Residents along Hancock Lake Road in rural Hernando County packed a commission meeting on August 25 demanding officials block a Pasco County developer from routing traffic, school buses, and emergency vehicles down their dead-end street. Westco Properties LLC wants to build a 12-lot subdivision on 63 acres at 18638 Possum Trot near Dade City, but 11 of those lots would only be reachable through Hernando County's Hancock Lake Road, not through Pasco's own unpaved Possum Trot Road.
Commissioners Signal Support for Vacating the Road
According to Tampa Bay Beacons, Hernando County Commissioner John Allocco said Hancock Lake Road was clearly designed as a dead-end road and suggested residents petition to vacate its end rather than allow the connection. Allocco also said the developer should simply build in Pasco County using its own infrastructure. Hernando County Public Works Director Scott Herring told commissioners the county would not allow access to Hancock Lake Road, and a Hernando County engineering study recommended against connecting the road to Pasco County at all.
Resident Tracy Ramirez presented commissioners with a petition and the county engineering study, and said afterward she was thrilled by the commission's response. Bob Morgan urged commissioners not to let staff issue a right-of-way special use permit, telling the board the developer intends to use Hancock Lake Road as its corridor. John Mitten, Steve Champion, and Jerry Campbell all voiced support for opposing the connection, with Campbell favoring doing everything legally possible to protect the road.
Why Hancock Lake Road Residents Say They'd Pay the Price
Jennifer Ward told commissioners residents bought along Hancock Lake Road for its rural character and low traffic, and reported the proposed development could add 30 to 35 vehicles per day once homes are built. Todd Crosby argued there was no public process for residents to weigh in because Hancock Lake Road is a public road, unlike the private approval process a developer might otherwise face. Randi Olson, who built her house on the road with her husband 20 years ago, told the board the couple personally paid to pave the road for emergency vehicle access.
That history matters to residents beyond Olson. The county's own 2014 ordinance created the Hancock Lake Road Paving Municipal Service Benefit Unit, which levied special assessments directly on local property owners to fund paving and infrastructure improvements, according to the Hernando County Clerk of Circuit Court. Residents say they paid for most improvements to the road themselves, and many depend on private wells rather than municipal water service, which adds to concerns that the proposed development could increase flooding and water usage in the area.
The Cross-Border Tax Question
Residents also raised a fiscal fairness argument during the meeting, noting that Hernando County taxpayers would shoulder all maintenance costs for Hancock Lake Road while Pasco County collects all property taxes and impact fees generated by the 12-lot subdivision, according to Citizen Portal. Once built, the subdivision would send Pasco County fire trucks, patrol cars, ambulances, and school buses down Hancock Lake Road, along with construction traffic during the building phase, since 11 of the 12 planned lots have no other way in or out.
The site plan calls for splitting the property into 12 lots north of Bayhead Road, a narrow strip of asphalt, under Pasco County's AR-5 Agricultural-Residential zoning, which allows five-acre residential lots. Westco Properties has filed a rezoning application to convert the 63 acres from AC agricultural zoning to AR-5 residential zoning. Notably, the developer's own plans show no connection between Hancock Lake Road and Possum Trot, even though Westco has access from Possum Trot itself.
The Legal Path to Cutting Off Access
Hancock Lake Road residents plan to begin the formal process of vacating the road and folding it into their own property, a legal maneuver grounded in Florida law. Under Florida Statute § 336.09, county commissions have discretionary authority to vacate, abandon, and close public roads or rights-of-way within their jurisdiction following a resolution and public hearing. If Hernando County vacates the road, a 1978 opinion from the Florida Attorney General holds that title to the underlying land automatically reverts to abutting property owners up to the centerline, converting the public thoroughfare into private property.
That reversion would strip the county of any power to grant right-of-way permits to outside developers, effectively making a connection to Pasco County impossible. It remains an open question whether Westco Properties will challenge a road vacation in court or instead redesign its site plan to build access internally off unpaved Possum Trot Road within Pasco County's own jurisdiction.
Other Business at the Same Meeting
The Hancock Lake Road dispute was one of several major items Hernando County commissioners tackled on August 25. Commissioners voted to accept an unsolicited proposal from Viridi Energy Asset Holdings IV, LLC to negotiate a public-private partnership for a landfill gas-to-renewable natural gas project at the Northwest Waste Management Facility, and authorized lease negotiations with Premier Community HealthCare to build a new integrated health center on county-owned land in Spring Hill offering primary care, dental, behavioral health, and pharmacy services.
Fire Chief Paul Hasenmeier, who holds a doctorate, presented options for fire impact fees during a workshop on extraordinary circumstances needed to justify exceeding statutory phase-in limits for the county's Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services capital facilities impact fees. Commissioners reached a consensus on fire impact fee option 2 and are scheduled to formally vote on it at their next regular meeting on September 10. Separately, commissioners authorized county engineers to coordinate installing no-passing roadway striping along nearby Ayers Road from U.S. Highway 41 to Culbreath Road to improve rural traffic safety, and Commissioner Ryan Amsler was absent from the session.
The Hancock Lake Road standoff echoes a broader pattern of development pressure along the Pasco-Hernando border near Dade City. Hoodline previously reported on a 1,500-home rezoning push for the 1,745-acre Grand Bar Ranch cattle property nearby, part of a wider surge of agricultural-to-residential conversions reshaping the area's rural roads and border communities.
