New Port Richey residents say land clearing, burning causing health issues
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFLA) — After closing on his New Port Richey home off Starkey Boulevard a little more than a year ago, Chuck Dewar was looking forward to being close to his grandchildren and the wildlife outside his back window.
In the last two months, that wildlife — and the greenery that housed it — are nearly all gone.
“Excavator knocked down all the trees and then they’ve been dragging them off as you can see,” Dewar said, gesturing to the cleared field behind his house. “Burning everything off.”
In December 2023, Dewar said a developer came in and started chopping down the trees and burning them up.
“In the morning, because the piles are smoldering at night, so we’ll get it all night long,” Dewar said. “You open the door, you just get hit with it.”
Dewar said he can feel that smoke that sometimes rolls in like fog.
“When you get it, it gets down in your lungs and stuff,” Dewar said. “I’ve got some respiratory issues stuff, and it affects it.”
In a statement to 8 On Your Side, Metro Development Group, the developer for the project, wrote:
“The controlled burn is part of a normal process for clearing sites for development as we prepare for construction on a new community to begin. The burn can create smoke and soot, which we understand is a nuisance, and we plan to complete the work as quickly as possible to reduce the impact on our neighbors. We expected it to be complete by the end of this week.”
“They were just cutting down trees, putting them in big heaps, roots and everything,” John Kane said. “And burning it.”
Kane lives miles from any burn site, but when the wind blows the right way, he said his wife struggles.
“Feeling a tightness in her chest,” Kane said. “She loses her breath, it tightens sometimes so bad.”
Kane said he’s lived in New Port Richey for 41 years. He blames the county commissioners.
“I couldn’t believe it was being allowed, to be honest with you,” Kane said. “I was really shocked that they thought this would be a good idea.”
8 On Your Side checked with Pasco County. It said it’s working with the developer to minimize the impact to neighbors, but added that the burn permit came from the Florida Forest Service.
The Forest Service said it is fine with burning on private property, as long as it’s at least 1,000 feet from any occupied dwelling.
“Nobody’s happy with this here,” Dewar said. “Especially those of us on this side, because we are directly affected to it.”
Metro Development Group said the land will be residential, with both single family houses and townhomes.
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