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Public Hearing on South County Port Container Project Reset
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May 14, 2009 - 2:18:36 AM

By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net

SUN CITY - An early June public hearing related to construction of a disputed multi-model shipping container project near the Port of Manatee has been rescheduled. 

Members of The Planning Commission early this week agreed to postpone the June 8 hearing to June 22 at the request of applicants seeking two amendments to Hillsborough’s Comprehensive Plan.  The amendments, designated 09-13 and 09-14, would allow construction of the container storage, packing and transfer project on nearly 400 acres just north of the port. 

The project is planned by California-based Inland Port Systems, Inc., on former farmland currently owned by the Reeder family. The site is north of the port entrance, bordering the west side of U.S. 41.

Among the several advantages of locating the container shipping operation on that site, the developer has asserted, are an estimated 1,800 new jobs it could bring to the area. 

Inland Port’s proposal, however, has drawn resistance from some area residents, as well as raised concerns expressed by governmental agencies.
 
Sundance residents, for instance, have pointed to their roadways frequently used by horseback riders and posted against heavy truck traffic.  They’re worried about 18-wheel tractor trailer rigs, loaded with containers possibly carrying hazardous materials, taking short cuts between U.S. 301 and the project entrance on U.S. 41 through their family-oriented community of mini-ranches.  The Sundance HOA has sought promises that such traffic would be prohibited, so far unsuccessfully.

Another transportation perspective was provided by Ming Gao, an engineer in the Tampa district office of the Florida Department of Transportation.  The department’s current concerns center on the traffic impact analysis which does not include sufficient detail to “…determine the impact on the state roadway network”, Gao wrote in a May 4 comment on the proposed plan amendment and the project.  The engineer attached a 10-point list of unanswered transportation issues.
Other area residents living along the shores of the Little Manatee River have questioned potential environmental impacts on the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve and its abundant wildlife immediately to the north of the proposed container site. The preserve is considered a key component in South Hillsborough’s budding eco-tourism.

In the same vein, when Hillsborough’s Environmental Protection Commission director, Dr. Richard Garrity, reviewed the proposed plan amendments, he  noted area residents could be impacted by “…adverse environmental conditions associated with normal day-to-day  industrial operations…” These impacts could include noise, odor, dust or smoke. 
      
Beth Alden, a professional planner with The Planning Commission, acknowledged the importance of job generation in another comment on the project. 

“Unfortunately”, she added, “this facility is…in an area …remote from population centers, and remote…from most of the county’s lower-income population clusters.”  With no existing public transportation to the site and none funded for the foreseeable future, she stated “If this proposal is to be taken seriously as a job-creation effort, the cost to potential employees of commuting by car …should be addressed.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Port of Tampa managers also wonder about the feasibility of the proposed South County container shipping center.  Richard Wainio, port director, pointed out the Tampa port facilities rank among the nation’s major seaports, encompassing 5,000 acres at several sites on Tampa Bay and last year handling 42 million tons of cargo.  One of those sites is its container operation at Hooker’s Point for which an 11-phase expansion is planned and being undertaken as market needs require, he added.

Wainio also underscored the importance of roadway transportation links with a seaport’s facilities, noting the Tampa port’s proximity and access to both I-4 and I-75.   Additionally, he asserted the shipping channel into and through Tampa Bay is controlled in Hillsborough County. 

Not all comment on the proposed project, of course, raised objections. Steve Tyndal, trade development director at the Port of Manatee, emphasized a regional perspective in his formal response.  Suggesting that the multi-model container project offers regional benefit, he asserted that real estate taxes and construction fees would accrue to Hillsborough County while consumers from South County to Orlando to Miami to Palm Beach would realize distribution economies.  Calling seaports barometers of regional economies, Tyndal added “A rising tide will lift all boats.”

But it is the objections and any other issues raised as aspects of the proposed container project are being aired out that are and will continue to be addressed, said Adam Carnegie, project manager with consultant WilsonMiller.  As the local consultant representing Inland Port, it is WilsonMiller’s duty to discuss all comments arising in the process with those making them, noted the manager who also is a lawyer.

Some of the comment accumulating in connection with the proposed  project simply has not been founded on fact, Carnegie said.  As an example he cited one contention that the container site is in a coastal high hazard zone.  “But it is not”, he emphasized.   Other comment has been the result of one department getting ahead of another, leading to misstatements, he indicated, which the consultant tries to correct in the record with documented fact.

Another growing miss-perception, he said, may be that the Port of Manatee’s long-range, five to 10-year plan to add more berths and container-handling equipment along its northern shoreline is part of or directly related to the current container project.  While the port’s eventual expansion could benefit the container operation if it is developed as now proposed, the two projects are not tied together, not in the comprehensive plan amendment process and not from the development vantage point, he asserted.

Regardless of any port expansion plans, current location of the proposed container operation “still would be the site of choice”, Carnegie said.  Proximity to the port, to an existing rail line, to roads and potential road improvements in the area all make it the right location, he emphasized.  What’s more, there is no nearby residential area except the county jail, he added, “ and the county jail will make a better neighbor.” 

Unless another rescheduling is requested and granted, the Monday, June 22, public hearing of the two proposed comprehensive plan amendments will begin at 5:30 PM in County Center, downtown Tampa.

©2009 Melody Jameson


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