The fruits of this yearโs New Tampa-friendly budget are beginning to ripen, as meetings in June and July presented visions of the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC), as well a sensory-friendly park, which will be the first of its kind in the Tampa Bay area.
Kevin Smith, senior vice president of FleischmanGarcia, addresses those gathered to hear about the expansion progress.
On July 11, the City of Tampaโs Parks & Recreation Department hosted a community meeting at the NTRC to present its plans for a 7,825-sq.-ft. expansion of the overcrowded Tampa Palms home of one of the Tampa Bay areaโs most sought-after gymnastics and dance programs.
The popularity of the programs has resulted in thousands of Tampa and Pasco County residents being placed on waiting lists for years.
However, those waiting lists should dwindle a lot, thanks to $1.95 million allocated in this yearโs budget to creating more room for more programs at NTRC โ which could double โ says Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning and design for Tampa Parks & Rec.
The expansion will add another multi-purpose room similar to the room currently used and there will be a new preschool gymnasium. Currently, the preschool program uses the main multi-purpose room.
Suder said the NTRC also will have a new training box, a 1,760-sq.-ft. rectangular room that can be used for a variety of training regimens. In addition, Suder said, there will be more windows so parents and family can watch the gymnastics and dance programs, as well as six new bathrooms.
One of the bathrooms will have an electromagnetic lock, so it can be open on the weekends for those using the outdoor areas when the NTRC is closed.
The expansion currently is in the design stage, and bids are expected to go out in October. Suder said he expects construction to begin in January, and for the expansion to be completed for the summer of 2019, or a year from now.
Public Shown Sensory Park Plans
At another public meeting held in June, more than two dozen residents and City of Tampa officials gathered with design architects at the NTRC to share ideas and their vision for a 5-acre sensory-friendly park that will be located behind the B.J.โs Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms.
David Conner, president of David Conner & Associates, showed some preliminary plans to area residents. Conner heads up the planning, landscape architecture and urban design firm that is being paid $49,400 (of the $90,000 budgeted by the City of Tampa) to begin designing the sensory-friendly park.
Attendees looked over a series of display boards (left) showing examples of other sensory parks in the U.S. โ which are created for children and adults identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are focused more on soothing and serene activities โ with some additional ideas for the New Tampa park.
Those who are on the autism spectrum can take in information from their five senses just like everyone else, but cannot process it the same way and can become overwhelmed, which makes them unable to communicate and interact because they are overcome with anxiety.
Sensory-friendly parks focus on incorporating easier-to-process activities and sights. They are, however, still accessible to everyone.
Proponents of the park say as many as 40,000 children in and around the New Tampa area are likely to use the park each year.
The displays showed photographs of potential amenities that could be part of the park, like slides, swings and jungle gyms. Residents were asked to place โLikeโ and โLoveโ stickers (above) on the amenities they liked the most.
District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, whose older brother Juan has autism, spearheaded the effort to get the study and design of the sensory park funded in this yearโs city budget.
Several residents voiced their excitement and approval during a short presentation by Conner and Brad Suder of Tampaโs Parks & Recreation Department.
โWe live in Stafford Place (in Tampa Palms), like one block away from the park,โ said Jeff Chacon, who said that he is eager to take his two-year old grandson, Finn, to the park. โI want to be able to walk down there with my grandson. Weโre excited. Itโs good for the neighborhood and good for the City of Tampa.โ
Freelance writer Andy Warrener contributed to this report.
More homes have been approved for K-Bar Ranch, which is now completely rezoned and headed towards nearly 2,000 total homes and condos/townhomes in the next few years. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
After two readings and one continuance, the Tampa City Council has approved a rezoning that will pave the way for developer M/I homes to build 698 new homes in K-Bar Ranch.
The growth of the soon-to-be burgeoning community, located north of Cross Creek Blvd. in the northeasternmost part of New Tampa, has been a point of some public debate, due to the lack of infrastructure, namely roads, in the area.
But, only councilman Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes all of the neighborhoods within Tampaโs city limits in New Tampa โ including K-Bar Ranch โ was the only vote against the rezoning approved by the council (by a 6-1 vote on June 28) to allow the new homes to be built in K-Bar.
As it is with any zoning matters, Viera is not allowed to comment on the case for 30 days following the vote.
More homes means more cars, and currently, the only way in and out of K-Bar Ranch is Kinnan St., which runs north and south, or Basset Creek Dr., a two-lane road that runs past Pride Elementary before connecting to Kinnan.
Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa are still pursuing connections north into Pasco County at three different points to help relieve congestion, and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., an east-west road which is connected to Kinnan St., is still under construction and will provide a path out via Morris Bridge Rd., but not until late 2019 at the earliest.
There was very little discussion amongst the City Council members before the vote, and no one from the public spoke.
Craig Margelowsky, the president of the Heron Preserve neighborhood in K-Bar Ranch and an opponent of adding more homes in his community without more roads, attended the May meeting but was unable to attend on June 28. He says he was disappointed with the decision, but not surprised.
Margelowsky says that he is concerned that by passing the rezoning request, the City of Tampa gave away any leverage it might have had in securing connections with Pasco County. If the rezoning was conditional upon new roads, government officials, as well M/I Homes, would be more pressed to find quicker solutions.
โThis took away all the expediency,โ Margelowsky says.
However, the City Council had little choice but to okay the rezoning, says Melanie Calloway, the senior transportation planning engineer for Tampa, in order to guarantee the connection of K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
Calloway cited House Bill 7207, or the Community Planning Act, passed in 2011 and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, which handcuffed local governments from imposing what was once state-required concurrency for transportation, parks and schools. The bill allows developers to build without making improvements on over-capacity or failing roadways, which arenโt considered when performing traffic analyses.
Calloway says the City of Tampa canโt legally require M/I Homes to make the connections, but are encouraging them to work with Pasco County, which M/I Homes says it is continuing to do so.
โI think there is more interest in making those connections than there has been,โ said K-Bar Ranch attorney Donna Feldman. โI think, in time, they will occur.โ
Feldman also said that at the Wesley Chapel Roadways presentation on May 29, it was shown that the majority of those on the Pasco side wanted connections.
However, that โmajorityโ was only true for two of three potential connections โ at Meadow Pointe Blvd. & K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., and Wyndfields Blvd. at K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
No indication has been given that there is enough support for the most convenient, controversial and contentious connection โ between Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe. Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the area, is on record as being adamantly opposed to it. He has suggested the Pasco Board of Commissioners (BOC) may not even vote on the connections until next year.
While Moore favors only two of the three connections, the City of Tampa feels that all three connections need to be made.
But, Margelowsky isnโt convinced the Tampa City Council will hold firm on that stance. โWithout requiring roads (before passing the rezoning), now Pasco County can sit on this for five years,โ he said. โI know that the Wyndfields and Meadow Pointe Blvd. connections will get done, but I donโt see anybody going and actually fighting for Kinnan-Mansfield.โ
Connections or no connections, Feldman said the rezoning needed to be approved. The 2,280 acres of K-Bar Ranch was annexed into Tampa in 2002 to โgrow the wealth, size and import of the City of Tampa, and the City of Tampa has done that,โ she said.
She said the land-use entitlements allow for far more density than what was allowed for in a 2015 rezoning of the area.
The current rezoning is for a northwest portion of land adjacent to Kinnan St., and a northeast portion of K-Bar Ranch adjacent to Morris Bridge Rd. The rest, Feldman says, already has been rezoned.
Feldman told council members that M/I Homes has done its part. The financial impact of building K-Bar Ranch Pkwy is $18.8-million, and she said that M/I Homes also donated 60 acres of K-Bar Ranch land to the city for a park, which also was more than required.
โThis project, as a whole, has been mitigated over and above what is necessary to accommodate this rezoning, which really started with the annexation of this project in the early 2000s,โ Feldman said as she asked the council for approval.
K-Bar already has roughly 500 homes and townhomes already built, with another 700 or so approved in 2015 โ despite similar protests from residents then about a lack infrastructure and roads โ that currently are under construction. The new rezoning will add nearly 700 more homes to the community, bringing the total to nearly 1,900.
IMAGINE, IF YOU CAN, your husband or wife taking the kids for their usual bike ride together and waiting for them to come home. Everyone knows bicycles can be dangerous, but even those times that you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach because itโs taking a little longer than usual for them to return, it pretty much always turns out OK.
Doesnโt it?
Then, imagine what the family of West Meadows resident Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, is going through today, less than three weeks since Pedro took his sons Lucas, 8, and Bennett, 3, out for a bike ride, never to be seen alive again by his wife Meghan or those young boys.
But, this wasnโt just another tragic accident that, in an instant, changed forever the lives of the Aguerreberry family and everyone who worked with the always-smiling Pedro at Citigroup and their friends and neighbors in New Tampa.
Instead, it was an intentional act by a sadly mentally deranged young man who posted on Instagram the day before he made that quick U-turn in his car on New Tampa Blvd. (the main road that runs through West Meadows) to run down Pedro and his young sons that no one should blame him for what he was about to do. Instead, Morse said, โblame the devil.โ
Yes, Morse, the former Freedom High student who was Baker Acted by the Tampa Police Department (TPD) on June 12, just two weeks earlier, only to be released โ against the protests of his own mother โ on June 19, a week after being held and evaluated, was obviously dealing with a serious mental illness. But, this isnโt about whether or not the man charged with the first-degree, premeditated murder of Pedro should be declared not guilty by reason of insanity or not. Itโs about what happens after a happily married, devoted husband and father is intentionally taken from the arms of his loving family by someone he had never met.
Trying To Make Sense Of It
Even though I had never met Pedro or Meghan, I was one of more than 200 people who filled St. James United Methodist Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. on June 27 for his funeral. The next day, I also came out to take pictures of the 100 or so who got together to put on a memorial bike ride and run in his honor.
At the memorial service on Friday, I was stunned that the start of the service was delayed by an hour, as I was one of only maybe 30 people who were actually sitting in the seats. The other (approximately) 175 or so people in attendance made a circle around the outside of the seating area and every last one of them hugged Meghan and the boys (Lucas was able to get himself into a seat, but Bennett, who was more severely injured in the crash, was still in a wheelchair) and offered them all prayers and other words of love and encouragement.
I had never seen this done at a funeral before but I definitely felt this amazing energy flowing between every one of those well-wishers and the entire Aguerreberry family.
As if he hadnโt already been through enough that week, poor Bennett simply couldnโt handle the receiving line. After the first 20 minutes or so, he said, โMommy, please stop letting go of me,โ as Meghan tried desperately to continue holding his hand while hugging every one of the attendees with her other arm.
Still 20 minutes later, Bennett pleaded with her again, โMommy, please stop hugging them.โ I canโt imagine that anyone who left St. James did so with his or her heart still intact after hearing this sweet childโs plaintive cries.
After that, it was difficult to focus on the beautiful, sweet words of remembrance from Brett, Oscar and Laura, Pedroโs friends and coworkers at Citigroup who spoke. Everyone who did mentioned Pedroโs smile.
โPedro was always happy and always had the greatest smile on his face,โ Brett said. โHe was always saying, โHey, Brett, isnโt this just the greatest day?โโ
Itโs still so hard to believe that someone like that could be taken away from the people who love him by such a senseless, heinous act.
Even so, I personally wanted to thank Loyless Funeral Homes for providing such a beautiful video memorial for Pedro, both online and during the service. All of the pictures of him and his family on these pages were saved from that video.
Honoring Pedroโs Memory…
It certainly isnโt difficult to understand why so many people have felt compelled to try to help the Aguerreberry family. In addition to the memorial bike ride, a GoFundMe page has already raised tens of thousands of dollars to help them and The Fat Rabbit Pub in Tampa Palms and 900ยบ Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass (owner Steve Falabella lives in West Meadows) were among those holding fund-raising events (Fat Rabbitโs was on July 8) to help.
As for the bike ride, cyclists young and old started at the BBD entrance to Flatwoods Park, turned right onto BBD and left onto New Tampa Blvd., pausing to honor Pedro at the makeshift shrine set up by his fellow West Meadows residents near where he was struck and killed by Morseโs car a little west of Wood Sage Dr.
Brett was among the handful of runners who said a little prayer for Pedro before taking off to run the parkโs paved loop together.
Construction has resumed at the Crystal Lagoonsยฎ amenity in Epperson, after a delay due to permitting. The delay in opening the lagoon, combined with the cost of amenities, has riled some in the community. (Photo: Gavin Olsen)
After years of anticipation and months of positive press clippings, the countryโs first community to be home to a Crystal Lagoonsยฎ amenity in Epperson, is facing choppy, albeit crystal clear, waters.
First, summer is here and the lagoon isnโt open, thanks in part to Pasco County ordering Metro Development Group, which is building the high-profile project, to halt construction back in May when it discovered 19 buildings had been built without proper permits.
While construction has resumed, even more disconcerting to Metro might be a host of current residents โ and others under contract and waiting to move into Epperson โ complaining publicly about what they feel are broken promises and false advertising that have led to additional fees, despite paying premium prices for homes in the community.
That group, which it says numbers roughly 70 homeowners and those who have placed deposits or are under contract, hired the Kovar Law Group to represent themselves when, they say, they did not receive any answers from Metro.
They took their complaints public on June 15, when the group called local media outlets for an impromptu press conference at the lagoon. That has exacerbated strained relationships, mostly through Facebook posts and comments, and residents who say they are pleased with Metro and who fear the bad publicity will bring down their property values and cast an unfair stain on the new community.
Metro responded to the Neighborhood News through public relations firm Tucker/Hall with a prepared statement:
โThe Epperson neighborhood has been extraordinarily popular, and we are honored that so many families are moving here and enjoying the area. We want all families to enjoy the neighborhood and amenities, and we have already extended new discounts and benefits to early residents. We want to hear feedback from residents about their questions so we can work with them to make the area even better as this neighborhood grows.โ
Those angry with Metro, however, say they havenโt received any clear answers.
*****
They say they were promised an idyllic paradise, presented for months in beautiful renderings where one monthly fee of $25 gets you full run of the lagoon, all packaged as โLagoon Living.โ
Instead, those residents are discovering a number of things they claim Metro and Epperson did not market โ additional costs for amenities, including rides down an inflatable water slide and kayak and paddleboard rentals, as well as rules against bringing in your own chairs and coolers, as well as memberships for non-residents.
โThe people complaining are the ones who looked at stuff without asking questions,โ says Epperson resident Ken Shere. โThey obviously didnโt read the bylawsโ which, he adds, states clearly that Metro has the right โto set and adjust pricing.โ
Bill Rowe, who moved into Epperson June 1 with his granddaughter, agrees, but only to a certain point.
โYou can put into a contract that we have the right to make changes,โ Rowe says. โOf course, they are going to make changes. They have to be reasonable, though.โ
Some donโt think Eppersonโs latest email falls into the reasonable category, though.
According to an email sent to residents three weeks ago, thanking them for their patience, Epperson introduced, in addition to the $25 monthly fee all residents pay, Play Passes.
Bronze Level passes, which will cost $20 a month per person for the summer season (March through September), are good for unlimited slide rides, four Wibit (an inflatable water platform) sessions and four guest passes. For $40 more a month per person, Silver Level passes allow four 1-hour kayak rentals, four 1-hour paddleboard rentals and two more guest passes.
A Gold Level pass is $90 per person per month, allowing for 30 Wibit sessions, 30 1-hour kayak and paddleboard rentals, eight passes and unlimited slide rides.
A family of four could spend as much as $360 a month ($4,320 per year) to enjoy close to unlimited access to the lagoon amenities, or $2,160 just for the summer. (Note-Metro did not respond to a question about what happens from October through February, since itโs not mentioned in their pricing.)
โI hope they come to some sort of resolution, something fair,โ Rowe says. โI donโt want that every time my daughter goes down a slide I have to get out my wallet and pay a fee. I want my wife to be able to walk down to the lagoon and have a bottle of water with her without water police stopping her. I want Metro to succeed, but you have to be fair and not let it become some amusement park. Itโs not what I signed up for.โ
*****
Epperson is reducing prices for current homeowners. Residents who bought before June 25 receive a 75-percent โpioneerโ discount, but just for this summer, meaning that the Play Pass tiers will be only $5, $15 and $22 a month per person. Next year, the pioneer discount will be 50 percent, then 25 percent in 2020, before being phased out completely.
Kristen Alvis, who bought her home in July of 2017, and others, say those who are complaining did not read their contracts closely enough.
โI signed a contract with M/I Homes and again at closing and, in both cases, it was clearly stated that the $25 monthly fee provided you access to the lagoon,โ she says. โThere was nothing implied about (other) amenities.โ
Ken Shere, being interviewed by ABC Action News, says that Metro has been upfront with Epperson residents and that the overwhelming majority of residents are happy.
And, for those who are complaining that public memberships will be available when they thought they were buying into an amenity offered only to residents, Shere points out where it clearly says in a recent community disclosure addendum that โthe Lagoon will not be for the exclusive use of buyers within Epperson Ranch, and outside memberships will be available.โ
Shere says Epperson is the best neighborhood he has ever lived in.
He said Metro provided an Icee truck, tent for a grill and other items for Eppersonโs summer bash, and has helped develop a tight-knight community. He is disappointed in the negativity towards Metro, and thinks much of it is being fueled by non-residents who only have deposits down and arenโt yet as invested in the community.
He says he is convinced that 95 percent of residents are happy, even though many might be discouraged that the lagoon isnโt open yet. Those on the other side say that they believe more than half of the residents are unhappy and want answers from Metro.
*****
When the group of residents and potential future residents started having town halls, Shere says he and others asked them to stop representing the community and look for other avenues to resolves their issues. When they hired an attorney, he says that started a series of back-and-forth attacks on social media.
โThatโs when it all got real,โ said Kip Lessem, an Epperson resident since April. โThe fact that the lagoon isnโt open yet, and then all this other stuff happened, it just added fuel to the fire.โ
But, Jonathan Smith, a one-time prospective Epperson resident, says Metroโs lack of a response to concerns about amenities, and a series of what he called โconflicting messages,โ left him and others no choice.
โIt was marketed and advertised and sold to us as an all-inclusive exclusive amenity for residents,โโ he says. โMetro has gone back and forth wavering on really what it was going to be.โ
Some residents are disappointed that the water slide depicted in renderings used in marketing materials still on display at the pool is not what they ended up with, which Metro Development Group says was done out of caution, due to the potential for severe weather in Florida. Other residents are leery of the lack of free amenities at the lagoon. (Photos: Gavin Olsen)
Smith adds that even today, site maps at the lagoon show a two-person slide next to a tube slide in the Adventure Bay part of the lagoon; when in fact, only a large blue and white inflatable slide sits on the other side of the lagoon.
The renderings have been used for months by Metro to promote and market the lagoon, although their defenders says renderings of any project are always subject to change and should not be taken literally.
โIf you look at the rendering and canโt take it literally, then why even post it?,โ Smith asks, adding that instead of deluging Metro with emails, the group decided to hire an attorney to represent their concerns and try to get some answers.
On May 24-25, two town hall meetings were held. Smith said due to some of the personal attacks he has endured, he and his wife backed out of their contract.
โI donโt want it to fail,โ he says. โI just think Metro should come in and say, โHey guys, weโre going to take responsibility for this (confusion), and moving forward weโre going to change our marketing material.โ If they had said amenities not included, prices subject to change, we would have been okay with that. I just feel like the way they did it was false advertising.โ
Lessem says he thinks bashing Metro publicly wasnโt the way to go, though he admits he is one of those disappointed that the lagoon isnโt open yet.
He said the pricing is no surprise to him, but he can see how it can add up for larger families. He hopes Metro will reevaluate the prices of passes in order to attract more people to the community.
And, about that community โ Lessem knows nerves have been frayed and enemies made, all inflamed by Facebook. He said he is โdisappointed in the maturity levelโ shown by many of his neighbors on both sides of the issue, โbut people let emotions get the best of them when they get passionate.โ
At the end of the day, however, he says everyone has to live together.
โThe community is not the lagoon, itโs the community,โ Lessem says. โItโs your neighbors. When all of this is said and done, you have to ask yourself, whatโs more important? Youโre going to find out you missed out on, like making friends, because of whatever side you are taking in this whole debate.โโ
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco doesn’t have many details about a murder Wednesday that he says was a “targeted execution,” but here’s what investigators have pieced together after interviews with witnesses:
It was right around lunchtime Wednesday afternoon when a car entered the Treviso subdivision in Wiregrass Ranch and drove up to a yellow home on the 28000 block of Marsciano Lane that was still under construction. The two murder suspects, described by witnesses as light-skinned black men with short braided hair, roughly 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-8 inches in height, hopped out of a dark-colored sedan (UPDATE: The vehicle police are looking for is a 2017-2018 black Ford Fusion Hybrid) and walked towards the garage.
Three men were sitting in the garage, taking a break from a tiling project at the house, which they had been working on since 7 a.m. or so. The suspects only seemed interested in one of the construction workers — 46-year-old Heans Gianni Alvarez. Brushing past the two other men sitting there, one of the suspects walked up to Alvarez, tapped him on the leg, pointed the gun right at him and executed him.
The suspect pointed the gun at the other men, but did not pull the trigger as they scattered. The two suspects returned to their car and sped off.
“It looks like they were going after Mr. Alvarez,” Sheriff Nocco said. “They bypassed other people. And, there was no sign of a robbery that took place.”
In fact, Alvarez was wearing jewelry when law enforcement arrived.
Nocco says they are still investigating any possible motive, but it does appear the two suspects knew Alvarez.
Nocco is asking for the public’s help. Anyone with any information is urged to call the Pasco Sheriff’s Office Crime Tips Line at 1-800-706-2488.
