MP Connector To K-Bar Ranch Closed…For Now 

The road from K-Bar Ranch through Meadow Pointe III was opened for utility workers, not the general public, and has been closed again. Final work, like removing the sign above, should be completed by the end of this month.(Photo: John C. Cotey)

It was open.

Now it isn’t.

However, it will be open again. Really.

That’s basically where the Meadow Pointe Blvd. connection to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. saga stands at the moment, after a few weeks of confusion for Wesley Chapel and New Tampa residents.

The long-awaited connector is currently closed. According to Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents the New Tampa area, the roadway is “technically private property until the Tampa City Council approves the plat later in July 2022.”

Following that approval, the roadway will have to pass an inspection by Pasco County, which will then officially approve it. The City of Tampa has already inspected the connector.

Until all of that red tape has been completed, developer M/I Homes will retain ownership of the roadway and the barricades will stay up.

Viera was under the impression that the connector was completed when he noticed that the barriers had been removed and contacted the Neighborhood News on May 30.

A few weeks after driving the road a few times and posting a story online about the connection finally being made, the Neighborhood News received more than a dozen inquiries via email and social media asking why it was suddenly closed again.

After a number of social media conspiracy theories were floated, Viera says he was told by City of Tampa staff that the connector was only meant to be open to provide utility access to fully complete the work, as well as removing old signs like the dead-end sign on Meadow Pointe Blvd.

However, the thirst for a connection heading north from New Tampa to Wesley Chapel was bound to attract K-Bar Ranch residents, who have been clamoring for years for additional points of egress. Currently, the only way out of the western end of K-Bar Ranch is via Kinnan St., or by driving through busy neighborhoods and past Pride Elementary on Bassett Creek Dr.

“This was absolutely important,” said Cindy Gustavel, a K-Bar Ranch resident since 2015. “I think some people saw this as a way to get to malls and restaurants, but most of us just saw it as a way to make living here safer.”

The City of Tampa will organize a formal opening ceremony when the roadway has been completed, likely later this month or in early August.

That keeps with the original schedule that City of Tampa chief traffic management engineer and head of the Smart Mobility Division Vik Bhide laid out in March. Bhide said then that the roadway would officially open in July.

The Meadow Pointe Blvd. connector is one of four connection points originally planned on K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. for the K-Bar Ranch community. The first, where Kinnan St. meets Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe II, was denied by Pasco County and continues to only be open to emergency rescue vehicle and police traffic. Meadow Pointe Blvd. is the second, and the other two — at Wyndfields Blvd and Morris Bridge Rd. — are at least two years away, according to Bhide.

So, while a new connection is something to be happy about, many K-Bar Ranch residents still strongly believe the Kinnan-Mansfield connection should still be opened to vehicular traffic as well.

“There’s a huge appetite for that,” says Gustavel, who serves on her neighborhood’s HOA board as well as on the K-Bar Ranch CDD board. “I don’t think that will ever go away.”

Pasco MPO To Get A Look At Possible Meadow Pointe Connections In December

Following a few months in stagnation, the long-running debate about which, if any, roadway connections to make between the southern portion of Wesley Chapel and New Tampa’s K-Bar Ranch area will be renewed Dec. 13 when Pasco County’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meets in Dade City.

At the scheduled Pasco MPO meeting, its nine Board members will be presented a scaled-down version of the findings of the Wesley Chapel Roadways Study, which was presented to roughly 75 local residents on May 29.

Ali Atefi, Pasco County’s transportation engineer, said originally the MPO was supposed to receive the report, compiled by consulting firm AECOM, in August, but a crowded agenda forced it to be postponed until next month.

Once the MPO is presented the findings of the study, a citizen survey will be scheduled, likely for early spring.

The online survey will be for Pasco County residents only, and will present the options for yes or no votes for various connections.

The study looked at four potential solutions to connecting Wesley Chapel and K-Bar Ranch:

(1) connecting Kinnan St. in New Tampa with Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. to Meadow Pointe Blvd.

(2) connecting only K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. to Meadow Pointe Blvd.

(3) doing all of the possible connections: Kinnan-Mansfield, K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.-Meadow Pointe Blvd., and Wyndfields Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.

All three proposed connections, which are shown with red circles on the map above, have been in the county’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) for many years.

There was also a fourth option — a no-build option — that would put up a gate for emergency vehicles, which was very popular among constituents on both sides of the county line, and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations at Kinnan-Mansfield, but no motor vehicle connection for general public use.

Connecting Kinnan to Mansfield — with those two streets still separated by a 30-foot-or-so patch of dirt and bushes and whose linking has been a point of great contention between the two counties — was considered an alternative, but only in conjunction with the other connections

The Roadways Study report states that Kinnan-Mansfield was not evaluated as a standalone connection.

When presented this information, members of the public had a month to weigh in with their opinions, either with forms at the workshop or online. The responses, all of which were reviewed by the Neighborhood News, don’t offer many surprises.

There were 12 forms filled out at the May presentation, with only one in favor of the Kinnan-Mansfield connection.

Of the 175 emails we reviewed, 100 of them were actually forwarded responses from a Change.org petition.

Among the remaining 75 emails, there were a number of duplicates, but 36 emails were clearly opposed to connecting Kinnan-Mansfield (though many were open to other connections) and six emails were in favor of connecting the two roads. Of course, these are the Pasco County responses only.

Since the Wesley Chapel Roadways Study was finalized, the City of Tampa approved a rezoning that will permit M/I Homes to proceed with building 700 new homes in K-Bar Ranch, which borders Meadow Pointe directly to the south.

The Pasco MPO is expected to make its recommendation in May, which would then place the final decision in the hands of the Pasco Board of County Commissioners for a potential vote in the summer.