So far, an outer-county Beltway or “Bypass” is only a gleam in the eye of those developers who want to smear subdivisions all over the green spaces still left in Hillsborough county. But now your county Planning & Growth Management Dept. has proposed we carve it into the stone of our Comprehensive Plan.
Your county Parks Dept. strongly disagrees. They list 10 preserves that would be heavily impacted by the Bypass and other new roads proposed in the South County Transportation Plan, writing,
each of these roads has the potential to significantly degrade the environmental qualities of the above-mentioned Preserves through habitat fragmentation, hydrologic impacts, wildlife movement patterns, road kills, pathways for exotic plant invasion and alteration of site management techniques (such as prescribed burning). In essence, the efforts of the ELAP Program to acquire, connect, and manage these lands over the past twenty years will be placed in serious jeopardy.
The road they now call a “Bypass,” is the same road they previously called a “Beltway,” passing through Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough & Manatee counties, looping all around the Tampa Bay area. (See the whole Beltway on this old map, along with the original Bypass route, which is now toast.) Do they think we’ll like the Beltway better if they call it a “Bypass”?
Any plan for a multi-county Beltway or Bypass should begin with a regional vision, but this proposal loosely sketches half a Beltway on half a county plan, which is half-baked planning.
This Beltway-Bypass was not part of the county-wide Transportation Corridor Plan adopted just last month, on Aug. 23, but then it appears on this half-county map 6 days later, on Aug. 29. That county-wide plan was shown to community groups throughout the county with no Bypass on it, so citizens in north Hillsborough are blissfully unaware that this Bypass is about to be adopted. It is not fair to citizens in the north half of the county to introduce this controversial highway into a south county Plan amendment without consulting them, because if this south half is adopted, the north half would inevitably follow, impacting their neighborhoods even though they were not involved in its initial introduction into our Comprehensive Plan.
There has been no study done to determine a viable path, so the Bypass is being hurled onto our Comprehensive Plan as a 2-mile-wide swath, threatening the property rights of everyone within 2 miles of the monster. Are we planning to ask every property owner within that broad area to preserve some right-of-way just in case we build a Bypass somewhere in that 2-mile-wide “conceptual alignment”?
The ill-conceived Bypass is just one of many problems with the South County Transportation Plan, which is snarled with expensive roads-to-nowhere ripping through rural Hillsborough. It is a plan to eradicate agriculture, eliminate opportunities for rural lifestyles, and wipe out wildlife in south Hillsborough county, while devastating nature preserves and ruining neighborhoods, with taxpayers footing the bill for the expensive infrastructure called for. And all for what? Just so a few developers can buy cheap farmland to build more subdivisions full of commuters bound to clog our inner roads as they drive from far-flung suburbs to jobs & services in the urban core.
The Planning Commission has recently re-confirmed that we have plenty of room WITHIN the Urban Service Area for all the growth projected for the next 20 years. We do not need, and cannot afford to expand urban development into the rural areas in the way projected by this Transportation Plan.
We can’t afford all the infrastructure we need WITHIN the Urban Service Area—we’re BILLIONS of dollars behind on the roads we need now. We should be spending our money on infrastructure where the people are, filling our existing needs first and focusing growth where it will make mass transit feasible.
Finally, there are also some new roads and bridges proposed in urban areas that impact neighborhoods and conflict with community plans.
You can see the map and list of all the proposed projects. And you can come to these meetings to learn more and provide your input:
Wed., Oct. 24, 6:30–8:30 pm
Riverview High School Cafeteria
11311 Boyette Road, Riverview, FL 33569
I have submitted a letter with my comments about the proposed plan, including some objections to specific road projects. You can provide your comments by e-mail to these county planners: Wally Blain, Joe Zambito & Ned Baier, and/or contact your commissioners with the handy form set up by R-LAND, and add your comments to this Lithia organization’s list of objections.
Kelly
2 years ago
Thanks for exposing the South County Disaster……I mean Transportation Plan. I predict that once out in the SUNSHINE this plan will feel the public opposition in EPC proportions………or greater. Thanks again for making people aware of this.
GKR
2 years ago
The South County Transportation Plan makes even less sense when overlayed with the Transit Needs and Opportunities plan created May 21st
by the Metropolitan Planning Organization:
http://www.mpotransit.org/about-the-study/NOFoldout070530.pdf
Do all the different county planning groups talk to each other when creating their plans?
Jason
2 years ago
I wish someone could figure out how to smoothly connect the crosstown with 275 — would make my life a great deal easier.
chaaalie
2 years ago
Just curious, has there ever been any action by a governing body that you agreed with?
Mariella Smith
2 years ago
chaaalie: sure.
Most recently: championship park is dead
wendy
2 years ago
the bridge crossing Alafia from Bloomingdale to Valrie is right over a significant wildlife habitat!! What are they thinking? I really believe as long as we open roads and make new roads, we will never have successful mass transit. As long as we make it MORE difficult to get around on roads, maybe behavior can be changed.
I have every reason to believe the south county landowners are finding all means available to open the rural areas to suburban development. There will be shopping centers all along the expanded roads and new housing opportunities (they say affordable because the land is cheap) and well, all those folks driving in to Tampa to work because the bus or transit lines don’t go out that far. Where is the common sense?
chaaalie
2 years ago
M.Smith: That hardly should count as being “in agreement” since it the body reversed itself … after you had spent much venom trying to get just that.
It just seems as if you believe that every action is based in some deep secretive conspiracy. I can’t imagine this government is efficient enough to support conspiracies.
Government certainly has of more than it’s share of bad ideas, but it’s largely because people who are smart enough to help and do the right thing, are also smart enough not to run for public office and all the attention it brings (warranted or otherwise.)
Just my 2 cents.
Dusty
2 years ago
Yo chaaalie, at least she has the balls to use her real name instead of hiding behind a name that looks like you held the “a” key down too long.
GKR
2 years ago
Who’s talking about “deep secretive conspiracys”?
Regarding our local elected leaders, most would be happy with ground level competency, and common sense.
Mariella Smith
2 years ago
In addition to the 2 public meetings I mentioned on Oct. 23 & 24, they’ve just added another one:
Mon., Nov. 5, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Pinecrest Elementary School
7950 Lithia-Pinecrest Road, Lithia, Fl 33547
The notice says: “The same information will be presented at all 3 public meetings, as well as suggestions and/or concerns that are heard at the previous meetings.”
Meredith
2 years ago
I don’t think these are “deep secret conspiracies”, I think they’re blatant attempts by developers to advance their agendas. But Chaaalie does have a point — we always say no to bad projects and rarely show support for good ones. I think the condos downtown are an example of positive development. Hopefully they will result in a stronger, more appealing downtown with some high-density residential pockets…this will make Tampa look more like a “real” city (no insult intended but you know what I mean) and perhaps we can get some mass transit solutions once there’s sufficient ridership from downtown to outlying areas.
I don’t see developers as 100% bad with secret plans to ruin everything. I see most developers as opportunists who make the most of the lax political climate in Florida, and as part of the process, the natural beauty of Florida gets ruined. They don’t seem to care as long as they make money. No need to conspire when you openly own the politicians.
chaaalie
2 years ago
Dusty,
I’m “blessed/cursed” with a name that is so common that I’ve been laughed at by a Mike Smith. There are even 2 politicians in towns adjacent to mine who share my name.
So even in the earliest days of Compuserve and AOL I had to find a unique ID that wasn’t already taken. I came up with this based on the way several of my college teammates from the northeast pronounced my name (Bostonians seem to have particular trouble with Rs).
It has been my online persona on nearly every forum or site I visit for more than 20 years … and I have never attempted to hide behind it.
Until the recent flourish of Myspace users, Googling the term had never pointed at anyone but me.
If you are still concerned, I’ll post my name … but it really is less specific than what I am using.
No conspiracy here!
Mariella Smith
2 years ago
See Steve Otto’s column today: Spooked By A Ghostly Highway
chase
2 years ago
It’s amusing to watch from afar as y’all destroy that state at such an amazing rate. It never ends.
Glad to be gone. Hey, developers, I think there’s a spot over by Yeehaw Junction you’ve missed ….
BG
2 years ago
Our best tool against expansion of the urban service area is Florida Hometown Democracy. If this is of concern to you, I urge you to visit their website, print out a petition, sign it and mail it today. It’s unfortunate but our elected officials (state and local) are either in the pockets of developers or they don’t have the political will to do anything meaningful to bring about real growth management.
This transportation plan promotes urban sprawl. Urban sprawl consumes rural land, places people further from job centers and entertainment venues (longer car/truck trips), kills off our wildlife and takes away a lifestyle choice-rural living.
Where are the cowboys and cowgirls going to ride their horses? Where will a guy go hunting? Will we have to import strawberries and tomatoes from California? How about cattle ranches?
Soon there won’t be any “country” land left. It will be just a memory buried beneath an endless march of houses, shopping centers, gas stations, drug stores and banks.
Say NO to the South County Transportation Plan and say YES to Florida Hometown Democracy!
Mary Twiford
2 years ago
This resident says “No” to the South County Transportation Plan..It promotes urban sprawl, which only exacerbates our already jammed demsity.degrading our County..Much better to focus growth where it will make mass transit feasible..The new bridges in urban areas conflict with our Community Plans..Obliterating our wildlife areas will forever degrade what our forfathers worked so hard to protect and preserve, hopefully for our grandchildren..Axing this plan is the better wisdom…..
Mary Twiford
2 years ago
This resident says “No” to the South County Transportation Plan..It promotes urban sprawl, which only exacerbates our already jammed density, degrading our County..Much better to focus growth where it will make mass transit feasible..The new bridges in urban areas conflict with our Community Plans. Obliterating our wildlife will forever degrade what our forefathers worked so hard to protect and preserve, hopefully for our grandchildren..Axing this plan is the better wisdom..
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