An Open Letter to the Pasco County Commissioners:

There are so many residents of this community who are fired up and heartbroken over Trinity Development Initiative’s concept of developing the land between State Road 54 and Little Road into a sports complex. I was born and raised in Trinity and all the recent development has always made me sad, but the extravagance of this plan shows that the greed and ambition of the wealthiest members of our community has gone too far. Trinity is not a hub for tourism or commercialism, it’s a small town where parents can send their kids to school for a good education, where kids can safely play in the neighborhood parks, and families can go for walks with their pets. Where residents can enjoy the peace of living in a place that is far removed from the hustle and bustle of big city centers.

When I saw the boundaries proposed for this project, it brought me to tears. I always imagined having kids and sending them to school here as I once did because I have so much love for this community, but Trinity is going to be unrecognizable for the worst if this project were to come to fruition. It would not be a place I would want to live and raise a family. My parents live in Foxwood directly bordering the outline for the new development and this will completely change the home that they’ve lived in for 25 years. The home I grew up in. They go for walks and bike rides on the Starkey Gap Trail every single day to enjoy the nature and sunset and the peaceful scenery. Now, a group being led by the local church pastor of all people, are proposing that be ripped away in favor of fluorescent stadium lights and metal bleachers in the name of money. My dog loves to see all of the gopher tortoises and deer and cows during his nightly runs on the trail and now he and our children will have nothing there but concrete and chain link fences as the endangered and threatened species are forced out of what little habitats they have left. How can the county in good conscience move forward with approving this? With the destruction of a dwindling habitat that acts as a sanctuary to so many precious animals? With our children growing up in a place that prioritized construction and cash flow over preservation and natural beauty? 

Not to mention the lack of infrastructure that Trinity has to support a development of this severity. The impacts from the two recent hurricanes left neighborhoods crippled and families devastated as they experienced flooding like never before despite not being located in a flood zone. Where do we expect the water to drain when we inevitably are faced with more hurricanes in the future? What answer are you going to give the families who lost so much if a sports stadium is prioritized over solving this issue? The traffic has become increasingly frustrating for residents over the last several years as commute times are increasing and worse yet, injuries and deaths caused by auto accidents are becoming heartbreakingly more frequent. Three of my schoolmates that I knew personally have tragically died in auto accidents, and with a community that has so many schools, it is imperative that we are mindful of our children’s safety.

My parents moved here 40 years ago because it was a quiant, quiet, and safe place to live with a good balance of nature for their children to enjoy and resources such as a good school district and local amenities. We have since tipped the scales in favor of development, adding on countless chain restaurants and superstores and forgetting the beauty that Trinity once was sought after for. Every few months when I would come home and visit from college, more and more had been developed. Slowly, I stopped recognizing the town I grew up in and have loved so dearly my entire life. We have developed enough to keep up with the current times, and it’s vital that we ask ourselves when enough is enough. 

When this project is eventually brought forward to the county, your constituents beg you to please consider and remember this: Homes will be ruined. People who have lived here their entire lives here will be forced to move. Property values will plummet. We don’t want this. We don’t need to cram construction into every single square inch of open land. Think about your community and how this impacts them beyond hypothetical commerce that is measured by spreadsheets and not by the hearts of the living, breathing people of this community. Do not let the voices of the top few percent of people in this community with the money to wield influence silence the voices of the majority percent of constituents who just want to thrive and live a peaceful life in this community. The community that they chose before it was developed, or the community that they chose exactly as it is. Please do the right thing and steward that land differently. Or better yet, leave it alone. Please. The people of Trinity are begging you. I am begging you.