Pasco Clears Path for $100 Million Surf Park at Two Rivers in Zephyrhills

A 35-acre surf park with an artificial wave lagoon, a half-mile beach and a $100 million-plus price tag is moving forward inside the Two Rivers development in Zephyrhills, after Pasco County commissioners voted 3-0 in September to approve the comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning that clears the way for it. Peak Surf Park is targeting a late 2027 opening on State Road 56 near U.S. 301, on the eastern edge of Two Rivers.

The park would run on Surf Lakes technology out of Australia: a central plunger sitting inside a roughly 6-acre circular lagoon, pushing swells outward in four directions at once so beginners and advanced surfers can ride different breaks in the same pool at the same time. The design is built to handle up to 200 surfers an hour, with each surfer expected to catch around 10 waves per session, a very different pitch than the paddleboard-and-float lagoons already familiar to Pasco residents at Epperson and Mirada. This one is built for people who actually want to surf.

What's planned beyond the waves

Filling the lagoon alone will take roughly 8 million gallons of water, pumped in over two to three weeks, according to project details reviewed during the county approval process. Around the water, the plans call for a half-mile of sandy beach, restaurants, bars, retail shops, fitness and wellness space, and an outdoor venue for concerts and events. Developer Tony Miller, a longtime Tampa-area surfer, has been working to land the site for roughly two years.

The surf park is one piece of a much bigger buildout. The September approval covers 3,405 acres along SR 56 between Morris Bridge Road and Gall Boulevard, and earlier versions of the plan that moved through the Pasco County Planning Commission this summer described roughly 4,047 single-family homes, 1,878 apartments, 514 townhomes, 108 villas, a 300-bed assisted living facility, a 480-room hotel and about 1.3 million square feet of retail spread across Two Rivers.

Apartments tied to the wave pool

Commissioners attached a condition to the vote that ties new housing directly to the surf park's progress. The plan caps housing added under this approval at 240 garden-style apartments, and those units cannot break ground until Peak Surf Park receives its certificate of occupancy, or until three years pass after the amendment takes effect, whichever comes first. In practice, that means the developer has to deliver the wave lagoon before cashing in on that piece of the housing.

The path to approval wasn't quiet. Between April and July of this year, the Southwest Florida Water Management District held Pasco County under a modified Phase III extreme water shortage order, limiting lawn irrigation to one day a week. Residents who had spent the spring rationing sprinkler time showed up to a July planning hearing to ask how an 8-million-gallon wave pool squared with that. More than a dozen people spoke, most of them opposed, raising concerns about flooding, lost green space, wildlife habitat and whether roads and water supply could handle the scale of the broader Two Rivers expansion. Planning commissioners recommended approval anyway, but pushed for tighter, more binding language on the surf park before the item reached the full county commission.

An unproven technology, aimed at Tampa Bay

Surf Lakes has run its wave-generating plunger system at a lake in Yeppoon, Queensland, but has not yet opened a commercial park anywhere that charges surfers to ride. Peak Surf Park would be among the technology's first paying venues, which is part of why some in the surf park industry are watching the Zephyrhills project closely. Tampa Bay has warm water and a dense population within an hour's drive, but no reliable natural surf, a gap Miller has pointed to as the case for building here.

County approval settles the land-use framework for the surf park and the housing around it, but construction has not started, and more permitting steps remain before ground is broken. The 2027 opening date first floated when Miller signed the site deal in 2024 is still the target, though the timeline will depend on how quickly the remaining permits move and when Surf Lakes' wave technology gets its first real test at a paying park anywhere in the world.

Have questions about how the Two Rivers buildout affects traffic or water use where you live? Join the conversation in our Community Forum, follow along on Facebook, and check Pasco County Community Website for updates as permitting moves forward. For more on what's coming to the county, browse our Coming Soon and Business Development coverage.