K-Bar Rezoning Could Lead to New Tampa, Wesley Chapel Road Connections

By Matt Wiley

A 20-foot canyon of brush and dirt and some barricades are the only things stopping traffic from flowing from Kinnan St. in the K-Bar Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) of New Tampa into Wesley Chapel along Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe, but after what seems like an eternity to long-time residents on both sides of the crevasse, attitudes are finally changing between the involved parties about connecting the two roads.

For years, the “Kinnan/Mansfield Connection” has been a stalemate between the City of Tampa, Pasco County and the developers of the city-based K-Bar Ranch DRI, currently led by Columbus, OH-based M/I Homes. With development and new home construction on the upswing in K-Bar, M/I has applied for a rezoning which could trigger the construction of a future east-west road within K-Bar Ranch, says City of Tampa planning and development director Tom Snelling. The construction of that road also could have an effect on finally connecting Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd.

“There isn’t an immediate plan to connect (the two roads),” Snelling explains. “We’ve made progress and met with representatives from Pasco County a few times, but first we have to work through the details with M/I Homes.”

M/I’s Tampa-area president Marshall Gray says that the rezoning application was submitted to the city in December, but it was not certain at our press time when it would be reviewed.

“The entire road system (within K-Bar) will be a large topic of the rezoning process,” Gray explains. “While the connections to Pasco are part of the submittal process, the outcome will be determined based on approvals from the City, along with joint efforts with Pasco County.”

Snelling explains that M/I’s rezoning application will not change the use of any of the K-Bar land, but is instead an application to change the developer’s entitlements to the number of homes that can be built. However, with more homes come more vehicles, which means that transportation improvements will have to be made in the area. Snelling says that a K-Bar east-west road and northern connections (at Kinnan/Mansfield and possibly another future connection at Meadow Pointe Blvd.) into Pasco County all are therefore part of the conversation.

Today, Kinnan St. extends 2,000 feet north of its intersection with Live Oak Blvd. adjacent to the Hillsborough County-based Live Oak Preserve development. However, Kinnan St. turns right into K-Bar property, where it ends at a barricade — as does Mansfield Blvd. — and has remained that way since the developers of Live Oak paved the extension of Kinnan St. in 2007. 

Last March, a 16-page petition was submitted to the City of Tampa Attorney’s Office in hopes that the 61 signatures from business owners, employees and even some customers along Cross Creek Blvd. would help sway the respective parties’ opinions about connecting Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd. The signatures represented about 40 different businesses, along with owners of several homes on both sides of the county line. 

In November of 2012, Pasco County actually reached out to the City about opening the road connection, and sent a list of conditions that would have to be satisfied for Pasco to agree to the opening. Among those conditions were that the City and K-Bar would commit to paying no more than $500,000 for traffic calming improvements, or traffic signals, at the intersection of Mansfield Blvd. and Beardsley Dr., which curves through southern Meadow Pointe, just north of the county line, and at Mansfield and Wrencrest Dr.

Pasco also wanted the City and K-Bar to commit four lanes of right of way, or land on which to construct, the “Beardsley Extension,” which would link Beardsley Dr. east to Morris Bridge Rd., which would extend south into K-Bar before linking up with Morris Bridge. Other requirements also were included.

“At this point, we are still waiting on a response or counter-offer from the City of Tampa to the conditions we sent last year,” says Pasco chief assistant county attorney David Goldstein. “There have been some staff level discussions about the transportation issues in the area, but we have not received any written proposals from the City relating to the opening of Kinnan/Mansfield.”