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Voices Ring Despite Plan Outcome

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 31, 2007

Updated: 10/29/2007 10:22 pm

RIVERVIEW - A controversial road plan is on hold, and some of the projects that received the most objections have been whittled away, but that didn't stop about 300 people from packing the Riverview High School cafeteria last week to sound off about it.

'Maybe this plan isn't the right plan,' Hillsborough County's planning director, Peter Aluotto, told the crowd in response to complaints about proposed new bridges, highways, neighborhood connectors and country roads from Brandon south to the Manatee County line.

'That's why we're slowing this process down.'

The proposed South County Transportation Plan, touted as a way to ensure preservation of road corridors for south Hillsborough's projected 'build-out' in about 40 years, drew scores of complaints after final recommendations were released in early September.

Residents complained that many of the proposed projects were ill-conceived, favored developers and would promote urban sprawl. They also complained about the lack of resident input and notification.

The Riverview meeting Wednesday was the second of two back-to-back sessions last week. The first, in Ruskin, drew about 130 people. Aluotto opened both meetings with a plea for people to stop indulging in 'conspiracy theories' and limit criticism to the plan itself.

Numerous residents have said the plan was hatched by developers, and some were unconvinced by Aluotto's remarks Wednesday.

Kermit O'Steen of Balm said county commissioners are behind the plan.

'Election year is next year for some of them, and they need to go,' he said.

Aluotto conceded that mistakes were made in fast-tracking the plan. A consulting firm was hired in the spring to conduct the $100,000 study, including computer modeling of proposed improvements. Recommendations were made after about four months and were scheduled to be considered by the planning commission and county commissioners early next year before public outcry prompted officials to table the plan.

Asked directly Wednesday why a plan that looks further into the future than most growth projections seemed to be rushed, Aluotto said there was no reason to push it through quickly.

During the Ruskin meeting Tuesday, he told participants that it takes an average of 12 years to plan and build a road, so early planning is essential.

'These roads that we're planning are for your children and grandchildren, and believe me, it will take that long,' Aluotto said.

In response to public comments calling for more growth restrictions, Aluotto said projections from the University of Florida predict a half-million people will be living in south Hillsborough in 2050, more than triple the current population.

'Whether you build a road or not, people do come here,' he said.

After the meeting, Aluotto said he didn't know whether county planners will move forward with the draft transportation plan substantially intact or throw it out and start over, as some residents urged him to do. He said the county's presentation of the plan will remain the same for a scheduled meeting Monday at Pinecrest Elementary School in Lithia.

He said county staff is obligated to continue long-range planning to deal with an expected continuation of the population boom. But he promised the crowd that residents would have a bigger voice as new proposals progress.

Residents of Lithia, Balm, FishHawk Ranch and Wimauma turned out to protest inclusion of a multilane highway often termed the Brandon Bypass or Beltway. The road would not be built by the county, but is shown in the transportation plan as sweeping from the Port Manatee area northeast through rural lands toward Plant City.

Aluotto said the road's prospects look dim, at least in the near future, because Gov. Charlie Crist recently directed the Florida Department of Transportation to shift its focus from beltway planning to analyzing ways to make the interstate system carry more traffic efficiently.

'That's the reason it's stalled at the current time,' Aluotto said.

Off the table altogether is a proposal to link John Moore Road in south Brandon with Apache Trail to form a connection to Bell Shoals Road. Neighborhood residents turned out at both meetings last week to protest the plan. County officials said they killed it, mostly because of flooding issues.

Aluotto said a proposal to install a two-lane bridge across the Alafia River at Valrie Lane 'is looking low probability because of environmental factors.' Residents on both sides of the river pointed out that the undeveloped part of the area contains springs and environmentally sensitive land.

Not so lucky were communities such as Gibsonton and FishHawk Ranch. Gibsonton residents turned out in Riverview and Ruskin to protest plans for a four-lane bridge that would head south across the Alafia from the end of 78th Street and link with new and existing roads to create a corridor to Big Bend Road.

FishHawk residents questioned a proposal to extend FishHawk Boulevard northeast to Turkey Creek Road. County consultant Keli Paul said there are planned subdivisions going in around Turkey Creek that would benefit from the proposal.

Although some ideas did come from developers, Paul said, the Alafia River bridges and many of the road connections she used in computer modeling to generate the plan came from residents who attended public workshops in July in Riverview and Ruskin. Residents of Brandon, Bloomingdale, FishHawk and Lithia pointed out that no notification signs went up in their communities, and the plan was billed as 'South County,' a community they don't identify with.

Residents at both meetings warned each other that unpopular projects that appear to be removed from consideration can be proposed in the future with little notice. Marcella O'Steen of Balm displayed a history of the beltway or bypass that she said was first proposed by landowners along the route in 1980.

At the Ruskin meeting Tuesday, Bob Krody of Sun City Center pointed to a dotted line stretching east from Ruskin's 24th Street Southeast just south of his community to link with U.S. 301. He said opponents thought they killed it some months back.

'You gotta come back all the time or else they will bring it back when we're not looking,' Krody said.

Aluotto described growth planning as a 'dynamic process' and conceded that no promises stand in stone.

'We don't take something off the map forever and for all time,' he said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Public meeting on the South County Transportation Plan

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Monday

WHERE: Pinecrest Elementary School, 7950 Lithia-Pinecrest Road, Lithia

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

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