The 60-Second Overview
Union Park is Metro Development Group’s value play in core Wesley Chapel: the same ULTRAFi gigabit internet and smart-community infrastructure as Epperson and Mirada, without the lagoon, and without the lagoon fee. The community sits off Meadow Pointe Boulevard just south of SR 56 in ZIP 33543, about 10 minutes from the Shops at Wiregrass and 8 miles from I-75, closer in than any of Metro’s lagoon plans.
The housing, built largely by D.R. Horton across its Express, Freedom, and Premium series plus a now-sold-out townhome program, trades from roughly $300,000 to $679,999, with 65 recent sales averaging $453,546 and a townhome median around $310,000. The on-site Union Park Charter Academy opened in August 2018, and the amenity package, two pools, two clubhouses, 10 miles of trails, runs deeper than the price point suggests.
Union Park is what you get when you keep Metro’s infrastructure and skip Metro’s lagoon: a simpler fee stack, a closer-in address, and the cheapest townhome door in the plan family.
The fee structure is unusually transparent: published HOAs of $50/month (Express and Premium single-family), $168/month (townhomes, maintenance included), and $212/month (Freedom Homes, lawn care and gated entry), plus a CDD of roughly $80-$214/month by product and lot frontage on the tax bill. ULTRAFi rides the HOA, which offsets the internet bill most households pay separately.
The Fee Stack: HOA and CDD
Union Park publishes more fee detail than almost any community on this corridor. Here is the grid, and the math:
1) The HOA, by product series. Published figures: townhomes $168/month with exterior maintenance included; Freedom Homes $212/month with lawn care and gated entry; Express and Premium single-family $50/month. Every tier includes ULTRAFi gigabit internet. Compare what each fee buys, the $212 Freedom fee replaces lawn service most owners would pay for anyway.
2) The CDD: on the tax bill, by product and frontage. Published figures: townhomes about $80/month; Freedom Homes about $170/month; Express $170-$207/month; Premium $181-$214/month, scaling with the lot’s front footage. Billed annually with property taxes, and the parcel’s tax bill is the only number that counts, we pull it before any offer.
3) The ULTRAFi offset. Gigabit internet typically costs $70-$90/month bought separately. Net it out and a $50/month Express HOA is effectively negative, and even the townhome stack (~$248/month HOA + CDD combined) looks different when maintenance and internet are inside it.
Amenities & ULTRAFi
For a value-tier community, Union Park’s amenity bench is deep: two community pools, a tropical resort-style pool and a lap pool, two clubhouses including the open-air Florida-style clubhouse with bar and lounge areas, a kid-friendly splash pad, an indoor gym plus outdoor fitness stations, tot lots, picnic pavilions, a fire pit, a zen garden, the much-photographed birdhouse village, and roughly 10 miles of trails threading the community.
ULTRAFi is the quiet differentiator: community-wide internet at up to 1 Gbps, included in the HOA. It is the same smart-community backbone Metro installs at its lagoon plans, here without the lagoon membership, which makes Union Park the cheapest way to live on Metro’s infrastructure in Wesley Chapel. For remote workers, the offset is real money every month.
Homes & Series
Knowing the series matters more than knowing the builder here, because the fees follow the series. Townhomes (D.R. Horton, concrete block on both stories, smart-home package) are the entry at a ~$310,000 median. Express series homes are the value single-family tier; Freedom Homes add lawn care and gated entry inside their $212/month HOA, a low-maintenance package that suits travelers and downsizers; Premium series plans are the larger homes on the bigger lots, reaching $679,999 on recent listings, with the highest CDD tiers ($181-$214/month) because the assessments scale with frontage.
With the builder programs closed out, this is a resale market: pricing is set by condition, position, and fee math rather than incentive sheets. That cuts both ways, no builder credits to chase, but no spec down the street undercutting your resale either, and the average ask-to-sale gap (~$464,681 to ~$453,546) shows a normal, negotiable market.
Schools
Union Park’s headline is the on-site option: Union Park Charter Academy, opened August 2018 inside the community. Charter enrollment is application-based, not guaranteed by address, so treat it as an option to pursue, not an entitlement that conveys with the deed.
Zoned Pasco County assignments fall in the Wiregrass-area tracks and vary by address, and this corridor’s boundaries have moved repeatedly as Wesley Chapel grows. Verify the current zoned elementary, middle, and high school for the exact address with Pasco County Schools before you offer, and re-confirm before closing if a specific school is the reason you are buying.
More on Living in Union Park
The depth without the wall of text. Open what matters to you.
Location and commute
The Metro family without the lagoon
Built-out calm
Townhome life
5 Mistakes Buyers Make in Union Park
The same five mistakes, all avoidable with the right read before you tour.
Reading the $50 HOA and stopping there
The Express/Premium HOA is $50/month, but the CDD adds $170-$214/month on the tax bill. The real stack is the sum, always price both lines.
Comparing series fees raw
Freedom’s $212/month includes lawn care and gated entry; the townhomes’ $168/month includes exterior maintenance; every tier includes gigabit internet. Compare what each fee buys, net of what you would pay anyway.
Ignoring frontage on the CDD
Premium-series CDDs run $181-$214/month depending on the lot’s front footage. Two similar homes can carry different assessments, pull the exact parcel.
Assuming charter enrollment conveys with the house
Union Park Charter Academy is application-based. Verify both the charter process and the zoned Pasco assignment before the school calendar drives your timeline.
Comping against the community average
A $310K townhome and a $650K Premium home live in the same average. Comp the exact series and product, the ~$454K community average tells you almost nothing about either.
Which Lots & Views Hold Value Best
In a built-out community, position is the only scarcity left
No new phases are coming to mint fresh premiums. What stays scarce: pond and conservation backs, trail-adjacent streets, and the gated Freedom sections’ finite supply.
The mistake is paying a premium for an interior lot because the house shows well. We map the durable positions before clients tour.
What to Check Before You Offer
Run this list on any Union Park home. Missing one is how buyers overpay or inherit a surprise.
- The exact product series and its current HOA, and exactly what it covers
- The parcel’s exact CDD line on the tax bill, frontage drives the tier
- True closed comps for the same series, not the community-wide average
- School assignment verified today, plus the charter enrollment picture if it matters
- HOA documents and reserves, especially for townhomes with exterior-maintenance obligations
- Gated-section status if buying Freedom-series resale
- Flood zone and insurance quote for the parcel, pond-adjacent lots especially
- ULTRAFi service terms, what the HOA internet covers and what upgrades cost
Union Park is the community we show clients who liked Epperson’s infrastructure but not Epperson’s fee stack: same developer backbone, gigabit internet in the HOA, a closer-in address, and a published fee grid that lets you price the deal to the dollar before you tour. The townhome tier around $310K is one of Wesley Chapel’s honest value entries, as long as you run the full ~$248/month HOA + CDD stack and not just the headline number.
Cross-shop it honestly: Epperson if the lagoon is worth the third layer to your family, Watergrass for the established-village alternative, and Avalon Park for the downtown thesis. We represent you, not the seller, and the fee math comes first.
Union Park vs. Comparable Communities
The honest way to place Union Park is against the other communities a Wesley Chapel value buyer is realistically weighing.
| Community | How it compares to Union Park |
|---|---|
| Epperson (Wesley Chapel) | The lagoon sibling: same Metro/ULTRAFi backbone plus the 7.5-acre Crystal Lagoon, and a third fee layer to pay for it. Median ~$402,500. Choose on whether the beach is worth the lagoon fee and the longer drive to the retail core. |
| Watergrass (Wesley Chapel) | The established village: mature oaks, an in-community elementary, and an HOA of $55-$110 a year riding a CDD. Less amenity polish than Union Park’s two-pool campus, more settled streetscape. |
| Avalon Park (Wesley Chapel) | The downtown thesis on the east corridor: average ~$404K, two fee layers, and a walkable town center under construction. Buy the future there, buy the finished article here. |
| Chapel Crossings (Wesley Chapel) | The lazy-river community: published pricing $438,990-$881,150 with a $1,500-$2,500+ CDD. A tier up in price for the resort water campus. |
| Seven Oaks (Wesley Chapel) | The established amenity benchmark on the SR 56 corridor: mature community, deep amenity campus, resale-only market. The closest comparable for buyers prioritizing position over new-ness. |
Union Park’s case: the cheapest entry to Metro’s infrastructure, a transparent two-layer fee grid, a close-in address, and built-out calm. The case against: no headline amenity, and a CDD that is real money at every tier.
The Honest Trade-offs
Pros
- ULTRAFi gigabit internet included in the HOA, a real monthly offset.
- Published fee grid for every product tier, rare transparency.
- Core Wesley Chapel position: ~10 min to Wiregrass, ~8 mi to I-75.
- Two pools, two clubhouses, splash pad, 10 miles of trails.
- On-site charter academy (opened 2018).
- Townhome entry around a $310,000 median.
Cons
- CDD of $80-$214/month on top of the HOA, by product and frontage.
- No lagoon, lazy river, or downtown, trails and pools are the ceiling.
- Builder programs closed: no new-construction incentives to chase.
- Townhome combined stack (~$248/month) is real at a $310K price.
- Townhome median slipped ~1.6% in the corridor cooling.
- Charter enrollment is application-based, not guaranteed.
The Union Park Playbook
How we run a Union Park purchase, in order:
- Identify the series first: townhome, Express, Freedom, or Premium, the fees follow the series
- Stack the HOA and CDD for the exact parcel, frontage included, before touring
- Net out the ULTRAFi offset and the maintenance inclusions so you compare true monthly costs
- Comp the same series only, the community average misleads in both directions
- Buy durable position: pond, conservation, trail-adjacent, or gated Freedom supply
Questions We Ask Before You Offer
These are the questions we put to the association, the district, and the listing side before a client signs anything:
- Which series is this home, and what is its current published HOA and inclusions?
- What is the parcel’s CDD assessment, and how much is bond debt versus operations?
- What did the same series close for in the last 90 days?
- What is the verified school assignment, and what is the charter’s current enrollment picture?
- What do the HOA documents say about reserves and exterior obligations, townhomes especially?
- Is the section gated, and what does the gate add to the fee?
Is Union Park For You?
No community fits everyone. The honest sort:
Consider elsewhere if you want
- A lagoon or resort water campus, Epperson and Chapel Crossings own that
- Brand-new construction with builder incentives, the programs here are closed
- No CDD on the tax bill, that is structural across this corridor
- A walkable downtown, Avalon Park is building that bet
- Large estate lots, the plan is efficient, not sprawling
- Guaranteed school seats, the on-site charter is application-based
Union Park fits if you want
- The cheapest entry to Metro’s ULTRAFi infrastructure, no lagoon fee
- A published, predictable fee grid before you tour
- Core Wesley Chapel position near Wiregrass and I-75
- A built-out, settled community with finished streetscapes
- A townhome value entry around $310K
- An on-site charter school option and 10 miles of trails