Hello, my name is Demelza Hays, Ph.D., and I live in Lutz. I originally set up this GoFundMe to raise $10,000 to retain a land-use lawyer to represent us against Hill Ward Henderson and Eisenhower Property Group. Our goal was to stop 150 townhomes from being built in Lutz on Holly Lane, and we won in 2025.

However, this year, a new person has bought the land, and we have to once again raise funds in order to hire a lawyer.

The Patel family is trying to build a charter school for up to 1,000 children that will cause up to 4,110 trips a day through our community.

The Patel family is trying to have the main entrance to the school on Holly Lane instead of on Dale Mabry.

We are fighting to completely stop the development of this school. There are 34 schools within a 10-mile radius of this property. The schools are under capacity, and the county has projected low student population growth for these schools over the coming years. The Patel family has already bought the land, and they had vehicles clearing parts of the land on March 9.

We won against the developers last year because we had 70 amazing people come to the public hearing, and we had a lawyer!

We are reopening this fundraiser in order to raise more money to hire a new lawyer, Jane Graham, and to hire a traffic engineer, Drew Roark.

We appreciate any $20 or $50 donations that you can make. We are very close to our goal.

Since we are going up against lawyers, we feel that a lawyer on our side can help bolster our case. We would like the lawyer to help us with the following:

1. Review all of the documents submitted by the Patel family regarding this parcel and craft the best arguments against the school's entrance being put on Holly Lane and specific wording that we can use to strengthen our speeches and opposition letters.

2. Attending the public hearing to represent our interests.

Jane Graham is known around the state of Florida for her phenomenal track record in going up against well-funded developers. I've seen her in action against the Crescent Communities developer in downtown Tampa and in her recent win on behalf of the Keystone community near Lutz. She is an amazing lawyer, and we are proud to have her representing us.

There are also many other ways you can help us win this battle.

1. Please send your opposition letters to the planning commission and Board of County Commissioners, so that they know a lot of people oppose this development.

2. Please also attend the meeting to ensure that the Zone Hearing Masters know we are united against the entrance to the school being on Holly Lane.

3. We also have additional volunteer activities available, such as going door to door to talk to neighbors. Please join the Facebook group, Holly Lane Action Committee to learn more about our activities.