Keystone Facts

Greater Keystone and Odessa cover more than 40 square miles of lakes, open land, subdivisions, rural estates and businesses of many types in northwest Hillsborough County.

This area was settled in the late 19th Century by entrepreneurs who started timber and citrus businesses.

The communities of Keystone and Odessa split when Pasco County was carved out of Hernando County in 1887. Greater Keystone and Odessa grew slowly over the next several decades as Tampa and St. Petersburg began to flourish.

In the 1960’s land in Carrollwood became sought after and was probably the most highly-valued real estate in Hillsborough County. The ripple effect began to reach Keystone/Odessa shortly thereafter.

Hillsborough County government was faced with a requirement from the State to provide water and wastewater services and transportation to rapidly growing suburban areas countywide in the 1980’s.

Greater Keystone/Odessa, while continuing to add residents, was declared “rural” by the County in 1997 with the creation of the very subjective Urban Service Boundary.

The Urban Service Boundary serves to deny Keystone/Odessa basic pubic services. This is a local government tradition which was reinforced by the Keystone/Odessa Community Plan in 2000.

The Suncoast Corridor has spurred growth and helped to establish Greater Keystone and Odessa as a vibrant, high-value location. Keystone – The Great Northwest is trying to work with local government to catch up to the realities of growth here and provide for basic services for all its residents.

Population:

The boundaries of the greater Keystone/Odessa are not clearly defined. So the US Census Bureau uses zip codes to define our area.

Using U.S. Census Bureau’s numbers our population has been increasing by more than 1,000 people per year for well over a decade. This doesn’t sound like much until you average it out. But on average we’re getting 2.7 new neighbors every day.( The average “family unit” in Hillsborough County is 2.8 people.) This growth rate is much greater than the county average. By 2025, the population size of Greater Keystone/Odessa will reach 32,980 residents according to the county agencies that plan for growth. But, by 2010 the area was already at 31,306, so the county is way behind.

The following data from www.city-data.com provides a snapshot of Keystone/Odessa. And it’s not a snapshot of a rural backwater farming community.

• In 2000, there were only 56 farm households counted by the Census in Greater Keystone/Odessa out of 6,200 total households. There are even fewer now.
• The area has a large number of family households. Its average household size is 2.9 persons, larger than the State average of 2.5.
• Only 5% of the area’s residents are renters as opposed to 30% statewide.

Employment and Income:

Greater Keystone/Odessa provides homes for a wide variety of salaried workers, highly-skilled professionals, entrepreneurs and the comfortably, willingly semi-employed.

According to www.city-data.com, our area’s workers are concentrated in professional, technical, health and construction/development industry occupations.

Keystone/Odessa is no longer a little known “hidden” part of the county. More people are seeing this area and, make no mistake, they’re on their way here too. We need to be prepared for them. And the only way to be prepared is with careful planning for this inevitable growth.

The average household income for Greater Keystone/Odessa residents from 2006 – 2010 was estimated to be $103,699 more than double the $49,536 average for Hillsborough County.

The area’s higher incomes translates into much higher than average housing values. Keystone/Odessa’s average housing value for this same period was $364,800 vs. $198,900 average for Hillsborough County.

In spite of the higher property values and the higher property taxes that come along with those values, we suffer from very limited infrastructure, especially roads.

Given the poor local road network, the average travel time to and from work for Keystone/Odessa residents is extremely long, as shown by the data provided below by www.city-data.com.

Subdivisions in Keystone and Odessa:

Belmack Acres                 Canterbury                        Chippenwood                 Citrus Green

Dolce Vita                         Echo Lake Estates          Garden Lake Estates     Keystone Estates

Keystone Groves              Keystone Park                 Keystone Reserve          Keystone Shores

Lake Julia                          Lake St. James Estates  Lakes of Keystone         Lakeside Grove Estates

Longboat Estates             Longboat Landing           North Lake Village           Northbridge

Orange Blossom Creek  Orange Blossom Trail      Pretty Lake Estates        Silver Dollar

Stillwater                            Steeple Chase                Triple Lake Shores          Vandyke Farms

Watercrest                         Waterstone                      Woods of Eden Rock      Wyndham Lakes