By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Community leaders seeking greater engagement from area residents interested in and impacted by growth in Wimauma have scheduled a meeting this week at one of the town’s oldest historical landmarks.
Called for by the Wimuama Community Development Corporation (WCDC), in conjunction with the Wimauma Community Plan Advisory Committee (WCPAC), the meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 24, at First Prospect Missionary Baptist Church in Wimauma, at 6012 Edina St.
The WCPAC is a group of citizens, residents, business people and landowners who work with the WCDC to monitor and ensure accountability for the plans and approval processes set forth in the Wimauma Neighborhood Village Plan and its related downtown redevelopment efforts.
The stated aim is to ensure accountability while working hard to incorporate community input into future Wimauma development plans.
This mission is especially compelling in light of breakneck growth underway in Wimauma, a town that sits in the shadow of Sun City Center, some six and eight miles, respectively, from Balm and Riverview and some 30 and 25 miles, respectively, from downtown Tampa and downtown Bradenton.
With high growth comes the possibilities (and, to some interests, the perils) of transformation and revitalization, which is especially true in Wimauma, home of the largest construction project in the history of Hillsborough County public schools.
Scheduled to open in 2025, the county’s 29th comprehensive high school is set to share space with an upcoming elementary school and middle school, on nearly 100 acres, just south of Sun City Boulevard off West Lake Drive.
That puts the 359,000-square-foot high school campus adjacent to Southshore Bay by MetroPlaces, a master-planned community among many other such communities and large apartment complexes taking root in Wimauma. This includes the upcoming 1,800-home community set for 900 acres off County Road 579, a few miles from West Lake Drive and State Road 674.
That development is the first to test the strengths and limits of the Wimauma Neighborhood Village Plan, which Hillsborough County commissioners approved in October. Two months later, commissioners lifted the moratorium on development in the area, which had been put on hold to allow for the finalization of the plan, which some area landowners had opposed and continue to do so.
Groundbreakings, like this one for High School UUU off West Lake Drive, are a frequent site in Wimauma, as growth continues to change the landscape of the once essentially rural community.
Wimauma got its name from the first letters of founder C.H. Davis’ daughters, Wilma, Maude and Mary. Established in 1902, Wimauma began as a settlement at the midpoint of the railway established between Turkey Creek in east Hillsborough County and Bradenton, founded on the Manatee River south of Tampa, in Manatee County.
The First Prospect Missionary Baptist Church was founded as the First Baptist Missionary Church in 1878, just 13 years after the abolishment of slavery. Church grounds then and now include a cemetery that by some accounts began as a potter’s field for enslaved field workers and railroad workers. It’s now known as the Wimauma Heritage Cemetery.
For more on the Wimauma Community Development Corporation, visit www.wimaumacdc.org/. To view the Wimauma Neighborhood Village Plan, visit www.planhillsborough.org/wimauma-village-plan/.