ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — Shaun Sikat grew up in Zephyrhills and has seen it boom.
“This used to be the retirement Community city and now it’s the average age of 30-45 years that are moving into town,” he said.
Billy Poe grew up here, too, and is now the city manager.
“It’s incredible. We’ve doubled in size in the last few years,” Poe said.
That growth now means Zephyrhills is Pasco County’s biggest city.
All over town, there are new houses and apartment buildings going up.
Business owners like Sikat, who runs Winners On Main, said this once sleepy town has got a lot more to offer.
“When I moved back 5-6 years ago. It’s just booming since. Bruce B. Downs was the road to nowhere. There was nowhere to go and that’s where we used to ride four-wheelers and goof off and now it’s a huge metropolis where, as it’s moving in here, we are seeing the growth rapidly,” Sikat said.
City leaders said want to make sure all this growth doesn’t lead to a water shortage in the future. That’s why they discussed putting a moratorium on new development for a year.
According to the city of Zephyrhills, the moratorium on new development passed during a city council meeting held on Monday night.
The city, known as home to the Zephyrhills water bottling plant, is near the maximum water use allowed under the existing permit, which is currently 3.3 million gallons a day.
“We just want to be responsible and make sure we do have enough water for the development that’s coming. So instead of approving developments and not having enough water to provide, we are going through the mechanism through SWFTMD to modify our permit and increase our pumping capacity,” said Poe.
Zephyrhills has been called The City of Pure Water.
But leaders are actually about to change the branding slogan to something else.
The city manager said the timing of the change is purely coincidental.
“We are more than just water. We have a lot more to offer, so we are trying to capture all of that,’’ said Poe.
