Category: News

Tampa Palms Blvd. Repaving In Line For A Budget Boost

When City of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor presented her $1.8-billion fiscal year 2022 budget to the Tampa City Council on August 5, it did not include any money for one of Council member Luis Viera’s sought-after projects — the repaving of Tampa Palms Blvd.

Viera, who represents District 7 (which includes most of North Tampa and all of incorporated New Tampa), was crestfallen. But, while he understood some of the budget constraints, he didn’t give up hope.

With the urging of community activists and Tampa Palms residents — many of them the same folks who fought for the funding for the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC) a few years ago — as well as plenty of Viera’s own door pounding, Mayor Castor announced on August 24 that an additional $3.3 million would be added to the budget to repave and rejuvenate Tampa Palms Blvd.’s south loop.

“That is a really, really, really big thing,” Viera says. “It’s a big win for our area.”

For the south loop, or segment 1, the price tag is $2.3 million. The north loop, which runs from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Ebensburg Dr., will cost is $1 million.

The final public meeting on the budget is scheduled for Tuesday, September 28.

Money for the Tampa Palms Blvd. repaving was originally expected to come from the $500 million raised via the All for Transportation one-cent surtax. However, the penny surtax was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court in February, ironically a day after Viera met with Tampa Palms residents at a town hall.

“I promised the residents that night that if the penny sales tax failed that I would fight really hard for it in this year’s budget,” Viera said. “Flipping it into the budget when it wasn’t originally there was a big ask.”

Viera pushed for the money, with an assist from local activists — who made phone calls and sent emails to Mayor Castor.

One Tampa Palms resident, Mike Marlowe, wrote to Castor on Aug. 21 that his community had been promised repaving of the road “which now looks like a quilt instead of a roadway” — last year. He added that in 22 years of living in New Tampa, he has “never seen the road this bad.”

A week later, Brandie Miklus, the city’s infrastructure and mobility program coordinator, responded to Marlowe with the good news — that the city’s mobility department was moving forward with resurfacing plans.

In her address to the City Council, Castor seemed determined not to let the Florida Supreme Court decision freeze her efforts to improve the city’s infrastructure needs.

“I won’t sugar coat how big a blow it was to lose the All for Transportation money that was so overwhelmingly supported by our constituents,” Mayor Castor said. “I will provide a path to forge ahead on our own, one that includes a citywide mobility plan.”

Castor’s budget includes $22 million for road safety and maintenance. “We’ve all heard the calls from our community to make our streets, sidewalks and trails safe and to improve our road maintenance,” she said.

A refreshed Tampa Palms Blvd., which Viera says is presently “a failed road,” is currently in the design phase (the money for which was in last year’s budget), with actual construction occurring in two phases and expected to begin within the next year.

According to Miklus, it will include resurfacing, multimodal and safety improvements, traffic calming, enhanced crosswalks with Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) and separated bicycle lanes.

After years of complaints about being ignored by the City of Tampa, this could be a year in which New Tampa’s cup runneth over, as a number of New Tampa projects are in the city’s plans to receive money. In fact, after the first public hearing on Sept. 13, Viera was pleased enough to say this year’s budget could be the best for New Tampa in recent memory, if not ever.

The budget has $1.67 million scheduled for the long-awaitd inclusive playground, which will have play elements, wheelchair access and autism-friendly features, to be built near the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC).

The FY 2022 budget also includes $650,000 to begin the planning and design of Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 24, which will be located in the K-Bar Ranch area. Another $11.5 million is expected to be allocated in the FY 2023 budget for construction of what would be New Tampa’s fifth fire station.

Until then, Viera says he also is working on the construction of a possible road off Morris Bridge Rd. that would allow for quicker access into K-Bar Ranch to help reduce some of the response times of the two fire stations on Cross Creek Blvd., both of which rank among the slowest in the entire Tampa Bay area.

Viera also said the budget includes $50,000 to design New Tampa Blvd.’s future renovation ($50,000), hopefully leading to its repaving in the next year or two. Like Tampa Palms Blvd., New Tampa Blvd. was initially slated for improvements using All For Transportation money.

As backers of the NTRC know, just because the money is in the budget for a project doesn’t mean it can’t be moved or taken out.

The budget has to be approved by Friday, October 1.

tampa palms tampa palms Blvd.

Planet Fitness Heading To The Grove

Planet Fitness, which has more than 2,000 locations across the U.S., is adding another at The Grove at Wesley Chapel.

Planet Fitness will take over the 25,000-sq.-ft. space formerly occupied by Babies “R” Us. Back in May, Grove developer Mark Gold announced that the other half of the space, which was formerly occupied by Toys “R” Us, was being leased to a combined Bealls Outlet/Home Centric store.

Billing itself as a “Judgment Free Zone,” Planet Fitness offers free fitness training, a variety of different memberships, and an array of fitness machines for members to use. Some memberships alloow you to use any Planet Fitness location in the country.

The fitness chain currently has eight locations in Hillsborough County, including the nearest ones on E. Bearss Ave. and another on E. Fowler Ave., as well as a handful of locations in Pinellas County. Its Pasco locations are in Zephyrhills, New Port Richey and Holiday.

Planet Fitness

AHCI Introduces New Global Prospects Academy Hockey Director

If both of your kids played high school ice hockey, as mine did, more than a decade ago, there was no way (or place) locally for kids who were good enough to play travel hockey to play youth or high school hockey at the highest level while also receiving a great education.

My kids both decided to play hockey, instead of the competitive sports they grew up with, after the Tampa Bay Lightning won their first Stanley Cup championship back in 2004. They weren’t alone, as many outstanding young athletes at that time also either first took up or decided to focus on hockey because of being bananas for the Bolts.

Thirteen years later, the same developers who built the Brandon Ice Sports Forum — where kids from high schools in and near Tampa had been practicing and playing — finally opened Florida Hospital (now AdventHealth) Center Ice (aka AHCI), right here in Wesley Chapel.

The new place was (and still is) a palace for both hockey players and figure skaters, especially when compared with any other ice skating facility in the entire Tampa Bay area — with three NHL-sized rinks, one (larger) international-sized rink and a mini-rink, plus a great pro shop and an actual restaurant. AHCI, the largest skating facility south of New York, even offers curling, a cult favorite Winter Olympics sport.

In 2019, the Lightning were again favored to win the team’s second Stanley Cup at the start of the 2019-20 season, despite a disappointing first-round sweep at the sticks of the Columbus Blue Jackets to close out their 2018-19 campaign, which saw them win the President’s Cup for having the NHL’s best regular-season record.

Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic shortened that 2019-20 season and caused the entire Cup playoffs to be played in two “bubbles” in Canada, but somehow, the Bolts did prevail and brought Lord Stanley’s chalice home to Tampa. And of course, the Lightning then repeated as Cup champs to end of the 2020-21 season.

It just so happens that 2020-21 also was the first year that AHCI offered its Global Prospects Academy (GPA), combining top-notch hockey training and lots of ice time for 15 young players, as well as a full-fledged private school experience affiliated with North Tampa Christian Academy (NTCA), which is located just three miles from AHCI on County Line Rd. in New Tampa.

AHCI co-owner Gordie Zimmermann hosted a press conference on August 12 to announce the intended expansion of the rink’s GPA program and the hiring of new Academy Director of Hockey, former NHL player Glen Metropolit, whose career included 400 games with six NHL teams (including two games with the Lightning), followed by six years of international experience with top-level European clubs.

“Our goal is to establish an elite hockey program,” Zimmermann said at the media event, “in order to keep them here in Florida before they turn 16 and move up north to Boston or Michigan to play. There haven’t been any programs here with academics and hockey training.”

Zimmermann also introduced former Lightning star Brian Bradley (who still works for the team) at the event, and admitted that AHCI’s success, “also has to do with the Lightning’s success.” He also said that he expects the rink’s GPA program to double in size this school year (to 30 or more students) and ultimately, to 300 or more — and promised to expand the GPA to include figure skating in the future.

Stephen Herr, the Head of School at NTCA, also spoke at the press conference and said that the school will offer GPA students in-person classes at both NTCA and at the rink (with on-site teaching staff), plus Zoom classes.

“Our primary goal is the same as Advent Health Center Ice’s goal,” Herr said, “helping students to become people of character and leaders.” For additional information, visit AHCenterIce.com/global-prospects-academy.

AHCI GPA hockey

New Tampa Family Hopes Site Will Help People ‘Embrace Less Waste’

On what should have been a relaxing day out on the boat, Sheila Haque and her three daughters couldn’t help but notice more than just fish in the water.

They noticed trash.

“And that’s sad,” she says.

It was on that boat that Haque, who lives in Cory Lake Isles, hatched the idea to start a zero-waste, eco-friendly business that would help chip away at the ugly sight of plastic bottles and empty containers slapping up against the hull of her boat and littered alongside roads.

Embrace Less Waste USA is Haque’s plan. It is an e-commerce site (that you can visit at EmbraceLessWasteUSA.com, or on Facebook) that will also have a part-time presence at The Grove’s KRATE container park in Wesley Chapel.

Haque says her site will sell zero-waste products from only the best companies. She will rigorously and thoroughly vet each company, which has to be philantrophic, certified and based in the U.S.

She will include extensive bios with every product from paper-based poop bags for your pets to reusable toothpaste containers to safety razors instead of disposable ones.

“Mindfulness is a big thing for people that are living a minimalist lifestyle,” Haque says. “They want to know where their stuff comes from.”

A few months back, Haque was accepted into the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC)’s business incubator program, which she described as invaluable. She was able to refine her business concept by meeting with industry experts, and is eager to launch her website.

“They helped me tweak some things and even rethink things,” Haque says. “They make you think above and beyond what you’ve already considered.”

Because of her relationship with the Pasco EDC, she also will have the opportunity to use their container at KRATE, which is expected to open this fall. She hopes to reserve the repurposed shipping container once a month, and she will sell products and host educational workshops there.

And, Haque will keep her daughters involved in her endeavor as well. It’s an important part of her business, she says, setting an example for her children as she does her part to help preserve the planet for their future. As a family, they bring trash bags with them on walks to pick up any trash they see along the way.

“I think it’s an incredible thing for kids to see what a difference you can make if you recycle and renew versus just throwing stuff away,” Haque says.

She says she isn’t sure when she will make her KRATE debut, but it should be in the coming months.

“We’re really excited to get the site up, and to show people the products we have when we have the container,” Haque says.

sustainable waste

PCGC Closes, But Fight Over Its Development Goes On

All is quiet at the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC), which closed for good on July 31. So, what’s next?

Homes…probably. Maybe?

PCGC owner Bill Place had all but finalized a deal to sell the roughly 150 acres of land the course sits on to Pulte Homes, which had plans to build 230-240 homes on the property, but told the Neighborhood News last week that the company had changed its mind.

“I think they are a bit scared of the publicity that will come with this,” Place said.

Another builder, KB Home, also appears to have removed itself from consideration to redevelop PCGC.

Place is still talking to other builders.

Place is also still awaiting the results of environmental testing on the course, which was found to have high levels of arsenic and dieldrin from insecticide applications (from before he owned the property, Place says). He says the results have been sent to the Environmental Protection Commission and directions on how to remediate the soil so the land can be developed is forthcoming.

Darlene Young, Bob Young and Ray Walker get in one last round at Pebble Creek Golf Club. (Photos: Charmaine George)

The cost is expected to be somewhere between $1 million-$3 million, but Place says a $3-million price tag would be out of the question.

And, that’s where the fight begins.

Leslie Green has lived on the 10th hole at PCGC for nearly 30 years, in one of roughly 130 (of the 1,400 total in Pebble Creek) homes physically located on the golf course.

She created the “Save Pebble Creek” Facebook page in March 2019, and is leading the charge to convince the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners to deny any developer the rezoning it will require to build over the golf course..

Green is against building additional homes on the golf course site for a number of reasons — including the environmental impacts, flooding issues, the loss of green space and how new homes would affect an area she says is already densely populated.

She also is skeptical of many of Place’s claims. She thinks a rezoning could lead to far more than just 240 homes, doesn’t feel Place was losing as much money on the golf course as he claimed (while sabotaging it with negative portrayals) and did little in the way of improvements the past few years.

“When you’re constantly threatening to close the course, people are going to stop coming,” she says.

Green, who live-streamed on Facebook on July 31, the final day the golf club was open, also was a vocal critic when Place tried to get a brownfield designation for the course, which would have provided him with a tax credit that could have covered three-fourths of the remediation costs.

She was emboldened by the successful efforts of the community to defeat the brownfield designation. And, she thinks it can happen again.

“We didn’t just start Save Pebble Creek, we’ve been working together on this for two years,” Green says. “We have a strong community.”

Mike Jacobson, the homeowners association president for more than 1,000 of the 1,400 homes in Pebble Creek, is taking a more measured approach. Like most residents in Pebble Creek, he prefers a golf course over homes. But, he says that the choice isn’t between a golf course or new homes, but rather between an abandoned golf course and new homes.

Jacobson is mostly concerned with the worst-case scenario, and has to look no further than Plant City. In 2013, Walden Lake homeowners recommended denying rezoning of its struggling golf course for development.

Instead, the course shut down, the owner went into foreclosure and the formerly lush green fairways became overgrown with weeds and foliage. The two-story clubhouse became a haven for trespassers. Home values in Walden Lake took a big hit.

“That is my biggest fear,” Jacobson says.

There are now, seven wasted years later, plans to build homes and a “city center” on the long-dormant Walden Lakes course.

While making it clear that he is opposed to development on the golf course site, Jacobson had met with Pulte representatives before their retreat about the benefits of redevelopment.

At the end of the day, he says, it comes down to what is best for Pebble Creek’s homeowners, and the value of their properties.

“We are trying to find what is strategically the best outcome for all of Pebble Creek and, quite frankly, there’s no great outcome,” he says. “The best outcome is to find a buyer who wants to operate it as a golf course. If there’s anybody out there that wants to operate it as a golf course, I’d love for them to reach out to me….we would fight to the end with the commissioners to say we have somebody who wants to operate it the way it’s been zoned and keep it as a golf course.”

He says, however, that to date, no one has done so.

While engineers for a new developer could soon begin forging plans, the fight picks up when the rezoning request reaches the Hillsborough County Commission, possibly in 4-6 months.

“Any full rezoning boils down to the vote of the County Commission,” Place says. “And you can’t predict that with full accuracy. I expect there to be opposition, and I understand that it will be contentious.”

Here’s some photos from the last day of the golf club.