Spring Hill: where most of the county actually lives

Spring Hill is the largest community in Hernando County and it is not a city. It has no mayor, no city council and no municipal government. It is an unincorporated area, which means Hernando County government provides the services and Spring Hill residents vote in county elections rather than municipal ones.

A development, then a place

Spring Hill began as a large planned residential development in the 1960s, built out on a street grid across land west of Brooksville. It was marketed heavily to buyers from outside Florida, and it grew the way that kind of development grows: house by house, subdivision by subdivision, over decades.

The result is a community with an enormous residential footprint and commercial activity strung along the main corridors rather than gathered into a center. There is no historic square here, because there was never a nineteenth century town to build one around.

What that means day to day

It means the road you live off matters. US 19 and Spring Hill Drive carry much of the retail and services. It means school, park and library decisions are county decisions. And it means that when residents want something changed, the venue is the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners.

Location is the advantage

Spring Hill sits within reach of a lot. Weeki Wachee is minutes away. The Suncoast Parkway put Tampa within a reasonable commute and reshaped who could live here and work there. The Gulf is close enough for an evening trip.

That combination, coastal access and a Tampa commute without Tampa prices, is a large part of why the community keeps growing, and why traffic and infrastructure keep turning up at county commission meetings.

If you live in Spring Hill and something in your neighborhood deserves coverage, tell us. There is a lot of community here and not much of a traditional town center to gather it.

Cover photo: DanTD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Source.