Wesley Chapel Roadways Study Released

The long-awaited and 450-page traffic study requested by the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) has been posted here.

The year-long study looked at the pros and cons of connecting New Tampa’s Kinnan St. with Meadow Pointe’s Mansfield Blvd., as well as making connections from Meadow Pointe Blvd. to the not-yet-completed K-Bar Ranch Blvd., and Wyndfields Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Blvd.

Kinnan-Mansfield was not under study to be the lone connection. The study primarily considered three connections: Kinnan-Mansfield and Meadow Pointe Blvd.; just Meadow Pointe Blvd.; and all three connections.

The study also dealt with myriad of other suggested road improvements such as repaving, widening and additional traffic signals — roughly $13.8 million worth — in the area bordered by Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to the west, Morris Bridge to the west, S.R. 56 to the north and County Line Rd. to the south.

If any connections are made, that would increase the costs to $15.4 million.

We are still making our way through the detailed and thorough report. You can read it all for yourself, or just wait until Tuesday, May 29, from 6-8 p.m. when an open house will be held at Pasco-Hernando State College, Room B-303.

Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore and MPO Staff will provide a brief introduction, followed by a condensed version of the report that hits on the major points, and public comment session.

You also can comment here through June 15.

 

 

 

Hagan Looks To Press Kinnan-Mansfield Connection

Ken Hagan

Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan says the infamous 50-foot space between Kinnan St. in New Tampa and Mansfield Blvd. in Pasco County needs to be connected.

Now.

So, at the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting on Feb. 21, Hagan put forth a motion directing the county attorney’s office to look into all possibilities, which passed by a unanimous vote.

“We are directing the (attorneys) to explore all legal options, including eminent domain, to force the connection to be made,” Hagan says.

The county is taking a hard look at records from the Pasco and Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) for Transportation, the City of Tampa and M/I Homes, the developer of K-Bar Ranch, to determine what agreements are in place.

This photo taken by a drone shows the 60-foot gap between Kinnan St. (on the bottom) and Mansfield Blvd. Hillsborough and Pasco counties are stalemated on the issue but continue to discuss connecting the two roads.

According to Hagan, the Kinnan-Mansfield connection was already approved in the original developer’s agreements for K-Bar Ranch.

“Basically, and I’ve said it before, the original agreement was once the road to Wiregrass was opened, then Pasco County would connect Kinnan-Mansfield,” Hagan says. “It is absolutely absurd the roads aren’t connected.”

Hagan says the county’s attorneys also will be looking for similar cases involving disputes between two counties, to see if there are any precedents for legal action, including eminent domain, to force the issue.

Hagan says the connection of the roads will provide a north-south alternative to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. that would provide for both counties, as well as benefit the public good, he adds, by improving police and fire response times and relieving congestion.

Once the attorneys complete their research, a course of action will be presented to the BOCC for a vote. Hagan is confident he has the commission votes to pursue any recommendation, considering that the Hillsborough County Commission unanimously approved his motion to explore legal action, as well as a vote in September 2017 to put $250,000 towards funding a potential connection.

“Nothing will ever get done, I’m convinced,” Hagan says. “It’s not the money, right?”

Hagan believes the fear of political backlash from Meadow Pointe (especially Meadow Pointe II & III) residents who live near the proposed connection, many who are opposed to it cite safety concerns, which has stalled the efforts by Pasco County to make a decision.

Pasco’s District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, whose district includes all of Meadow Pointe, scoffs at Hagan’s notion. He says the county is still waiting for the results of the Pasco Roadway Connections study to determine whether or not the connection should be made, and if there might be better connection points, including one between Meadow Pointe Blvd. and K-Bar Ranch Blvd., a planned east-west road currently under construction in K-Bar Ranch.

Any talk of eminent domain, Moore says, is “ridiculous.”

That connections study, though, was announced in May and, at the time, Moore said he expected it would take 6-7 months, or by the end of 2017.

“Now we’re in March (of 2018) and I’m hearing it could be May or June,” Hagan says. “It seems they (Pasco) are looking for any reason not to make this connection.”

The Political Football

Moore is running for re-election this year, which Hagan suggests is paralyzing the commissioner from taking swifter action. “Pasco County residents use our parks, our libraries, and they preach connectivity between the counties,” Hagan says. “There’s no valid reason not to make the connection other than fear of political fallout.”

To be fair, Hagan also will be busy this upcoming election season. Currently the countywide District 5 commissioner, Hagan is running for his original District 2 seat that represents New Tampa, where residents generally seem in favor of a connected for Kinnan-Mansfield.

But, as a former New Tampa resident and the District 2 commissioner from 2002-10,, Hagan says the Kinnan-Mansfield conundrum is a long-standing issue that he has been trying to resolve for years.

“There’s always going to be another excuse, whether its an election or a transportation study,” He says. “There’s always another reason (for Pasco) not to move forward.”

Readers Speak: Kinnan-Mansfield

Kinnan-Mansfield Debate Will Continue Into 2018

I have lived in Meadow Pointe II since 2000 and my subdivision straddles Mansfield Blvd. and County Line Road right behind Meadow Pointe II Clubhouse and I beg to differ with your analysis of our opposition to connecting Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd. What you find is B. S. really are the problems of connecting the two roads. Traffic studies  (and there have been numerous ones over the years that have shown and proved it would cause traffic bottlenecks at the three intersections and thru the school zones as well as safety issues at the schools. I believe what is a waste of money is another traffic study when Mansfield and County Line Roads are in such bad shape! Money should be spent repaving roads period. Meadow Pointe Blvd. has the expandability to be four-laned and there are no schools until after intersection SR 56. and not that far from Kinnan street.

I find reading your paper that you basically take Hillsborough’s side and provide no voice for the people who have to live with this harassment every two to three years. Pasco County Commissioners should put an end to this idea once and for all.

Ray Kobasko

Meadow Pointe ll

Long Leaf (at MP) Resident

+++++++++++

Mr. Nager:

Reference is made to your editorial concerning the objections to the connecting of Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd.

Firstly I am not a resident of Meadow Pointe II but of Meadow Pointe III and I object to the connection you so much desire. Using your same description of why MP II objects to the connection your claim that the traffic will only increase during the evenings and on weekends is, as you said before, BS. As soon as the connection is made, and trust me as soon as enough financial arrangements are made to the benefit of those in power, the connection will be made, those residing in the so called “New Tampa Area” will start using Mansfield to 56 as their home to work to home route therefore increasing, the already overloaded route, with additional traffic, to think otherwise is at least identical to the use of smoke and mirrors.

The dream that residents from Cross Creek/Live Oak would travel down Mansfield and then would turn left (eastward) on Beardsley can only be described as the unreachable dream once you have reached that point why would you desire to take a longer route, such an action is not to be expected from the American humanoid unless forced by physical barriers.

Furthermore those who reside adjacent to Beardsley lived for many years with the expectancy that once the constructions, due to the lengthening of 56, would cease peace and quiet would reign in Beardsley where many master bedrooms are less than 10 feet from the roadway and now you and those of Cross Creek want to return the noise and excessive speed, speed limit in Beardsley is posted at 35 MPH, a speed limit that will not be observed since Pasco County’s Sherriff will have many other problems to tend to.

But your routing from Kinnan to Mansfield north and an easterly turning from Mansfield thru Beardsley will take you to Meadow Pointe Blvd, which has the space and was planned to eventually become a four lane route, why them planners cannot reroute Kinnan to connect with Meadow Pointe Blvd. is beyond my understanding.

If Pasco County is offering that alternative get the engineers back to the drawing board and have them reroute the traffic from the Cross Creek/Live Oak area to connect with Meadow Pointe Blvd, it seems to me as a logical, economical and fastest solution and beneficial to all parties concerned.

Sincerely,

Rafael Rivera

MP III resident.

+++++++++++

Gary —

The idiots who oppose the connection live in the same area that don’t want to share their clubhouse with the other communities, (Meadow Pointe II). I’m tired of these folks trying to hold the rest of us hostage because they are stuck up and don’t want progress.  I have been living in Meadow Pointe I way before any of those houses were even built, but they want to slow progress. They do not own the whole area! Not to mention those schools have different start times and is no different than any other morning traffic.  As far as the two lane/ four lane non issue, they can merge the 4 lanes into 2 with those permanent barriers that you see on roads. More connections mean more access to businesses on both sides of the line. I’m pretty sure CVS and the Mall wouldn’t be opposed to that road opening. It only makes sense! It’s time! MPII can’t hold us hostage any longer!

Thanks, Warren

+++++++++++

Mr. Gary Nager,

You are wrong in getting involved with something that does not involved you.  You can’t even get the Streets involved correct.  Kennan is the four lane road that will dump excessive traffic into a development were the narrow two lane cannot be widen due the already villages along Mansfield.  You don’t seem to understand that there are three schools plus a college already established on Mansfield.  I live in the village of Lettingwell which has a very limited visibility to traffic approaching from the left as we try to exit.  We have already had a serious accident at this intersection.  When school traffic is using Mansfield in the morning, it is almost impossible to make a left turn to go to County Line Road.  I do not believe you are getting any positive feedback for residents of Meadow Point 2.

As a concerned resident of Lettingwell, I am a 100% Disable American Veteran who is very concerned about your unauthorized involvement in this situation.

Dick Arens

dickarens@verizon.net

Editor’s note-I do so love a spirited debate, but the fact is that when the idea of connecting Kinnan (not Kennan) to Mansfield was first discussed probably 15 years ago, it was Hillsborough County officials who opposed it…and I was not only there, I told those folks they were wrong back then, too.

I have seen many (but not all) of the traffic studies for this area, but I’ve never seen anything in those studies, at least not to date, to support not connecting roadways that have always been planned to do so.

I probably take the concerns of Mr. Arens, a disabled U.S. vet, to heart the most of any of these commentaries, but as someone who has given his personal health to protect all of our liberties, I’m surprised to hear him talk about my “unauthorized involvement” in this situation. As a free American and as the only member of the local media who has lived and/or worked in and reported the news of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel for 24 years (as of next month),  I stand by my words and hope that Mr. Arens and everyone else who disagrees with me still stands behind my right to voice my opinion, as I stand behind their right to be “heard” disagreeing with me…in these pages.  — Gary Nager

Hillsborough Puts Up $250,000 To Build Kinnan-Mansfield Connection

This photo taken by a drone shows the 60-foot gap between Kinnan St. (on the bottom) and Mansfield Blvd. Hillsborough and Pasco counties are stalemated on the issue but continue to discuss connecting the two roads.

There are many things keeping the 60-foot patch of dirt and grass separating Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd. concrete-free, but Hillsborough County District 5 Commissioner Ken Hagan wants to make sure money is no longer one of them.

Comm. Hagan proposed adding $250,000 to the county budget on Sept. 14 to be used for a potential Kinnan-Mansfield connection, which the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners approved, potentially removing one of the roadblocks to resolving the long-standing dispute between Pasco, Hillsborough and the City of Tampa.

Hagan says he has been told there have been recent meetings between Hillsborough  and Pasco County’s MPO, and a traffic study Pasco commissioned to evaluate a number of connections between the two counties is expected to be finalized in November.

“At this point, we are waiting for their traffic analysis to come back,’’ Hagan said. “Then, we will reach out to Pasco County administrators and see if we can finally break this stalemate.”

Kinnan St., which runs north from Cross Creek Blvd. to the Hillsborough/Pasco county line, is located mostly in the county, although it does turn slightly west and into the City of Tampa boundaries as it nears Mansfield — where the barricades currently stand.

Both Tampa and Hillsborough County have worked on the issue over the years, but recently the city has declined all requests from Pasco involving putting up any money related to traffic studies or potential construction of the connection.

“I know the City of Tampa staff is unwilling to invest anything to make it work,” Hagan says. “I didn’t want the cost to hold us back, so we put the $250,000 in the budget to make the connection. I didn’t want money to be a deterrent or in any way delay making the connection.”

The money, Hagan said, it to be used for the actual construction of the connection.

The Kinnan-Mansfield link is seen as an important connection to help alleviate traffic on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. for drivers from both counties, particularly those driving between the residential communities in both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

It would also serve as an economic stimulant, Hagan says, as well as assist in public safety efforts in an area where hundreds of new homes are approved to be built in K-Bar Ranch, which is entirely within the city limits.

“I know firsthand, from living in Cross Creek, the frustration of being essentially landlocked,” says the former resident of the Creekwood subdivision of Cross Creek, just two miles from the unconnected roads.

Hagan, the longest-serving current commissioner in Hillsborough County, now in his 15th year, is no stranger to the dispute between Pasco and Hillsborough over the two roads.

As the commissioner in District 2 (which includes Cross Creek, Pebble Creek, Live Oak and many of the communities located in the city in New Tampa) from 2002-10, Hagan has been involved in dozens of discussions about connecting the two roads.

“We were told that once Wiregrass was fully connected to the north, Pasco would authorize the connection,’’ Hagan says. He said he grew so frustrated during negotiations that, at one point, he threatened to put a toll booth on Bruce B. Downs at the county line.

“I got a lot of very, very favorable response from New Tampa, and a very very hateful response from Pasco County,” Hagan says.

Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa as part of the city’s District 7, has been a vocal cheerleader for the connection. Viera has called Hagan’s move a “game-changer.”

“I’m glad the county took this step,’’ Viera says. “Pasco has its position, we have had ours, but now, this could potentially change things with the involvement of the money. It’s a very positive step.”

Regardless, residents on the Mansfield side of the debate, as well as their local county commissioner, have remained cool to the idea because of fears that the two-lane road cannot handle additional traffic and that the location of elementary, middle and high schools, as well as Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC)’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, all along Mansfield is a safety hazard.

“The study will probably come back late fall or into winter,’’ Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore said. “There’s not much more I can add.”

Comm. Moore said the money appropriated for Kinnan-Mansfield wouldn’t have any effect on the decision by his county. He says many of his constituents in Meadow Pointe, particularly Meadow Pointe II & III, do not want Mansfield and Kinnan hooked up, even though it’s been in Pasco’s long-range transportation plan since Meadow Pointe was first developed in the early 1990s.

Based on feedback his office has received, Moore puts the percentage of those opposed at 70-80 percent.

At a public meeting hosted by Pasco County planners at PHSC in April, three potential connections were discussed —Kinnan-Mansfield, extending the existing Meadow Pointe Blvd. to the proposed K-Bar Ranch Blvd. and extending Wyndfields Blvd. to both K-Bar Ranch Blvd. and to Morris Bridge Rd.

While Dennis Smith, the chairman of the Meadow Pointe I CDD, said he wanted to see the connection made, others did not. The proposed extension of Meadow Point Blvd., two miles further east, had wider support, Moore said.

“Right now, in my mind, Meadow Pointe Blvd. would be an excellent location,’’ Moore said. “There is little to no objection to it.”

However, Hagan made it clear the $250,000 the county has allocated is only for the Kinnan-Mansfield connection, not any other connector roads Pasco County may request instead. Multiple connections could be an option.

“We always talk about regional connectivity,” Hagan says, “and we have (other) connections between the two counties. It’s just absurd this road hasn’t been connected all  these years.”