Waters Edge, New Port Richey,Fla (Tampa, Trinity: sale, HOA, buying a house)

[sangeeth]

Originally Posted by miliata

Does anyone know the monthly HOA's at Waters Edge?

Its 99 per month for Sheffield Collection

[ESPLUMBING]

It is a great new subdivision, I know several families living there and they love it. I read some of these posts and agree about the Moon Lake area in question if it was back in the early ninties. I have lived in Moon Lake since 1987 and have seen many changes. Yes, the KKK was here and their voice could be heard one saturday a month around Moon Lake. Heck, they even adopted Lake Drive back then. But the main man in charge of that passed away in the mid ninties and they moved out. The wicka-witches also were a part of this area, that was until the news media got a hold of that. The pressure made them move on too back in the ninties. There is alot of history with Moon Lake:

History of the Moon Lake Gardens and Dude Ranch, New Port Richey, Florida

There used to be some great events there before some kids burnt it down in 96

My wife and I have enjoyed living in this area for over 20 years and have 3 kids, all 3 went to Cypress Elementary and two have graduated from River Ridge and one who will graduate from there in 09.

BTW, Waters Edge is built around Little Moon Lake. Moon Lake is to the east of Moon Lake Road. I am sure there are some record bass in Little Moon Lake. That was private ranch property and the owners would only allow friends of theirs to fish it.

So best of luck in your decesion, I'm sure you will not be let down if you decide to move into that neighborhood.

[TampaKaren]

This was a very helpful post. Thanks so much!

Originally Posted by ESPLUMBING

It is a great new subdivision, I know several families living there and they love it. I read some of these posts and agree about the Moon Lake area in question if it was back in the early ninties. I have lived in Moon Lake since 1987 and have seen many changes. Yes, the KKK was here and their voice could be heard one saturday a month around Moon Lake. Heck, they even adopted Lake Drive back then. But the main man in charge of that passed away in the mid ninties and they moved out. The wicka-witches also were a part of this area, that was until the news media got a hold of that. The pressure made them move on too back in the ninties. There is alot of history with Moon Lake:

History of the Moon Lake Gardens and Dude Ranch, New Port Richey, Florida

There used to be some great events there before some kids burnt it down in 96

My wife and I have enjoyed living in this area for over 20 years and have 3 kids, all 3 went to Cypress Elementary and two have graduated from River Ridge and one who will graduate from there in 09.

BTW, Waters Edge is built around Little Moon Lake. Moon Lake is to the east of Moon Lake Road. I am sure there are some record bass in Little Moon Lake. That was private ranch property and the owners would only allow friends of theirs to fish it.

So best of luck in your decesion, I'm sure you will not be let down if you decide to move into that neighborhood.

[rich67]

It sounds like people are trying to sugar-coat the Moon Lake area, and I think I need to set the record straight on this whole area in general.
Water's Edge is beautiful. No doubt. Very nice homes, scenery, etc.
Moon Lake is another story. The county recently purchased most if not all of the trailers along Moon Lake Rd. to make way for a road widening project that no one knows when it will start just yet. This leaves condemned, abandoned and basically absolutely terrible looking buildings littering the east side of the road. Now, some areas of south ML are nice, especially those homes around the lake itself. But this whole area is overrun with drugs and thieves. I can appreciate the other poster saying they feel safer in Moon Lake than parts of Port Richey- I would agree to an extent. Port Richey is going down the tubes too, but some areas of Moon Lake are downright out of deliverance. Couches, dismantled cars on the side of the road, houses from makeshift plywood shacks, people living in school busses, etc. etc.
Look at the papers and crime reports for Moon Lake-murders, drug deals gone bad, people beating each other with baseball bats, arsons and all kind of theft-from air conditioners to ATV's to aluminum car ports. It's not an area you want to drive through at night.
As for the schools, you have Cypress (nice), Moon Lake Elem. (not too bad), and River Ridge Middle and High school (not bad, actually a very nice campus and good kids for the most part-a lot of drugs there though, but sadly many schools are in this trap). Shopping, you have Publix just down the road from Water's Edge, which is nice and clean and in a new shopping plaza.
Gulf View Mall?? Please. That mall is a joke. I make the drive to either Citrus or International. Gulf VIew has nothing to offer in the way of stores, the wanna be little punk gang members roaming around and the "blah" appearance of it is terrible. Make sure you lock your car and set your alarm in the lot, otherwise you'll come out to either no car or nothing left in it. The only reason I go to Gulf View is Best Buy and JCPenney.
Don't get me wrong, I'd say Water's Edge is a good choice. As long as you know the areas around it to avoid and stay in your little microcosm of a neighborhood, you will be very happy. Once the road widens, I am sure it will ease a lot of the complaints about traffic. Stay south of Banbury and Moon Lake Rd. and you're good to go.

[rich67]

Body found in Pasco County - Bay News 9
Man found burned in truck identified
2nd Girlfriend Convicted In Pasco Man's Murder

..just a simple search, and this is only the tip of the iceberg in Moon Lake.

[Angiein Florida!]

I just moved to Moon Lake about 6 months ago. We love it compared to busy Pinellas county that I lived all my life. All those abandoned ugly house that Rich 67 was talking about along Moon Lake Road have been demolished & it is all cleaned up now. I believe the land is for sale. We live in a quiet little neighborhood mixed with older people, younger people, families. We love it! Moon Lake is beautiful! There is so much wildlife around- I never want to move. Also, Rich 67 is trying to make this place seem so horrible with the crime--- Where ever you go there will be crime. Especially in Florida- Sorry to inform you Rich 67 There is even crime in Belleair in Pinellas-- As for the widening of roads- I don't see any reason to do it-- Traffic is not bad at all! This is a very laid- back town. If you looking for an area that is almost like being in the country but still close to schools- this is the place to live! Also, There is a brand new aquatic center that is soooo nice!

[Angiein Florida!]

More on Moon Lake from a new resident There is not one thing that I have not liked about this area since we moved here. Everybody is very friendly. I live on the other side of Moon lake road in a little neighborhood that only has one way in and one way out. All the houses are spaced far apart giving us more privacy. We have a huge backyard! There is no way we would ever been able to find a house like this in Pinellas County with a huge backyard! I just started a garden and discovered how healthy the soil is. I believe because it used to all be gardens. It's the perfect place to raise a family. Across Moon Lake is Water's edge and I have driven through there. It is very nice, the houses are beautiful. Moon Lake is on the rise! It is and will continue to become the more elegant part of New Port Richey. I love all the long winding roads. It is such a different atmosphere than the regular hustle bustle of other parts of town. Rich 67 should do some crime searches of the rest of Florida and he would discover that it's really not bad compared to other places! I never hear ambulances, fire trucks, or police sirens. It's so quiet! I remember growing up and learning to live with those sounds all over Pinellas County. Now the only noise that wakes me up at night is the occasional rooster that decides to cockle doodle doo -- but living in a brand new house- it's not even really that loud. Again, I love it here! I plan on raising my family and living out the rest of my days here in the secret moon lake gardens

[Angiein Florida!]

Someone gave this to me & I decided to post it here... It is more information on the background of Moon lake.


It had been another one of those days of hunting when "hunting" was all I did. Mostly I hunted for a patch of land that was not "posted" or surrounded by barbed wire, or unexpectedly turned into a housing development.
Empty-handed and disgusted at the inroads made upon nature by a too-rapidly spreading civilization, I sat down to dream. My visions took the shape of acres and acres of natural timber land alive with wildlife. There was a lake, of course, well stocked with fish; and a lodge hidden among trees.
What man hasn't had such a dream? It would be like an island-in-reverse-but a real retreat in the God-given world of the outdoorsman.
Then, one day while out for a pleasure drive, I discovered just such a place as I had in mind. A man had seen his dream come true and flourish-until civilization took it away from him. His "castle in the air" came to earth four miles south of State Highway 52, 10 miles north of New Port Richey. The remains are still to be seen.
The man with the dream was Ed Haley, a Clearwater developer and builder. Haley has been dead for three years now, but I talked with his sister, Mrs. Laura H. McIntosh, and she told me about it.
"Ed was a dreamer who couldn't sit still," she told me. "He planned and worked for years to create a sportsman's paradise and garden spot in the woods. It cost him about $600,000, but he succeeded and he shared it with others."
Hailey's development was a haven in the "grand style." His idea was to refine Mother Nature's face with beauty aids, and "plump up" the natural remainder of her with more of it. So, starting in 1933, he set out 30,000 rose bushes, 10,000 palm trees, and innumberable varieties of native and exotic plants, on a section of his 6,000 acres of virgin timberland. Surrounding the lakes and along meandering pathways, he planted azaleas, gardenias, magnolias, camellias, satinleafs, bays, and fruit trees. There were rock gardens and lily ponds and soft music played at night.
For the sportman, Haley imported Virginia and English fallow deer which became a herd of 6,000 animals. African partridges and flocks of India and Java peafowl roamed unmolested.
The 20 lakes and ponds were stocked from Haley's fish hatchery, until they became fishermen's dream pools. Seventeen miles of fence kept the wildlife in and outsiders out.
When Haley opened his "Moon Lake Gradens and Dude Ranch" to the public in 1937, it was acclaimed by newspapers and radio as "a unique and breath-taking wonderland." To the west coast of Florida had come an attraction to equal the drawing power of national parks and monuments. Such guests as Rex Beach, the popular writer, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., came there. One year the entire Florida Senate and House of Representatives conveyed at the ranch for pre-legislative parley. But the lodge on the grounds overlooking Moon Lake was one of the most fabulous additions. It took dozens of workmen two years to build the lodge from surrounding cypress trees. The men lived in tents on the grounds while it was being erected., and two saw mills and a planning mill were operated to turn out lumber. Huge, whole logs crisscrossed to support the roof, and a porch 16 to 20 feet wide encompassed the entire building. Electric bulbs peeked out of cypress knees for lighting the rustic structure-Ed had his own generator. At one end of the 70 feet long lounge there was a massive stone fireplace. Toward the other end was a fountain, enclosed in stone. In the center of the fountain, arose a three foot high Indian arrow head.
To heighten the outdoor effect, Haley employed a resident taxidermist to stuff and mount the wildlife bagged on his grounds. Some of the trophies still seem ready to spring at you, when you enter the main lounge. On all sides there are bobcats, deer heads, squirrels, hawks, alligators, and big mouth bass.
"At the height of our fame." says Mrs. Laura McIntosh, "my brother employed 200 people to keep the ranch running. we used to serve around 400 meals a day alone." For a dollar to two dollars guest could have their choice of turkey, venison, partridge or fish-all produced on the premises.
For one saddle-minded person, Haley kept a stable of 36 Kentucky horses and maintained a trotting track and 15 miles of bridle paths. The fisherman had a boat and a tackle for the day for a charge of two dollars-and no lack of fish.
The seven guest cottages were furnished with rustic cypress furniture built on the grounds, but the ballroom was never quite completed before Haley shut up shop. The ballroom was immense-260 feet long and 70 feet wide, with two wings on it, 30 by 40 feet. It, too had fireplaces for heating-four great stone ones of massive proportions. The building was nestled among the mossy cypress, romantically overlooking the big lake. At the side of it was a swimming pool.
"But then," remarked Mrs. McIntosh sadly, "in 1941 the war came along. Ed couldn't get help to run the place, and people couldn't get gas to come there in their cars. I lived there for several years after we closed the ranch to the public. I loved it. It was beautiful and peaceful. Finally, it was sold to a real estate corporation, and I had to move into town."
The people now buying lots and building houses where the fallow deer once roamed may never know or never care what was there before them. Time moves on, and the landscape changes, but Ed's dream lives forever.

Ed's Happy Hunting Ground
Originally written by
James T. Cox

[rich67]

All well and good. Don't get me wrong, Moon Lake "West" is very nice. Water's Edge and some of the other subdivisions north heading toward SR 52 are great. If you ever take the time to drive down Lake Dr. and spend any time in Moon Lake proper (Banbury, Evergreen, Gurnee, pretty much anything off Lake Dr.), you'd see the seedy side of Moon Lake. The meth, the drug abusers, the poverty, the people living in old school buses, the abandoned and stripped cars lying along the sides of the roads, the garbage dumped out on right-of-ways, and the filth, then you'd know what I am talking about. Try this- drive one day south on Moon Lake, turn on Banbury, turn left on Lake Dr., then turn down Glen Oak and hit some of the streets around there- you'll see what I am talking about. All this is just right across the street from some of the nicer developments going in there. Keep in mind that this element is all crammed into this small area known as Moon Lake East, and it continues north up to Key Lime and SR 52. You can sit in your new home and be comfortable, sure. But I personally find that having this much of a bad element so close by eventually leads to the violence and theft spilling out into the nicer areas. The people over in these areas see all the nice things that people across the street have, and they will end up coming over to take what you work hard for. That's just increasing your odds.
I know you are probably offended I am knocking your new area. I don't mean to knock it, just present facts that may help people make an educated decision on moving out there. You can offer the positives, I can offer the negatives. At least the people can make an educated decision based on both sides of the coin. I agree, crime is EVERYWHERE in FLorida. But, you can lessen your chances of being a victim of it by avoiding living near areas that breed crime. I know a friend who lives in Hunter's Lake, and he likes it. But he acknowledges the issues around Moon Lake and knows it isn't the greatest area. In fact, he is looking at moving to Trinity once the housing market takes an upswing.
Oh...and it's quiet with the sirens since fire rescue doesnt run with sirens at night in residential areas. But I'm not trying to get down on you, just trying to open your eyes to the area around you. Enjoy the area, if you like it, that's awesome. It's important to be happy. But lock your doors and lock up your valuables and car doors, otherwise your attitude may change quickly.

[toniann goehring]

The last post was made in 2008.It is march of 2009. I am thinking of moving to waters edge. How is the area, the development and river ridge middle and high school?