Hillsborough selling nearly 62 acres already zoned for housing

Hillsborough County has put up a For Sale sign.

The county’s Facilities Management and Real Estate Services department announced Thursday morning, Dec. 1, that it is selling 61.89 acres on the Pasco County line near Wesley Chapel and New Tampa.

The property is already zoned for 153 “dwelling units.” (A county spokeswoman defined dwelling units as “single-family, multifamily, townhomes etc.”)

The minimum bid for the property is $3.63 million.

The land is at Kinnan Street and Oak Preserve Boulevard in a fast-developing section of Hillsborough with several residential projects in the works as well as commercial developments, golf courses and Hillsborough River State Park. It sits between two already-built subdivisions — Live Oak Preserve and K-Bar Ranch.

According to a map in county documents, the norther piece of the property runs right along Pasco’s southern border.

Hillsborough announced the sale in a press release, which in itself is unusual, and newsworthy, given that it is not the normal course of business for municipalities.

Hilary Zalla, the spokeswoman, says in a text that the county chose this route because “we are always trying to improve the way we communicate surplus land sales to the public, so we decided to send a release out this time.”

In addition to the release, Hillsborough also posted the property on the surplus land page of its website. According to the website, “real property that serves no future use for the county may be declared surplus and sold.”

Bids are due by 9 a.m. Feb. 27.