Army Corps gives green light to Cypress Creek Town Center

WESLEY CHAPEL — Cypress Creek Town Center, which has been stalled for 18 months over environmental issues, now has the green light to move ahead again.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today it has lifted the suspension of the permit for the proposed shopping center at State Road 56 and Interstate 75. The news comes about a month after the developers agreed to pay a $297,000 fine for discharging muddy water into Cypress Creek, a federally protected waterway that feeds into Hillsborough's drinking water supply, and for clearing almost an acre of forested wetland that was supposed to have been preserved.

Long-delayed road extends SR 56 past mall to Mansfield Boulevard

WESLEY CHAPEL — It's open.

Drivers can now take State Road 56 east past the Shops at Wiregrass and turn onto Mansfield Boulevard in the Meadow Pointe community.

Crews opened the road quietly at 5 p.m. Friday, said Deborah Bolduc, the county's engineering services program administrator.

The opening came three days before classes resumed for Pasco County public schools. Two campuses, John Long Middle and Wiregrass Ranch High, are off Mansfield Boulevard.

S.R. 56 extension almost complete

By month's end, Pasco officials plan to open the State Road 56 extension linking Bruce B. Downs and Mansfield boulevards.

The early opening, which was not scheduled until February, coincides with the start of school and is intended to help ease traffic in the Wiregrass area.

The 3-mile extension is being built by Locust Branch LLC and Meadow Pointe IV Community Development District.

"The CDD is highly motivated to solve their traffic problem," county engineer Jim Widman told the Pasco County Commission on Tuesday.

As a safety measure, county officials want a section at SR 56 and Bruce B. Downs to be restriped before they would open the road.

Officials said the opening of SR 56 is critical to easing congestion when the State Road 54 widening project gets under way. That project is ready to go out to bid, Widman said.

*

Dead-end on Kinnan Street attracts mischief

 

[ATOYIA DEANS, Times]

Tim Coppola stands on the corner of Oak Creek Preserve Blvd. and Kinnan St. in Tampa. The area has become a dumping ground as well as a place where people drag race

NEW TAMPA — The road to nowhere has apparently turned into the road to dump your old mattress, light a couch on fire and street race.

Kinnan Street, the two-lane road that dead-ends at the Hills­borough and Pasco county line, has become such an eyesore and an attraction for loiterers, the Hills­borough County Sheriff's Office has beefed up enforcement.

And at least one resident is calling for a fence to block access altogether.

In the past month, authorities have staked out Kinnan Street four times and have cited at least 10 people on mostly misdemeanor charges, according to Capt. Alan Hill. Half of them were for speeding, Hill said.

"Why are people on a dead-end street?" Hill said. "That's what we want to know."

Despite reports of street racing, officers have not witnessed any, Hill said.

But Cross Creek resident Tim Coppola, who lives just a few feet away from Kinnan, points to skid marks in the street that indicate street racing and cars doing doughnuts. In addition, it has become a dumping ground for junk.

Coppola bikes down Kinnan Street on occasion. A few months ago, he saw a discarded pullout couch and chair. The mattress soon followed. Then, just after the Fourth of July, the sofa bed and swivel chair had apparently been set ablaze, leaving little more than a shell.

"To me, it's just an invitation for something bad," said Coppola, a college vice president of finance. "If you come back here in a car, you're here for no good reason."

New Tampa talks transportation

Faye Allen, of Thonotosassa, places transportation dollars into boxes indicating where she wants money to be spent during a Transportation Task Force Public Outreach Meeting at the New Tampa Library tonight.  DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN/Times Staff

CROSS CREEK --- Embarking on a sweep of Hillsborough county, officials from several transportation departments stopped in New Tampa tonight to gather public input on future road projects, taxes and spending.

About 50 residents attended the Transportation Task Force meeting at the New Tampa Library, where they were presented with road maps, construction statistics and goals, and asked to vote on future spending projects.

Representatives from the Task Force, along with the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, Florida Department of Transportation and the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, discussed the need for light rail, rapid bus transit systems, roadway projects, and bicycle/pedestrian improvements.

Public Meetings Scheduled on Hillsborough County's Transportation Future

Hillsborough County's Transportation Task Force will stop in New Tampa Tuesday as part of a series of meetings they are holding across the county to get public input about transportation issues.

The Task Force, along with the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, Florida Department of Transportation and the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority hope to discuss various transportation planning efforts that are ongoing and how to implement and fund them in Hillsborough County.

The meetings are being held in conjunction with the Transportation Task Force's current work on recommendations for funding multi-modal improvements for the county. Improvements being discussed include light rail, rapid bus transit systems, roadway projects, and bicycle/pedestrian improvements. The Transportation Task Force intends to make a final recommendation to the County Commission this fall.

An issue the Task Force will consider is a recommendation for sales tax for voter referendum in 2010. The County Commission is the elected body that must approve placing a referendum on the ballot.

At these meetings, the attendees will be able to view the plans and maps from the agencies, hear how these groups are working together to implement them, and give their input. Attendees will also be able to take part in a hands-on activity where they will decide how money should be divided among the various forms of transportation and will have the opportunity to fill out a survey.

The meetings will be held from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. in an open house format, with a presentation between 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Tuesday's meeting will be at the New Tampa Library on Cross Creek on Tuesday, June 4.

For more information about the meetings, transportation projects, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization's Long Range Transportation Plan update, visit: www.hillsboroughcounty.org/transtaskforce or www.hillsboroughmpo.org or call Planning & Growth Management at (813) 272-5920.
 

New Tampa to County: Take care of BBD!

If you live in Tampa Palms, you have no doubt been made aware of the homeowner association's campaign to get Hillsborough County to widen the lower portion of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Here's a letter they are circulating among homeowners: Download BBDownsLetter.pdf.

The position of the Tampa Palms Owners Association boils down to this: Lower BBD is a failed road (level of service-F, according to the county's own rankings), yet the county did not even ask for federal stimulus money to fix it. Why not?

The campaign is under way as the city of Tampa prepares to build a bridge that will link New Tampa Boulevard to Commerce Park Boulevard, bringing who-knows-how-many vehicles into Tampa Palms. That's what makes the lower BBD bottleneck so worriesome.

New Tampa, what do you think?

Semi overturns on I-75 near Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

A semitrailer truck overturned on Interstate 75 near Bruce B. Downs Boulevard this morning, leaving the driver trapped in the wreckage and highway traffic at a halt. The driver has since been flown to Tampa General Hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life threatening, and traffic is again flowing normally.

A semitrailer truck overturned in the southbound lanes of I-75 just north of the Bruce B. Downs overpass. [SKIP O'ROURKE | Times]

The semi flipped on its side in the median about 7:15 a.m. No lanes closed, according to traffic.com, but the milelong stretch of northbound lanes before Bruce B. Downs was at a standstill for nearly two hours.

Two wrecker crews arrived at the scene about 9 a.m. to remove the totaled semi.

Tampa Fire Rescue headed to the scene earlier with equipment to free the driver, who was conscious but trapped, authorities said. Little of the semi's load of either grain or animal feed was spilled, Wade said.

Drew Harwell and Skip O'Rourke, Times Staff Writers

A semitrailer truck overturned in the southbound lanes of I-75 just north of the Bruce B. Downs overpass. [SKIP O'ROURKE | Times]

The semi flipped on its side in the median about 7:15 a.m. No lanes closed, according to traffic.com, but the milelong stretch of northbound lanes before Bruce B. Downs was at a standstill for nearly two hours.

Two wrecker crews arrived at the scene about 9 a.m. to remove the totaled semi.

Tampa Fire Rescue headed to the scene earlier with equipment to free the driver, who was conscious but trapped, authorities said. Little of the semi's load of either grain or animal feed was spilled, Wade said.

Drew Harwell and Skip O'Rourke, Times Staff Writers

Subject of story writes in

Letter to the Times:

New Tampa says it needs a bridge; he says 'No way’  | Feb. 9

Bridge would be an unjust solution

Thanks for an excellent presentation of the Tampa Palms road issues on Feb. 9. I wish to address some of the city's arguments.

First, that a bridge alone from West Meadows into Tampa Palms was always written into city plans: Private entities cannot build across interstate highways. While the city took that responsibility from the developers, it also incorporated the bridge into the east-west connector.

Second, Steve Daignault implied that impact fees were collected for the bridge, requiring that it be built. The city's own records indicate use of the funds for the bridge were permissive, not mandatory. Funds were collected, but NOT required to be spent on the bridge.

Third, it is clear from the city's own study for the east-west connector that without the connector, the city does not meet state concurrency requirements. By building only the bridge, the city seeks to dump many of the 31,000 cars per day that the connector would have handled onto Tampa Palms Boulevard and argue they have satisfied concurrency. They have told Tampa Palms to anticipate only 3,100 cars per day in additional traffic.

Fourth, Mr. Daignault acknowledged to me that one route can substitute for another for concurrency; and that widening Cross Creek Boulevard and Morris Bridge Road would meet the requirements except for K-Bar Ranch II at County Line Road.

That solution places the traffic load in the communities causing the load, and not into a community that, the city admits, is not. It seems that approving K-Bar Ranch II is more important to the city than preserving Tampa Palms.

The county alleges it is considering six-laning the northern and southern portions of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to complete the project sooner. It is not. I was informed in December that the county decided against that alternative.

I found out in January that the impact of ending the widening in the middle of Tampa Palms, creating a funnel and traffic backup for 10 years, was not even discussed. The discussion was about the effect on light rail.

These facts are more infuriating as neither the city nor county requested federal infrastructure funding to correct this problem. County requests went to other projects, even though the county's own surveys show the south end of Bruce B. Downs is Hillsborough's most failed road. The city made no request for the connector, which has not been built because of a lack of funds. The county is proceeding to widen northern Bruce B. Downs 10 years ahead of the southern part. The northern part is not even listed as a failed road. Forty-seven percent of traffic on the northern portion is Pasco County traffic.

City and county staff argue that the projects will help people get to the Shops at Wiregrass. Great. Hillsborough and Tampa tax funds support Pasco County projects, while Hillsborough residents languish.

Today, it is us; tomorrow, it is you.

Warren Dixon, Tampa Palms

New Tampa resident won't let up in fight against bridge

From the Times:

By Marlene Sokol

TAMPA PALMS — Warren Dixon starts his walks at 5 a.m. so he can go with his wife, a defense consultant who works long hours.

Dixon doesn't work anymore, and maybe that's the problem. At 64, the retired combat pilot and military lawyer is a bureaucrat's nightmare. He has time, money, a law degree — and an issue.

The city government is poised to build a bridge over a highway, carrying traffic into the stately community of Tampa Palms.

Drivers will come from as far as Pasco County. Knowing the gridlocked Bruce B. Downs Boulevard awaits, they will find their way over Interstate 75 to Commerce Park Boulevard until they reach the road Dixon can see from his lanai.

That's Tampa Palms Boulevard — Dixon's walking route.

• • •

Planners use words like grid and connectivity to explain the need for newer, arguably better transportation routes. In New Tampa, officials say the burden is especially great because growth management laws meant to limit sprawl give developers more freedom in older sections of the city.

New Tampa must follow concurrency, which prevents new development from overwhelming existing government services. "And so, when a development comes into being, the transportation requirements are more onerous up here," said Steve Daignault, Tampa's public works administrator.

Tampa Palms, which is one of New Tampa's oldest developments and has homes priced at $1 million, sits in the path of the 1990s building boom. State and regional agencies approved a host of neighborhoods assuming the bridge would be built, Daignault said.

But, in voluminous papers and e-mails, Dixon asks why.

City officials had hoped for an east-west highway connector to Interstate 275, which might have taken some of the bridge traffic. Using a software expression, Dixon calls it "a vaporware road."

Having collected impact fees and needing to satisfy concurrency, officials must do something. In Dixon's view, they are covering their tracks.

In one paper, he asserts that the city is using Tampa Palms Boulevard as a substitute for the east-west highway "because functionaries in the city government, during the time of the approval of the 40-plus subdivisions, did not do their job." He accuses them of "malfeasance in office."

Daignault says it would be unfair to compare the bridge to the east-west highway: One was always written into city plans, the other never received impact-fee money and wasn't a sure thing. Nor does he agree that the east-west road would reduce bridge traffic, as it would pick up a different population of drivers.

The city's position is simple, he said: New Tampa needs a road network, and even Tampa Palms can't stand in the way.

"I'm not a lawyer," said Daignault. "I can tell you that whenever a project is built, the people in the surrounding areas are affected. … It is a city road network that we certainly want to try to provide the maximum use for all of the folks."