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Corridor Plan Action Delayed

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By LIZ BLEAU, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

Updated: 10/04/2007 06:33 pm

SOUTH SHORE - The county has delayed action on the updated South County Transportation Plan and that has caused concern for some south county leaders who helped draft the plan.

The plan updated the SouthShore Corridor Plan, which was developed as part of the SouthShore Area Wide Systems Plan, a community blueprint for south county.

The plan, originally set to be reviewed and acted upon last month, is scheduled for that process early next year.

Ned Baier, the county's chief transportation planner, said the county delayed the action on the recommendation of the Hillsborough Planning Commission, which said the plan was part of a package of comprehensive plan amendments that the staff would not have time to sufficiently review before the September deadline.

Jim Duffy, a Sun City Center resident who sat on the committee for the original corridor plan and for the recent updated version, said the plans have attempted to plot future road needs, both new roads and the expansion of existing roads.

Duffy also sits on the board of the SouthShore Roundtable, a consortium of civic and chamber of commerce groups. The roundtable recently voted to support the plan as drafted and the original timetable for its adoption.

The plans were developed to help secure right of way so houses and new development would not be built in the path of the proposed roads, he said. That helps to keep new road costs down.

Duffy said he thought part of the reason the plan was delayed was because it included the beltway, a bypass through southern and eastern Hillsborough County proposed by other planning groups. Opponents to the bypass say it would contribute to urban sprawl.

'If we thought the bypass would kill the plan, we would not have put it in the plan,' he said.

It was included, he said, at the recommendation of county planning and growth management staff and because it is part of other future road plans, such as the Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Apollo Beach development lawyer Mike Peterson, who also is a member of the roundtable board and participated in committees working on the transportation plans, said south county has taken a lead in transportation planning.

'Perhaps the Planning Commission is bothered because we in South Shore won't sit idle and let what happened in northwest Hillsborough and New Tampa occur here if we can help it,' he said.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at (813) 865-1557 or lbleau@tampatrib.com.

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