Odessa is an unincorporated community on the Hillsborough-Pasco county line, about 20 miles northwest of downtown Tampa along Gunn Highway, State Road 54 and the Suncoast Parkway. Its ZIP code, 33556, takes in the Lake Keystone lake district and large rural parcels on the Hillsborough side, and part of the Starkey Ranch master-planned community on the Pasco side. It is known for private lakes, equestrian properties and quick access to long paved trails.
Odessa history
The Mobley family from Georgia settled the area in the mid-1800s. In the 1880s Peter Demens, the Russian immigrant who also founded St. Petersburg, named Odessa while building the Orange Belt Railway, which ran parallel to what is now State Road 54. A large sawmill operated here until it burned in 1922, and the Tampa Bay Executive Airport operated until 2004. The area has since shifted from ranches and horse properties toward a mix of rural land and suburban neighborhoods.
Lakes and rural land in Odessa
On the Hillsborough side, the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan aims to keep the area rural, with large parcels, private lakes and equestrian and agricultural businesses, and limited commercial development. Lake Keystone, a private lake of about 434 acres, is the largest of many lakes here.
Parks, preserves and trails in Odessa
Lake Rogers Park on North Mobley Road offers a 2.25-mile trail through oak and pine woods, picnic shelters and camping. Brooker Creek Headwaters Nature Preserve covers 1,121 acres with a marked 4.3-mile hiking trail. The paved Upper Tampa Bay Trail runs north from Peterson Road Park to its Lutz-Lake Fern Road trailhead, where it meets the Suncoast Trail. On the Pasco side, the Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center is a Pasco County library branch. Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, next to Starkey Ranch and about 5 miles northwest of the Gunn Highway and State Road 54 intersection, covers more than 8,300 acres, with a 7.3-mile paved trail that links to the Suncoast Trail.
Homes in Odessa
Odessa's housing ranges from lakefront homes on private lakes and acreage with room for horses to newer master-planned neighborhoods in Starkey Ranch, off State Road 54 in Pasco County. Because the ZIP code crosses the county line, two homes with Odessa addresses can be in different counties, with different county governments and planning rules.
