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Road Plan Up For Public Review

ROBERT BURKE / Tampa Tribune

McMullen Rd from Balm Riverview Rd to Boyette Rd would be widened in Hillsborough South County Transportation Plan.

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2007

Updated: 10/11/2007 07:55 pm

RIVERVIEW - Whether you know it as East Bay or the more recent moniker, South Shore, the land mass south of Brandon is likely to change dramatically, and nothing tells the tale better than a draft transportation plan for the area.

Here are some 'wish list' road improvements included in the plan, which will be up for public review Oct. 23 and 24 in Ruskin and Riverview:

• New access ramps to Interstate 75 would include one at Rhodine Road in Riverview and another at Apollo Beach Boulevard, foreseen as a six-lane road extending east from U.S. 41 to link up with County Road 672 east and ending at Balm-Riverview Road.

• The Apollo Beach extension and other proposed roadways would create a second east-west thoroughfare from Tampa Bay's coastline to the Hillsborough-Polk county line. An existing one, State Road 674, which runs from Ruskin east past Fort Lonesome, would be widened through Wimauma.

• U.S. 41 would be widened to six lanes, except through Ruskin.

• Big Bend Road would stretch from Riverview deep into Lithia. It would be extended from its current end near Balm-Riverview Road across Balm-Boyette Road to Browning Road.

• In Riverview, McMullen Road would stretch past its current end at Balm-Riverview Road to Big Bend Road.

• In Lithia, FishHawk Boulevard would cross Lithia-Pinecrest Road and keep going to Turkey Creek and West Keysville roads. Bloomingdale Avenue would stretch east beyond Valrico to Turkey Creek Road.

• On the south edge of Ruskin and Sun City Center, a new road would link I-75 to U.S. 301.

• Two bridges over the Alafia River would be built to extend 78th Street south and Valrie Lane north.

• Numerous country roads would be extended, realigned or widened, including Saffold Road south of Wimauma. That road is shown as a two-lane thoroughfare stretching from County Road 579 east to County Road 39. In Balm, Sweat Loop Road would be extended from County Road 672 to Lithia's Boyette Road, and Colding Loop would stretch east from Carlton Lake Road to County Road 39.

• County Road 39 would be widened to four lanes, along with County Road 672, Balm-Riverview Road and Lithia-Pinecrest Road, which would offer four lanes all the way to the Polk County line.

Mass transit hasn't been overlooked. Commuter rail has been proposed for the CSX tracks from Sun City Center to Tampa, and a passenger ferry from south Hillsborough to MacDill Air Force Base and Ybor City in Tampa are recommended for study.

More new east-west thoroughfares are envisioned under the plan than north-south, said Ned Baier, the county's transportation planning manager. That occurred partly because of feedback from residents and partly because the area has existing north-south highways in U.S. 41, I-75, U.S. 301 and C.R. 39, Baier said.

If it all seems overwhelming, county planning officials say, consider that population in the study area south of Bloomingdale Avenue is projected to more than triple by 2050, growing from today's estimated 150,000 to about 520,000.

There's no money for road construction, said Baier, the county's transportation planning manager.

The plan, which contemplates 'build-out' of development-eligible land in about 40 years, is proposed for inclusion in Hillsborough's comprehensive growth-management plan. Baier said it's important to preserve corridors as development is approved so that roads can be built to accommodate growth.

Pam Prysner is president of Rural Lithia Area Neighborhood Defense, a nonprofit organization that formed this year to combat urban sprawl. The group has grown rapidly to 100 members, she said.

Prysner said it's inappropriate to include a plan that forecasts road needs 40 years into the future in the county's growth plan, which is intended to prepare for newcomers through 2025.

She said no one can predict where growth is going to go by 2050.

'It's premature,' she said. 'I'm not at all comforted by the fact that it's decades away. It's decades away only until they find financing. ... It could be much less than a few decades.'

She said she also objects that no public meetings were held during the summer in Lithia, where many of the road corridors are drawn. Meetings were held in Riverview and Ruskin in July.

She said county officials have promised to schedule a session in Lithia, but she believes Lithia residents were left out of a process that could vastly change their way of life.

'We're not happy with any aspect of the plan or the way the plan got into being,' Prysner said. 'It opens up the rural service area to more development.'

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Public meetings on the proposed South County Transportation Plan

WHERE: South Shore Regional Service Center, 410 30th St. S.E., Ruskin

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23

SECOND LOCATION: Riverview High School cafeteria, 11311 Boyette Road, Riverview

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24

INFORMATION: Call (813) 272-5849 or visit www .hillsboroughcounty.org/pgm.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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