A cost-sharing and mutual cooperation agreement between Hernando County, Hernando County School Board, and Pasco-Hernando State College for Construction of New Government Center, New Technical Center, and Corporate College came before the Board of County Commissioners on June 22, 2021. The project, called the Hernando County Citizens Center for Success, will be constructed on 17.94 acres of county-owned property located at the Brooksville-Tampa Regional Airport (BKV). The commission voted unanimously to approve the Interlocal Mutual Cooperation And Cost Sharing Agreement.
The college will hire an architect for the project in order to master plan the entire site including operations for the school and college and any space needs for the county, according to county administrator Jeff Rogers. The cost to do this is around $25,000 and will be split between the three parties. After the master plan is complete, an initial infrastructure for the site will be done which includes clearing the site, paving, drainage and utilities.
Each party is fully responsible for the funding of their own buildings.
Commissioner Narverud asked if there is a limitation on how much land can be used by the technical school, not to hinder the government building space they will need.
Rogers explained that there is no hindrance on how much land they can use in the cooperation agreement document.
“I will tell you that the plan will come before you. The use of the technical school will not limit the county’s ability for that building in the future. Currently, our space needs in the county- the original plan was to put a government center there- things have changed- as you are aware- we are going forward with the courthouse remodel and we do not have as big of a footprint need in the future, but we do have a significant need for a building for the supervisor of elections, tax collector and property appraiser- that has been the plan for them to co-locate into one space out there more centrally to where the population’s at – take some burden off the west side of the county and we also will reserve a space footprint for another building for the county possibly for the county administration and budget office if we do not stay at the building we are currently renting.”
Rogers said they are looking at about 22,000 square feet for both the administration and budget offices (a total of 44,000 square feet).
The Recitals of the agreement are the following:
- The County plans to construct a new government center (the “Government Center”) into which it will relocate its offices from the Hernando County Courthouse; and,
- The School Board plans to construct a new technical center (the “School Building”; and,
- The Board of Trustees plans to construct a corporate college (the “Corporate College”) for the College to operate…
According to the agreement, initial development tasks include
“applying for a rezoning of the Spring Hill Drive Parcel to a planned development project (“PDP”), the preparation of a master plan for the Project, performing a traffic study, the performance of preliminary architectural engineering services…”
The parties will agree on maximum Master Planning funding costs, with each party responsible for ⅓ of the master planning costs.
Additionally, “The College will invoice both the School Board and the County on a regular basis for their respective 1/3 reimbursement of the master planning costs resulting solely from consultant labor and architectural services for design of the Master Plan. Each of the parties may enter into subsequent cost-sharing agreements to cover any future service or labor costs relative to programmatic and operational activities.”
“Each party shall pay for the cost of constructing its own Facility and parking lot including stormwater system and utility connections on their portion of the leased land. The County will provide all utility connection locations to the Spring Hill Center Parcel to include domestic water, live sewer system, power, fiber, and copper lines that will connect to the respective parties Facility. Each party will be responsible for permitting and inspections of their own Facility and infrastructure on their portion of the leased land.”
Each party will be responsible for ⅓ of the costs associated with the master plan common area improvements.
The School Board and the Board of Trustees will enter into a ground lease agreement with the County for the property where their facility will be constructed. The Parties expect the ground leases to be for 99 years and will be rent-free according to the interlocal agreement.
Chairman Allocco remarked, “We are seeing the state college recognize we’re moving in a direction toward trades… skilled certifications. The university system has basically made the Bachelor’s degree useless.”
Rogers stated, “ I believe this is a huge economic tool for Hernando County. As Pasco Hernando State College has had a vision to put a corporate college somewhere within their footprint, this cements it to be within Hernando County. It also cements it being at our airport technical center. So as we are working with companies to stay here or expand here, we’re going to have a future resource for workforce training. We actually have an approved plan now… not just a concept.”
