TRINITY, Fla. – Pasco County is in the middle of a building boom, with staff reviewing 721 permit applications for new homes in January alone.

"The building boom we're seeing now has surpassed anything we've seen in prior years," said Pasco County Assistant Administrator for Development Services Sally Sherman.

According to information from the county, Pasco Building Construction Services processed 5,741 new single-family residential permits last year, up 32% from 2019. Each of the past six months has seen a higher number of permit applications than any month of the past eight years.

Brittany and Jordan Lung built their home in The Woodlands at Longleaf last year. 

“We just wanted something that we could customize ourselves," said Jordan Lung on why they wanted to build instead of buy an existing home.

The couple said they chose Pasco to be close to family and work – and because it was affordable.

“Just the value for the home per dollar was just much better in Pasco County," Brittany Lung explained.

Brittany and Jordan Lung (Spectrum News)

And it's not only single-family permits that are in high demand.

“Now that people are working remote, they started thinking about improvements to their home. They started thinking about accessories like pools," Sherman said.

Sherman said requests for pool permits in particular soared to 200 per month, up from a previous average monthly total of 80.

“The boom has created some challenges in our service delivery model, and for that we could apologize because that was definitely not anticipated," Sherman said.

To help ease employee work load, the county waived an administrative fee that would normally be charged when building plan reviews or inspections are performed by private providers instead of county staff. That will be in effect until the beginning of July. 

"We're not so concerned about the loss of revenue. The building fund is a dedicated fund that is used to enhance service delivery, so we can work with that. But our goal is to improve service delivery," Sherman said. “We’re not going to see this slow down. So, it’s not a temporary thing. We are looking at long-term fixes to enhance our service delivery model."

Sherman said that includes bringing on new team members. The goal is to get to a place where staff can issue a single-family home permit in ten days. She said the state currently gives counties 30 days to issue the permits, and Pasco is usually ahead of that timeframe.

Another type of residential development was brought up during the Jan. 12 Pasco Board of County Commissioners meeting.

"I've beaten this drum for years about apartment complexes in Pasco County, especially ones, I'll just say, in my district," Chairman Mike Moore told fellow commissioners. "So, I went ahead and did something."

Moore said he used his office account to fund a poll of residents in the Wesley Chapel and Land O' Lakes areas last month. Among the questions it asked was, 'Do you believe more apartments should be approved and built in Pasco County?" Out of 400 respondents, more than 57% answered "no". Those polled also said they'd rather see more office and commercial development (49%) than apartments (14.75%). Just more than 38% said they disapproved of the amount of apartment buildings in their community, compared to 24% who approved. A litte more than 37% said they were unsure or had no opinion. More than 57% said they do not think more apartments should be approved and built in Pasco County.

You can see the entire poll here.

Moore told BOCC members he commissioned the poll because it's a topic constituents approach him about nearly every day.

"I have even had COVID e-mails sent about vaccines that bring up the apartment subject in that e-mail. That shows you how frustrated the community is when it comes to the amount of apartment complexes being built in that area," Moore said at the meeting.

In a statement issued for this story, Moore said, “I am not going to support a zoning change or a conditional use from commercial/office to apartments in District 2. More apartments in that area will consume land and transportation capacity that the County must ensure is available for employment-generating land uses. There are already more than enough apartments to meet the needs of Pasco County residents in this area. In my time as a commissioner, I’ve never had one constituent request that we approve more apartments in District 2. Not once. The poll I conducted in the district proved this point.”

Just as the type of development that takes place in the county is on commissioners' radar, Sherman said the county will move forward with growth in general in a planned manner.

“We’re not just letting growth happen in a happenstance way. It is planned growth, so we’re making sure that all the infrastructure is in place to support all the new developments," Sherman said.

According to a county spokesperson, $3.25 billion worth of permitting was issued in 2020 that Sherman said will be on tax rolls in the next two years.