PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Matthew Troncone is one of the first people to move to Angeline, a development in Pasco County billed as a "city in the making."
"I tell everybody, 'You’re pioneers. You’ve got to think of the Old West when everybody went out for the gold rush. That’s basically what you are doing here,'" Troncone said.
Angeline occupies over 6,000 acres between State Road 52 and Ridge Road in central Pasco County.
“Once built out, it’s going to have about 7,500 homes,” said Metro Development Group vice president Lisa Gibbings.
There's already a magnet school and a community farm.
And just to the south is the Moffitt Cancer Center’s new Global Innovation Center called Speros.
Gibbings said Speros' footprint is "twice as big as downtown Tampa." They plan on having about 14,000 new employees just within the campus, not including the town center that will be built just across the street.
Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said she’s most excited about that town center concept.
It will have its own massive lagoon similar to the ones built on the east side of the county.
“Pasco County is unique in that we don’t have any big cities. We have our small cities. And I’m a big proponent of making those small cities special,” said Starkey.
There are many that have expressed concern about over development in Pasco County.
But Starkey said people want to move here.
“The growth that’s coming to Tampa Bay is coming to Pasco, land owners, property owners have rights. We just have to manage that the best we can, and it’s a big challenge,” said Starkey.
Angeline is far from Pasco’s only big development.
Another 3,800 homes and 300,000 square feet of retail office space are planned east of US 41 on State Road 52.
