will be affected also will have the opportunity to weigh in with their opinion about the proposed boundary changes. According to District planning director Chris Williams, the boundary changes are needed because both of the middle schools in the Wesley Chapel area are overcrowded, as is WRH, while some of the schools in the surrounding areas are actually under capacity. According to enrollment figures, Long is currently at 135 percent of capacity, with 1,787 students in a school that was designed for 1,327, and Weightman is currently at 112 percent of capacity, with 1,087 students and a capacity of 974. Similarly,
Centennial Middle School in Dade City also is over capacity, with 673 students at a school that was designed for 615 students, but both Raymond B. Stewart Middle School in Zephyrhills and Pasco Middle School in Dade City are under capacity, at 88 and 78 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, WRH has almost 500 more students than it was designed for, with 2,130 students at a school that was designed for 1,675, or 127 percent of its capacity, but both WCH and Pasco High are operating at only about 90 percent of capacity. So, under the changes that have been proposed by Middle and high school students who live in the area the boundary committee, marked with orange & blue stripes will be moved out some of the students who of Long Middle School & Wiregrass Ranch High. See “Boundaries” on page 6.
At the November 10 meeting of the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), county officials heard details of the proposal, which would replace the current impact fees paid by developers with a “mobility fee” of $50 per year that would be assessed against every property owner in the county. The proposal also would increase the county gas tax by an addi-
tional 5 cents per gallon. The changes are partially in response to the passage last year of Senate Bill 360, which essentially did away with the concurrency requirements under which developers previously had to pay for the traffic impacts caused by new construction. Although the bill was later ruled unconstitutional, government officials say they expect that it will be tweaked and re-introduced in the 2011 state legislative session. Additionally, however, the new fee system is in line with Pasco County’s goal of attracting new business and industry to the county, which some say has been stifled in the past by the impact fees, which are among the highest in the region and significantly higher than those in neighboring Hillsborough County. Under the proposed system, developers would still pay some trans-
Pasco County Officials Studying Implementation Of ‘Mobility Fees’
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Student’s Plane Crash Lands In Wesley Chapel, Local Businesses Support Charities, Lots Of School & Local Sports News & More!
Civil War Reenactors Gather In Dade City, New Business Offers Cutting-Edge Skin Treatments, Red Robin Comes To The Shops At Wiregrass & More!!
See pages 3-24!
See pages 25-40!
See “Fees” on page 4.
ECRWSS
NEWS, BUSINESS, SPORTS & EDUCATION UPDATES
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Also Inside This Issue!
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In anticipation of changes to state law, Pasco County planners are studying a new fee system to pay for future transportation improvements that will place more of the burden of paying for those improvements upon property owners throughout the county rather than developers.
portation costs, but they would be less than the current impact fee structure calls for, and developers of transportation-friendly projects and projects that bring higher-paying jobs to the county would pay less than retail and residential developers. In addition, the county would be divided up into “market zones,” and fees would be less in the zones where the county wants more development, i.e., the southern and western portions of the county, and higher in other areas, to discourage new development there.
Dated Material Please Rush!
By Michael Smith
For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 18, Issue 24 • November 20, 2010 • www.WCNeighborhoodNews.com
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