reality setting in south of gandy
Mr. Bill permalink | categories: city, development, sog, tampa, transportationby Mr. Bill @ 7:04 pm
Tampa City Council members listened intently today to the double-edged information presented by Tindale-Oliver and Associates about the current problems and future concerns about transportation and roads in the South Gandy area.
As always, an elevated roadway over Gandy was discussed, too. But the costs and reactions from nearby homeowners make this on-again, off-again proposition unlikely.
The two hour long event (that started 20 minutes late) b
oiled down to these four main facts:
- Congratulations to the City for getting stagnant construction turned into significant growth from the 1980’s to the late 1990’s.
- CURRENT Reality: road capacity in the SOG area is near 96%
- Already Permitted Near Future: if the current APPROVED development occurs, the roads will be 50% OVER capacity
- IF the additional 300 acres that COULD be developed are eventually developed, the picture only gets worse
The final result probably includes at least a couple of these hard-to-swallow pills:
- increase city impact fees,
- shift property tax money will be to roadways
- subject businesses and other properties in the affected area to additional taxes, OR
- hope to talk the state out of more money
And by the way, if you think this is going to happen quickly, guess again. The objective is to have several scenarios/proposals by the end of this year, sort it down to one plan by June of 2007. Hopefully adopt the chosen plan by September of 2008.
So that means if construction on this proposal begins in 2009 it might be a miracle.
Tags: city, development, sog, tampa, transportation
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September 27th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Really there are ways around getting stuck in the Gandy traffic, use Oklahoma, or Interbay if like me you live in SOG city. Or go a bit north to euclid or elprado and use them. I just wish they would reopen MacDill.
September 27th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
They did finally reopen MacDill this week, but a sidestreet or two is still closed. I’ve lived in SOG City (loathe the retirement community like name “Sun Bay South”) for over 6 years and it’s amazing how much it’s grown.
September 27th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
As usual the focus is on SOG. Well, don’t forget NOG. I live off South West shore blvd, North of Gandy. Traffic from SOG has to go north, it can’t go south unless you work at MacDill (few military will be able to afford the new condos being built).
It is well known that West Shore is a “dead” road. It is so over capacity that it CANNOT be improved. With these facts well known (Dingfielder had a meeting April/May this year where this was clearly stated) the so called people in office approved yet more development for SOG (Rattlesnake point)that will have to use north bound roads.
Not a single media source noted this when city council, prior to approval, stated the need to study the impact of more development and several media sources had published the very facts noted above.
Why does the media not challenge these politicians using their own previous statements? What is the media afraid of? The only hope is that we, the voters, get rid of these people that have never met a development they don’t like. Sadly, we’ll probaably just get another bunch of developer suck-ups.
September 27th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Thanks for your comments Dale. At the recent meeting it was clearly acknowledged the West Short is already at capacity and there is little to be done - directly - to solve it. The plan is to direct traffic to the Crosstown, Manhattan, Dale Mabry, and Lois.
We have continually raised the issue about all the development with out roads or transit being discussed. The city is trying to deal with the disaster they have created in SOHO where single family homes have been turned into duplexes and quadplexes.
Thanks for speaking up here on Sticks. Hopefully someone at City Hall can read and maybe they read Sticks.
September 27th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
As a Pinellas resident who travels on Gandy to visit friends in Tampa, I must say I am amazed how bad Gandy Blvd. is on the Tampa side. It shows that the city leaders are more concerned about helping out their developer friends than citizens of either side of the bay. It is going to take a bunch of money and it will be a huge headache to fix this mess. Thank you so much City of Tampa!