bye bye, bypass
Citizens won a major battle against sprawl Tuesday when the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted to remove the Brandon Bypass from the last planning map bearing the stain of the road which has also been called “Beltway,” “Sprawlway,” & “Green Swath of Death.”
Having recently succeeded in persuading the county to remove the Bypass from other maps headed for the county’s Comprehensive Plan, activists (including U-CAN, Sierra Club & R-LAND) finished the job by meeting with the MPO and its Policy Committee over the last few weeks, backed up by an e-mail campaign, then addressing the MPO on Tuesday prior to the final vote. The MPO map was the primary source from which this Bypass oozed onto other maps, so it should be gone for good now — at least in this alignment which would have brought sprawl to rural areas and devastated several nature preserves. (See my October article with maps and details.)
It takes a lot to move this county to carry out the will of the people when our interests conflict with development interests, so I heartily commend the citizens who participated in this effort — including the whole troop of boy scouts who stood in uniform at a community meeting in Lithia to oppose the Bypass because it would ruin the parks they love. Hundreds of citizens turned out at each of the community meetings in Ruskin, Riverview and Lithia —and this was after the county’s Planning & Growth Management Dept. tried to calm the opposition by telling the media they were going to delay consideration of the Transportation Plan & the Bypass for months.
It took special courage for the county’s Parks, Rec & Conservation Dept. to oppose the Bypass, given that they work under the county’s current developer-friendly administration; but they took a strong stand anyway, on behalf of the preserves and natural resources they are charged with protecting, lending their authority to the citizens’ objections.
We voters actually have more power than any monied special interests. It’s inspiring to see that power in action, and it’s exciting to be a part of it.
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December 6th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Very nice, but the traffic isn’t going away. It’s only getting worse. I don’t see the Sierra Club offering to give us a ride to work.
The next time a car load of people gets killed in a wreck on I-75 or I-4 because of congestion, we’ll salute their fine work. After all, trees are more important than public safety.
December 6th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
How about improving the infrastructure INSIDE the urban service area rather than plowing through established rural communities and/or parks! People have finally had enough and are willing to fight against the developer agenda and it looks like our officials are starting to listen. This was clearly a win for citizens.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Thanks Mariella. Don’t let the traffic tards get you down.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
To those that express anger over the traffic problems we have, as the first commenter above does, please don’t take it out on the concerned citizens who are fighting to keep the rest of what’s left of of Florida unpaved. Direct your anger at your county’s leadership that allowed uncontrolled growth to occur without bothering to make sure that the infrastructure could handle that growth. Go down to county center like the rest of us and demand that they control growth going forward.
We all hate traffic and want to see effective solutions implemented, but what Mariella and other concerned citizens are demanding is that the county address our transportation needs by looking for the best, least intrusive way of handling the traffic. The county rushed into proposing a bypass cutting through much of east Hillsborough’s rural land. The FDOT and other agencies are only beginning to look at regional solutions that may include using an elevated portion of I-75 bypassing Tampa. There may be less intrusive ways of handling the congesting without creating more sprawl. One thing is certain - the bypass, aligned the way it was along the border of the rural sector, would have opened up the rural area for developement. The clever placement of that bypass was conceived by the building lobby for the purposes of expanding the urban sector. In 2007, they have been pushing the county very hard to have the urban area expanded but the planning commission has not agreed to their demands. They are angry over not succeeding in their quest, so they’re resorting to Plan B, which is to try to place a major roadway through the area they’ve targeted for development. Unfortunately, the developer-friendly county staff succumbs to any pressure that they exert and puts a proposed roadway on a county map before any worthwhile study is done.
There are 2 chief reasons why the bypass was a real bad idea. First, the county is starting to work on a long range growth plan that dovetails all elements, such as land use and transportation/mobility. This has been long overdue. Up until now we have, at times, inadvertently let transportation needs lead our land use. The county is finally going to combine all elements in it’s Vision2050 Plan, in the hopes of determining land use first, and then integrating mobility to complement it.
Second, before anyone suggests putting a bypass through east Hillsborough I want to know that they have carefully looked at all other possible alternatives first. A bypass, with the placement that was proposed, would result in a tremendous lifestyle change to residents in that part of the county.
I view it as a last resort, because of the extensive impact it will have on so many people in the rural area. At this point, it is premature and thoughtless to suggest it. The county realized how foolish they looked and quickly retreated.
The saddest thing is that citizens can’t rely on this county to do a thorough and effective job at planning for our needs. If Mariella and a legion of concerned citizens were’nt constantly peeking under the table and examining everything between every nook and cranny of county paperwork, we would be in real trouble. Sometimes these things are discovered by mere chance and then, with the help of the press, activist websites and active blogs like SticksOfFire the word gets out and people get fired up.
The good news is that when the county’s convoluted actions/mistakes get “discovered”, as happened in this case, people unite in outrage and then county leadership is forced to focus on who they really work for - the average Hillsborough citizen.
It’s a shame that it has to be that way but until we can replace some of those that sit on the board with leaders that care about our needs, we will have to keep the vigil going.
Hopefully we can start to change the makeup of our current board in November of 2008
December 6th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Thank your developer friends “damn this traffic jam” They want to further send all new subdivisions and the retail to follow out to the boon docks and ALL THOSE FOLKS will travel into the USA to get to work. That’s how things have operated in the past and why we are where we are now. Roads have not kept pace with growth. Let’s get out of the mind set that we need more roads. We need mobility choices that are convenient and get us where we want to go. Not everyone will use other forms of transportation but some will and that will free up road space and others will pay tolls to ride expensive roads and that’s ok too. More roads for more cars is a mind-set that has to change.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Mobility choices?
Really.
Do you talk like that in real life?
You’re right. I’ll call my boss tomorrow morning and let her know I’ll be a little late getting to work.
“I’ll be in at around 2040 when my mobility choice/elevated train/Jetson’s hovercraft is operational. I’d be there sooner, but I can’t squeeze into the fourth deck of I-4.”
Remember kids, roads don’t bring people. Jobs, good weather, cheap land, economic incentives and no state income taxes bring people. Up until the point, of course, when the roads are too clogged to take them from their cheap property to their jobs. Then the people don’t come at all.
Then again ::::rubbing hands like a mad scientist:::: maybe that’s the idea.
December 8th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Dear Damn This Traffic Jam, I wonder how James Taylor, an environmentalist and political activist, would feel about you using his song title to advocate for the destruction of what he has spent much of his lifetime working to protect? Shame on you.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:31 am
To all of those who made this happen……Thank you! My home was under the Green Swath of Death and I am so happy the Swath is DEAD! This road would have destroyed my community and way of life and for what???? $$$$ that is what. It is clear that this wasn’t about improving transportation it was about increasing sprawl.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
The America of “Damn This Traffic Jam”: http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 8th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
The America of “Damn This Traffic Jam”:
http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 8th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 8th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
The America of “Damn This Traffic Jam”:
http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 8th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
The America of “Damn That Traffic Jam”:
http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 8th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
http://www.hcn.org/allimages/1999/mar01/graphics/990301.029.gif
December 10th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Marty’s Mom - how do we know that the construction of your home isn’t also sprawl?
December 11th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Regarding my previous post, not sure how it go posted 6 times, my apologies.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Wow exploiting the Boy Scouts - that’s a new technique!
December 12th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Did they get a badge for pushing your agenda?
December 13th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Donna, I spoke to some of those scouts at the Lithia meeting, and I was very impressed with their passion for their cause, and their knowledge of the issue. Nobody was exploiting them. They were exercising their right to participate in their local government, and for that they deserve a badge and more — they deserve our respect and encouragement, not snarky cynicism.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Me thinks that Highway2Hell and DamnThisTrafficJam should call in sick for a few days and not sit in traffic for a while. Sometimes carbon monoxide overload can make a person overly aggressive.
Most people devote their energy to expressing ideas toward solving the problem, but it seems that you 2 are spending all of your time attacking the commentors. Hmmmm…I’m wondering if you 2 are really the same person - similar sound-bite names, similar aggressive behavior.
Well in any case, stay away from those exhaust fumes for the next few days and have your exhaust system checked out. After you’ve cleared your head of the CO, you may begin to view all of us as members of a region-wide community that are looking for rational solutions that don’t alienate and negatively impact our neighbors. Forget about attacking those with ideas. Contribute toward finding a reasonable solution.
p.s. if you’re going to make believe you’re 2 different people come up with names that are not so easy to link together
December 14th, 2007 at 7:19 am
For those of you tired of congestion, I suggest that you move from the sprawl to an area closer to where you work. Perhaps you should use your feet as a mobility choice, thus avoiding traffic jams. The Green Swath of Death would surely bring more sprawl and congestion to a rural area that has been trampled on enough to say nothing of the environmental impacts.
As for those wonderful Boy Scouts - they deserve our congratulations for coming out to protect their camp. The opportunity for our young people to go out and experience nature and expand their skills is rapidly diminishing in our society.