By LINDA CHION KENNEY
A workshop this month in Wimauma addressed the stages it will take to transform the area of mobile and manufactured homes into a vibrant, walkable downtown community centered around the Boys & Girls Club building at Bethune Park.
There, at 5809 Edina St., maps and photos of what is and could be were scattered throughout the community room, where a smattering of community members dropped in to offer their wishes, concerns and assessments for one piece of the puzzle, a revitalized Bethune Park
Taking time to discuss the matter overall was John Patrick, division director of the Hillsborough County Community and Infrastructure Planning Department, Strategic Infrastructure Planning. That’s a mouthful, but in a nutshell, Patrick is a planner and Wimauma is in transition.
“Wimauma has a great history,” Patrick said. “There was a huge African-American community here before anything else happened. Now we have a huge Hispanic community. The goal of this master planning effort is to revitalize this downtown area so they all can be proud of something new.”
Workshop attendees were asked to place dots on what they would like to see as part of the Bethune Park Master Plan. This is one of several boards of options they had to review.
Bethune Park, he acknowledged, is in the core of this re-envisioned downtown area, which is tied to the Wimauma Community Plan and to the new, envisioned and ongoing development plans for master-planned communities throughout the area.
Indeed, such growth has warranted the purchase of a nearby 87-acre greenfield site for development of a high school set to open in 2025, and an elementary school and middle school set to open in the ensuing years. Hillsborough County school officials say the high school is two times larger in both size and cost than any school the county has ever built.
At the May 18 workshop, the April 2024 progress report for the Wimauma Downtown Revitalization Action Plan was in view, broken down into three stages. Strategy one involves the establishment of a temporary library; developed civic space for capacity building at Bethune Park; and road safety improvements, starting with the crosswalks across State Road 674.
Strategy two involves a blueprint for inclusion and mitigating gentrification, which Merriam-Webster defines as a process in which a poor area experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.
Strategy two action items include a request for proposal for mixed-use development that addresses affordable housing, public space for near-term marketplace incubators and the establishment of a business incubator to support entrepreneurs.
The third strategy involves the allocation of resources for access to infrastructure. Action items include the consideration of a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) bank and expansion of the Urban Service Area to allow for higher-density development and septic-to-sewer improvements, for which design work is underway for one or two wastewater collection areas proposed for Wimauma. Additional items include transforming SR 674 into a complete street and installing sidewalks and street lighting on Fourth Street, which would become the Main Street of the walkable, downtown community.
Meanwhile, Hillsborough County commissioners have been reviewing Wimauma’s sprawl in the context of Hillsborough County growth overall. The board, requested a report that would identify possible geographic areas for future expansion of the existing Urban Service Area and the existing public and private funding opportunities for providing infrastructure and services.
In response to a request from Commissioner Gwen Myers, the county’s development services department issued a report, presented to the BOCC at its March 6 meeting.
Linda Chion Kenney photos
John Patrick, Hillsborough County planner, right, and John Regan, retiree volunteer active in community affairs, with an overview of the Wimauma Downtown Revitalization Action Plan
“As we look out to 2050, we’re anticipating over 500,000 more people in Hillsborough County, and a need for over 400,000 more jobs,” said Melissa Zornitta, executive director of the planning commission. “It’s anticipated that the unincorporated county would grow by 39 percent, which is an increase of approximately 393,000 people.”
Zornitta called it “a significant amount of growth” that requires the identification of “locations for those people to live and work.” It’s no secret that Wimauma is one location in the crosshairs of that review.
But high growth in Wimauma should not come without prioritizing “robust community engagement,” said Gil Martinez, a community activist, who was present at the May 18 workshop at Bethune Park. The aim should be “to align public and private interests.”
It is essential “that we approach this matter with careful consideration and inclusivity,” Martin added, in his public comments to the county’s board of county commissioners, at the March 6 meeting. “This expansion represents a significant decision that will shape the future trajectory of our county’s development and livability.”