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By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net
If following the money leads to factual conclusions, Hillsborough’s transportation future definitely includes light rail facilities among its mass transit concepts.
And registered voters county-wide may get the opportunity in the next election to set in motion the down payment on that future.
But, based on today’s planning, it is not likely that South Hillsborough will see any commuter rail lines in the forthcoming 25 years.
Nonetheless, South County citizens who participated in the several recent open houses introducing a 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan also put their money on commuter rail and other public transit -- literally.
When the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) brought its exhibits and videos to the multiple public sessions in Riverview and Ruskin and Sun City Center during the Spring and early summer months this year, residents played the MPO’s “Money Game.” Given a total of $100 in pretend $10 bills, players could spread out or concentrate the funds according to their priorities on transit projects, road and highways, pedestrian and biking facilities or intelligent transportation signals (ITS) which can be programmed to control traffic movement.
Computation of the dollar votes by the 350 participants county-wide shows that nearly half of each $100 spent was put into light rail and other public transit, according to Lynn Merenda, an MPO community planner. Players favored the transit projects with $47 of their $100 in funding while they dedicated half that amount -- $23 -- to roads, $16 to walking and biking arrangements plus $14 to ITS. And, she added, the results of a written survey completed by other participants closely followed the Money Game preferences, reinforcing that evidence of prevailing public sentiment.
These early straw vote indicators could be tested in about a year when a referendum may appear on the 2010 county election ballot. If county commissioners approve inclusion of the referendum on next year’s ballot, voters will get a chance to support or reject a one cent sales tax increase earmarked for the transportation spending, Merenda noted. It is estimated that such an increase would mean an extra $85 a year for the single citizen or $142 a year for a family of four.
If voters give a thumbs up to bumping up the county’s sales tax level, an anticipated $178 million would be generated each year, added Beth Alden, a team leader in the 2035 transportation planning process. The annual funding would continue until its enabling legislation sunsetted the additional penny-on-the-dollar collection.
In addition, Merenda noted, Hillsborough receives back just 63 cents in transit funding for every gas tax dollar paid locally. In other words, Hillsborough money is going to other locales for other mass transit projects because it has not initiated such an undertaking.
Any light rail rapid transit systems built, however, would be in Tampa where congestion is the greatest. Several configurations have been proposed in the planning process, all of them anchored in downtown Tampa but with different versions reaching possibly to such outlying areas as Brandon or Hunter’s Green in northeast Hillsborough or westward to Pinellas County across a revamped Howard Frankland Bridge.
While local transportation plans looking to the next quarter century do not now forecast light rail southward into the Southshore area, though, the current outlook still could have positive impacts here, the planners pointed out. Availability of funds could translate to expanded bus service, with added buses to and from the South County, for example, or to implementation of a “door to door” concept, Merenda noted.
South County citizens still will have several opportunities to express their views concerning transportation needs. Another MPO open house is being planned in Balm on August 24 as part of a Balm Civic Association meeting and residents can access the MPO website at www.hillsboroughmpo.org where the same survey form used in open house sessions can be downloaded and completed.
Plus, an unusual “telephone town hall” is in the works, Merenda said. Planners are working out details for a sort of mass participation conference call involving about 1,000 households, she added. The novel approach to obtaining public input is expected to be a go sometime this fall.
December is the target date for submission of the long range plan to Hillsborough’s Board of County Commissioners.
© 2009 Melody Jameson
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