Two Rivers' 6,547 Homes and a 35-Acre Surf Park Reach Their Final Pasco Vote

The last county-level decision on Two Rivers landed at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11, when Pasco County commissioners held their final public hearing on an amendment that would allow 6,547 homes and apartments, 480 hotel rooms, roughly 1.3 million square feet of retail and a 35-acre surf park on 3,405 acres along State Road 56, the road Wesley Chapel drivers use every day heading east toward U.S. 301. The hearing was held in the board room at the historic courthouse in Dade City, a drive of more than half an hour from most of Wesley Chapel.

The county has not posted the vote tally from the hearing. What is settled is the path that got the item there: the Pasco County Planning Commission recommended approval unanimously in July, with conditions, after a room full of residents lined up to speak against it.

What the amendment puts on the books

These are entitlements, meaning the maximum of what can be built on the property rather than what breaks ground next month.

Use	Maximum
Single-family homes	4,047
Apartments	1,878
Townhomes	514
Villas	108
Assisted-living beds	300
Hotel rooms	480

Add the residential lines and you get 6,547 units. One piece of the package cuts rather than adds: a previously approved 1,125-home community for buyers 55 and older comes out of the plan, with part of that land shifting to apartments and the assisted living facility. Fewer age-restricted rooftops. More rentals.

Two Rivers itself is a roughly 6,000-acre community stretching along SR 56 from Morris Bridge Road east to Gall Boulevard, built out across the Thomas family's former Two Rivers Ranch. Homes have been going up on the Pasco side since late 2022.

The lagoon, and why water dominated the room

Peak Surf Park would sit on 35 acres at the eastern, Zephyrhills-facing end of the property near U.S. 301, billed as Tampa Bay's first surf park with a target opening in 2027. The lagoon runs about six acres and would take roughly 8 million gallons to fill, pumped in over two to three weeks. The design puts a wave device in the center of a 360-degree pool so it pushes swells outward in four directions, which lets beginners and stronger surfers use the water at the same time. Plans also describe about a half-mile of sandy beach, restaurants, bars, retail, wellness space and event space.

Timing explains the temperature of the July hearing. From April 3 through July 1, the Southwest Florida Water Management District had Pasco under a modified Phase III extreme water shortage order that held lawn irrigation to one day a week. Residents who spent the spring watering once a week showed up to ask about an 8-million-gallon wave pool.

More than a dozen people spoke at that hearing, most against. Speakers told planners the amendment was not a minor adjustment but a large-scale remaking of the area, and pressed the county to fix roads and protect water before signing off on more housing, according to local news reports. Flooding, lost green space and wildlife habitat came up repeatedly. At least one resident spoke in favor and said she was disappointed by how much opposition there was.

The numbers supporters used

An economic impact study the developer commissioned in 2022 projected more than $1.3 billion in annual business output within the park's first decade, roughly 700 jobs a year and close to $150 million in tax revenue over 10 years. Those figures come from the applicant, not the county, and commissioners have not independently endorsed them. Letters of support from Florida's Sports Coast and the Pasco Economic Development Council argued the park could make Pasco a visitor destination on its own.

Schools, the park, and the fine print

The plans call for a combined K-8 school built for around 2,000 students, a high school, and an 85-acre district park on land the county agreed to buy last year.

The condition worth tracking from the July recommendation is narrower and more consequential than any rendering. Planners told the applicant to come back with tighter surf park language, closer to a binding concept plan, before commissioners took it up. A concept plan written into the development order is much harder to walk away from later than a slide in a presentation.

Site work and individual subdivision approvals still run through the county after a comprehensive plan amendment, so the traffic and school questions raised in July will surface again project by project along the SR 56 corridor. Agendas and backup materials for future hearings are posted at pascocountyfl.net, and residents who want to comment remotely on a county hearing have to pre-register for each meeting separately.

We will keep following what gets built, and when, on Wesley Chapel's eastern edge. For more, visit Wesley Chapel Community Website, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X, and join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more government and politics stories and follow our business development coverage.

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