TRINITY — When Storyland Studios released its design for the “nation’s largest sports entertainment community” on 800 acres in Trinity, it set off a firestorm of community opposition that is unlikely to diminish. This includes hundreds of people signing a petition with change.org to stop the development, which they say will destroy the area’s community feel, increase traffic, worsen flood hazards and threaten wildlife.
Unveiled at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Orlando last month, the plans describe transforming what it calls “North Tampa” into a massive tourist attraction more than six times the size of Disney Springs, featuring “indoor and outdoor sports stadiums, arenas, complexes, professional fields and recreational spaces that compliment a mixed-use landscape complete with hotels, retail centers, an arts and theatre district, restaurants, medical centers, and residential developments,” according to a news release. “While still in pre-development, ‘Trinity’ will be the largest community land development project in the United States.”
It is a project of Trinity Development Initiative, which was incorporated last year specifically for this project. Chris Jefferson, a spokesperson for the initiative, told the Suncoast News the company has secured options on all of the land, and it hired Storyland to come up with proposed designs for the project.
Planning stage
Pasco County officials told the Suncoast News no plans have been filed for the project yet, but Jefferson says the intention is to build gradually, in stages, in complete cooperation with the county and transparency to the public. He characterized the complex as making amenities more accessible to area residents who have to endure long commutes to sporting and entertainment events. The addition of restaurants and other attractions would benefit the quality of life for the whole community, he said.
He also characterized the development as alleviating, rather than aggravating, flooding issues as well as traffic problems, by providing private roads the county cannot afford.
Although Trinity is a growing, and largely affluent, area — on unincorporated land adjacent to New Port Richey — numerous residents are adamant they don’t want to live in “North Tampa.”
The Change.org petition “reflects a broader tension in Pasco County between rapid development and preserving community character,” wrote Austyn Ross of change.org in an email to the Suncoast News.
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It’s a tension most recently played out in the city of Port Richey, where the majority of residents who responded to a survey objected to a dense development at Cotee River Landing. Those residents said they moved to Port Richey because of its small-town feel, and they did not want the city to become a mini-Clearwater Beach. Much of the same sentiment is surfacing in Trinity.
The area is not purely residential, however. It is home to several shopping plazas and the HCA Trinity Hospital Complex. In February 2023, the Suncoast News reported a partnership between Pasco County and the Mitchell Ranch Partnership LTD to develop the Mitchell Ranch area into a “town center” that would feature a mix of residential and commercial development. The project was intended to include 800 units of apartments and townhouses and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial space.