The city came one step closer to having an RV park on March 26 when the City Council voted at its regular meeting to approve updating its code to allow for such use. Previously, there was no such use in the city’s lexicon and thus no standards for this type of development.
Four of five council members — Linda Rodriquez, Cherokee Sampson, David Mueller and Mayor John Eric Hoover — voted to approve allowing RV parks in a Planned Unit Development (PUD) Zoning District. Council member Tom Kinsella voted against the measure, mostly because he felt the language of the ordinance, along with the city’s lack of a current updated Comprehensive Master Plan, could lead to an unintended proliferation of such parks throughout Port Richey.
He joined the other council members in saying they endorse the plan for the proposed RV park that made the change necessary. Diego and Lisa Freund, Wisconsin residents with a winter home in the Hernando Beach area, approached the city with plans to build an RV park on 16 heavily wooded acres off Congress Street near Ridge Road. The property has two existing homes and a natural spring.
“It’s very beautiful. It’s like old Florida back there,” Lisa Freund told the Suncoast News in a phone interview. “It’s like the campgrounds you would have found back when we were kids: very green and big trees and water. It’s its own little oasis.”
The planned park, which would not be visible from the street, would have large lots, plenty of green space and, later down the road, perhaps a tree house.
“We are planning to put in an RV park that is nice, clean, classy, great for families or, obviously, anybody that comes to Florida for vacation,” she said. “We love to travel, and we find it very difficult to find a place to park our RVs.” The current owners, she said, had the same vision and so while they could have sold it for other uses, they were happy to pass along their property to the Freunds.
At the meeting, council members spoke enthusiastically about the project, which they said would bring much-needed revenue to the city both in terms of developed property that would be taxed, and bringing in tourists who presumably will patronize local businesses and amenities. A new Port Richey Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center recently opened and will be staffed during the day, partially to direct visitors to area businesses and services. The addition of a park that could comfortably and aesthetically accommodate more than 120 RVs, most presumably housing more than one person, could add considerably to tourist traffic in New Port Richey.
While the process is far from complete, Freund said this step by the council means she and her husband can now begin the process of working with architects and engineers on the site plan for the property.
The Port Richey City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month at City Hall, 6333 Ridge Road (between Congress Street and U.S. 19) at 6 p.m. Meetings are livestreamed on YouTube and agendas and other information are available at cityofportrichey.com.
