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| Ready to make known their strong views of the preliminary South County Transportation Plan, a substantial number of Riverview area citizens attending a community meeting last week queued up for turns at the microphone. More than 250 residents turned out for the Wednesday night session at Riverview High School, most to protest specific proposed roadway and bridge projects. Hillsborough County planners presented a list of 45 new or improved transportation facilities they say will be needed to meet population demands by 2050. Melody Jameson Photos |
RIVERVIEW – It’s back to the drawing boards for South County transportation planners.
After two well-attended public meetings last week – one here, one in the Ruskin-Sun City Center area - Hillsborough County planners have: taken a strongly opposed bridge off the table pulled back on a massive by-pass road project,and promised more citizen involvement in the planning process.
In fact, after hearing from numerous outspoken and largely dissatisfied citizens during the two sessions, reconsideration of various aspects in the preliminary South County Transportation Plan is likely to continue through much of 2008, Ned Baier said this week. Baier, a member of county’s Planning and Growth Management Department (PGM) transportation team, participated in presenting the unfunded plan during the public meetings last week.
First on Tuesday at the SouthShore Regional Services Center and again on Wednesday at Riverview High School, professional planners, including the department director and a consultant, outlined some 40 transportation projects and improvements they predict will be needed to meet the demands of a quadrupled South County population.
The area south of the Alafia River to the Manatee County line was home to about 120,000 residents in 2000, they noted. By 2030, they added, that number is projected to nearly triple to 350,000 and in 2050 – 43 years hence - the South County population is estimated to top 500,000, based on data supplied by the University of South Florida. To move that volume of people and vehicles in, around and through the area, the planners are proposing for consideration new interstate interchanges, bridges across the Alafia River, widening of some roads, extension of others, alternative transportation modes and the beltway bypass route.
What’s more, Peter Aluotto, PGM director, emphasized that new roadways require at least 12 years from concept to construction. The right-of-way for widening U.S. 301, he added, was acquired by the state in the 1950s. “Where would we be today,” he asked rhetorically, perhaps unable to widen a failed two-lane roadway if the foresight had not been implemented.
Citizens at both sessions, however, were unimpressed, in some cases expressing distrust of local government and lack of faith in officials’ credibility. They questioned reliability of the population projections in the face of high property taxes and casualty insurance premiums driving away newcomers and motivating current residents to relocate to other states. They wondered whether planners ever take into account new local business development to decrease resident traffic to employment centers such as Tampa. They charged that Hillsborough’s planning efforts are too regularly amended by developers. They raised safety issues.
And they zeroed in on several specific planner proposals they found especially objectionable.
In discussing the prospective beltway, four or six lanes on an eastern alignment across north Manatee County then running north through both rural and protected lands in eastern Hillsborough, county staff referenced the Veteran’s Expressway in the northwest part of the county. In response, Vivienne Handy, a Wimauma resident and business operator, asserted the Veteran’s “is exactly why we don’t want the beltway. We can’t afford to do business as usual,” she added, “It’s not working, folks!”
Staff also noted that the beltway concept originated in the early 2000s and currently is included in the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2025 Needs Assessment. But Marcella O’Steen, a Balm resident and president of that community’s civic association, forcefully contradicted the statement, saying the concept first was proposed in the 1980s by a South County pro-development association called the Big Bend Area Group. “It was a bad idea then,” she declared, “and it’s a bad idea today.” Amid loud applause from an audience numbering more than 250, she added “and it’s not driven by need, it’s driven by greed!”
Carrying the citizen dissatisfaction a step further, Kermit O’Steen reminded the assemblage that three of Hillsborough’s seven sitting county commissioners will be up for re-election in 2008. Some of them need to go, he added, “Let’s vote them out.”
Another project drawing considerable ire was proposed crossing of the Alafia River with a two-lane bridge from the northern end of Valerie Lane and then linked with Bloomingdale Avenue. David Moberg, a homeowner on Valerie Lane, pointed out such a bridge and roadway approach would bisect a quiet, 40-year-old neighborhood and only a mile from U.S. 301. In addition, the project as proposed would disrupt both wetlands and wildlife habitat while requiring millions of dollars for studies and construction.
Moberg described the proposal as “irresponsible,” asking rhetorically “how can we get together with planners on this?” He also held high a photograph he’d taken of a fox whose den is in the area. “He doesn’t want me to tell you where he lives; he’s afraid,” Moberg told the crowd.
Two community activists representing two different grassroots citizens groups also questioned the very usefulness of the existing preliminary plan. Terry Flott, a leader in UCAN, suggested “You’re simply drawing lines on a map. It’s wholly arbitrary. And, I object to this approach as a taxpayer.” Pam Prysner, a Lithia area resident who recently formed RLAND to protect the rural lifestyle, recommended “scrap the entire plan and start over.”
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| Ron Wolfe |
Ruskin area residents were no less emphatic in their distaste for the proposals. Bob Minthorn, a retired school administrator living near the river, said the proposed four-lane bridge carrying 78th street over the Alafia will adversely affect Gibsonton, and take peoples’ homes. “It makes no sense to destroy a community,” he asserted, “to serve people who haven’t moved here yet.”
Mariella Smith, a Ruskinite, drew applause when she said the planning approach is backwards. “Instead of asking how many people are coming here,” she said, “we should be asking how many we can afford to invite.” And regarding the conceptual planning process, she added “planners should get ahold of the concept of livability.”
Another Ruskin resident, Ron Wolfe, delivered one of the most stinging indictments when he compared Aluotto with a previous department head, Bruce McClendon. McClendon, Wolfe noted, came to Ruskin “with open arms,” interested in the community’s input. “You”Wolfe said to PGM director, “have wrapped your arms around the developers.” If density is the objective, he added, “you’ve certainly gone about it the right way. Build a road and they will come.”
Reflecting on the sessions this week, Baier said the Alafia River bridge proposal at Valerie Lane has been scrapped. The intense community opposition and the potential damages brought to planners’ attention have made it a useless proposition, he indicated, just as residents north of the river had proved to them that extension of John Moore Road is not feasible.
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| Bob Minthorn |
As for the prospective beltway by-pass alignment well outside the designated urban services area, opposed by citizens and preservationists alike, it is likely to be the subject of considerable discussion in the months ahead. Among its opponents is Pete Fowler, manager of the county’s environmental lands preservation program known as ELAPP, who has expressed concern about South County acreages purchased in order to protect them as wildlife habitat and for public enjoyment of native flora and fauna. Such public lands are in the path of the present by-pass route.
And Aluotto noted most specifically in the Riverview session that the beltway “is off the table,” at least as the current round of county comprehensive plan amendments are being considered.
Additionally, in view of citizen perceptions that the planning group which produced the overall conceptual plan for the south county last summer is heavily influenced by developers, Baier said a specific effort to include more residents in the process will be made.
In short, “we’re slowing down the planning process to allow more technical analysis and citizen involvement,” Baier said. “Everything (but those projects identified as scrapped or pulled) is on the table” for discussion.
A total of 47 road, bridge and alternative transport projects were included when county planners presented their preliminary - and unfunded - 2050 South County Transportation Plan last week.
Following are highlights of that proposed plan looking out 43 years by project category.
In the next four decades planners are predicting roadway extensions such as:
Two-lane extension of C. R. 672 from C.R. 39 to C.R. 37;
Two-lane extension of Sweat Loop from C.R. 672 to Boyette Road;
Two-lane extension of Colding Loop from Carlton Lake Road to C.R. 39;
Two-lane extension of Summerfield Blvd. from Big Bend Road to Ambleside Blvd;
Four-lane extension of 24th Street from 21st Avenue south to new East-West corridor route to U.S. 301 south of SCC.
In terms of roadway alignments, planners are calling for:
Realignment of Grange Hall Loop;
Realignment of Owens Road;
Realignment of Boyette Road between Rhodine and Balm-Boyette Roads.
The planners’ road widening projects include:
Widen C. R. 39 to 4 lanes between S.R. 60 and Saffold Rd.;
Widen C.R. 672 to 4 lanes from C.R. 39 to U.S. 301;
Widen Apollo Beach Blvd. to six lanes between U.S. 41 and Balm-Riverview Rd.;
Widen S.R. 674 to 4 lanes from C.R. 579 to Carlton Lake Rd.
In addition, the long-range outlook calls for new interstate interchanges at:
I-75 and Apollo Beach Blvd.;
I-75 and Rhodine Road .
Plans for modified interchanges pinpoint:
I-75 and Gibsonton Drive;
I-75 and Big Bend Road,
I-75 and S.R. 674.
With the 2-lane bridge over the Alafia River at Valerie Lane removed from consideration, the remaining new bridge on the map carries four lanes of 78th Street across the river to provide a north-south alternative to U.S. 41 and I-75.
The 40-year assessment also envisions a commuter rail line from College Avenue to downtown Tampa, using existing CSX track, as well as a passenger ferry – “water taxi” – from the east shore of Tampa Bay to MacDill AFB, St. Petersburg and Ybor City via the Channelside trolley.
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