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Public Access For Preserve OK'd

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By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

LITHIA - Hillsborough County commissioners have decided to spend $801,000 to make a 3,500-acre preserve accessible to the public rather than not spending the money and risking having to pay back millions of dollars in state grants they have spent buying the land.

Commissioners without comment agreed Dec. 5 to let the county's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department build three entrances to property the county spent $14 million acquiring in 2003 and 2004.

The $801,000 had been frozen because of fears proposed state property tax relief might put more pressure on county coffers.

But park officials worried the county might have to give back $9.2 million in grants from the Florida Communities Trust if the project weren't budgeted by the fiscal year beginning in October.

"We don't want to be in violation of our contracts," said John Brill, parks department spokesman. "We don't want a bad relationship with them the state trust because they have been such good partners."

Conditions of those grants mandate the county provide public access, make park improvements and develop environmental management plans for the preserve, a swath of undeveloped land south of the Alafia River and west of Lithia-Pinecrest Road.

The county will build entrances on the north side of FishHawk Boulevard, at Boyette and Balm Boyette roads and next to Lithia Springs Park.

Preliminary plans call for small parking lots at the FishHawk Boulevard and Lithia Springs entrances, each with about 28 spaces, two picnic shelters and a play area.

The Boyette entrance would have a paved parking lot for 60 cars, an open playing field with a baseball backstop, two picnic shelters, a double basketball court, a playground, an information kiosk and a bicycle rack. Brill said recreation facilities at that entrance would be more elaborate because the property is on uplands that have been disturbed and are no longer pristine preservation land.

Brill said the FishHawk and Lithia Springs entrances will be for passive pursuits such as hiking or bird watching.

Each of the entrances also will serve as trailheads for an interconnected network of walking trails with 6-, 5- and 3-mile legs.

There isn't a timetable for construction, but the grants were approved with a completion target of August 2011.

"We are at ground zero," he said. "We have to start with drawings and permits. It isn't something that is going to happen next month."

The county acquired the land in three separate transactions as part of its Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program. The first 1,450 acres were purchased from the developers of FishHawk Ranch in January 2003 for $5.2 million. The trust reimbursed the county half of the purchase price.

The county bought an adjacent 1,085 acres in March 2004 for $8.8 million. The state trust picked up 75 percent of the tab.

Also in March 2004, the county negotiated a conservation easement for 600 acres the Gulf Ridge Council of Boy Scouts owns on the southern banks of the Alafia River. The Scouts kept ownership, but the land cannot be developed.

Brill said his department will use existing trails and roads where possible and blaze new ones to connect them.

"We're doing this project because we promised we would," he said.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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