Drive to the end of Hancock Lake Road and it becomes clear why the people who live out here have fought so hard to keep it the way it is.
The pavement runs out about a mile in, then narrows to a dirt track that stops at the Pasco County line. Past the signs blocking the way is the land a developer wants to turn into a large-lot subdivision, and the only practical way to reach it is the same lane that now carries pickup trucks, mail carriers and the occasional tractor.
Driving east from Spring Hill and Brooksville is like stepping into a time machine. Well before Interstate 75, it is obvious why people out here want to stop the sprawl.
On a recent Friday morning, Ayers Road past Leadfoot City might as well be another planet. Trees, oversized parcels, houses set far off the road and unpaved drives take over. It is quiet enough that the rumble strips and lighted stop sign at Culbreath Road come as a jolt. Ayers Road becomes Hayman Road at that intersection.
Cumulonimbus clouds stack up in the distance. At Hancock Lake Road, the thing to do is get out of the car and listen. Thunder, somewhere far off. That is all.
Turn right and head south, and H&A Farms’ blueberry fields spread out on the left. Trees close in on both sides, then give way to gates and driveways, paved and unpaved, with houses barely visible at the end of them. A farm stand sits by the road, its price list chalked on a blackboard. Horses graze in the morning sun.
The road narrows as it goes, running more than a mile before the pavement ends at a curve to the right and the last stretch turns to dirt.
To see Possum Trot, the road neighbors have raised repeatedly at public meetings, backtrack up Hancock Lake Road and turn left on Hayman. At Culbreath, turn left and head south. The road becomes Bellamy Brothers Boulevard at the Pasco line. Turn left on Bayhead Road, mind the potholes, and Possum Trot appears on the left.
It is unpaved where it runs north toward Hernando County. A sign at the intersection advertised the Aug. 20 community meeting on the project.
Small wonder the developer prefers Hancock Lake Road, though even that route would be barely adequate for construction trucks and other heavy equipment.
Cattle rest in the shade of the big trees along both sides of Bayhead Road. The thunder is still out there.
Farther down Bellamy Brothers Boulevard, the intersection with State Road 52 tells the other half of the story: subdivisions, clear-cut tracts and a four-lane road pressing up against quiet agricultural land.
This is the nightmare Hernando County residents describe when they say they don’t want to look like Pasco County.
Whether both visions can coexist remains to be seen.
