Black neighborhood in Dade City to wait again for sewage plant removal

DADE CITY — “Be patient.”

That’s what Rev. Jesse McClendon heard from city staff a decade ago amid calls to move a sewage plant out of Mickens-Harper, a historically Black neighborhood in this city of over 7,000.

McClendon, who grew up near the wastewater treatment plant in the 1960s, remembers its pungent smell as he played baseball in the field nearby. When the city considered expanding the facility onto the field in 2011, residents rallied in opposition, calling it a racial and environmental injustice.

The city decided months later that the plant should be torn down. But progress has stalled.

Earlier this year, it looked like residents’ patience had finally paid off, thanks to an influx in state money. Florida lawmakers earmarked $35 million in the state budget for the relocation effort, which would have guaranteed the facility’s relocation by 2026.

Then, a devastating blow — Gov. Ron DeSantis slashed the state funds for the project in his $3.1 billion veto.

Dade City has recently seen unprecedented growth, allowing the city to turn to other funding sources, including developer fees. How quickly the money will come in, however, is uncertain.

“Now we have to take a step back, and we will be very closely timing as we move through the process with the growth that’s coming in,” said City Manager Leslie Porter. “We want to have those (development fee revenues) in hand when we incur construction costs.”

Until then, they are asking the neighborhood to wait again.

When the plant was built 70 years ago in the middle of Mickens-Harper, most residents felt like they didn’t have a choice but to live with Dade City’s sewage flowing into the plant in their neighborhood, McClendon said.

“America has a tradition of let’s give the Black people the worst land,” said Mike Sherman, community development coordinator for a committee created for neighborhood improvements in 2011. “And that’s what this was.”

After residents’ fierce opposition led city commissioners to kill expansion plans, the committee, led by then-city manager Billy Poe and Sherman, worked with residents to prioritize the treatment plant’s relocation.

The committee conducted neighborhood surveys and bridges between residents and local government were slowly rebuilt, Sherman said. For the first time, people in the community felt like their voices were being heard.

When friends told Sherman earlier this year that city officials anticipated removing the facility by 2026, he was excited — the empty site could bring residents and city officials together again.

“We were going to do it again, just bottoms up, grassroots, working with the community and saying, ‘Hey, let’s put our heads together and figure out what’s the best land use for this,’” Sherman said. “I guess that’s not going to happen now.”

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Porter said officials estimated relocating the plant to a rural part of the county, about a mile from the current site, would cost about $41 million.

Without millions in state funding, developers flocking to the city will be a boon to the plant’s relocation. Fees charged to new developments are estimated to bring in up to $10 million, according to Porter.

“The city believes that growth should pay for growth,” she said.

Current residents could also see an increase in their utility bills to pay for the facility’s relocation, Porter said, though she could not provide a proposed rate.

City staff shot down the idea of raising residents’ utility bills ten years ago because “it was just way too big of an increase,” Sherman said.

State and federal money might still contribute to the project. The city will apply for a state loan, Porter said. U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, set aside $1.75 million for the project in current federal budget legislation.

When asked for an explanation for the governor’s veto, DeSantis spokesperson Bryan Griffin said the governor had “nothing further to add about any specific veto.”

City officials agree that a new plant is needed as the city grows and sewage infrastructure becomes strained.

“The desire (to relocate the plant) has been there for many years, but there hasn’t been the need which would call for moving it, or the funds to do it,” Porter said. “As we grow, we will hit that mark that will tell us, ‘Yes, you need a new plant.’”

The facility is currently around 50% capacity, according to Porter. Usually expansion discussions begin when it reaches 80%, but design plans for the new, bigger plant are already underway “because we know we need to stay ahead of (the city’s growth).”

As of June, the city had already issued almost 1,000 building permits — a steep jump from the nearly 600 building permits in 2020, according to Melanie Romagnoli, director of the city’s community and economic development department.