Old Pasco Rd. (above) might be getting a fresh look in the near future, as a new middle and high school, new home and apartment developments and a business park threaten to add significant cars to the two-land road. A study (map to the right) will soon take a look at safety improvements for Old Pasco Rd. (Photo: Giuliano Ferrara)
The two Pasco County commisioners who represent the largest portions of Wesley Chapel — Ron Oakley in District 1 and Mike Moore in District 2 — have had their fair share of complaints from residents about area roads, and the traffic on them.
So, as Moore, Oakley and their fellow commissioners took up the debate about a proposal clearing the way for a new business park on Old Pasco Rd., they both were in favor of taking a closer look at whether or not the two-lane road should be widened first.
That is not going to happen, however, as the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted to approve a re-zoning request that clears the way to allow 2,250,000 sq. ft. of office and light industrial entitlements on roughly 91 acres of land on the east side of Old Pasco Rd. about 290 feet south of Overpass Rd., near the new Cypress Creek Middle High School.
The BOC is hoping it attracts future businesses and brings more jobs to the county.
Moore was in favor of the re-zoning request, but considering there is a widening project already in the works for Overpass Rd., near where the new business park will be located, he said he was only suggesting, no pun intended, that the BCC look further down the road.
“I just asked why not do the whole (widening) thing at once instead of piecemeal,” said Moore. “It would be nice if it was widened all the way down to S.R. 54. You always want to be prepared for the future. Putting the infrastructure in place first is important to me.”
Oakley agreed. The Overpass Business Park, which was formerly known as the Vibrant SUN Business Park, is in his district and was approved by the Board of County Commissioners vote on May 22.
Moore’s concerns about Old Pasco Rd.’s ability to handle the additional traffic, especially from trucks, that a business park might add was assuaged by the assumption that many of the trucks and additional traffic will use the future Overpass Rd. interchange to get on and off I-75.
However, he still has concerns about the road, which will see increased traffic from the addition of middle school students to the Cypress Creek Middle/High School campus, a potential Performing Arts Center on that campus, 400 new homes in Quail Hollow, and the 264-unit Arbours at Saddle Oaks residential development at the intersection of Old Pasco Rd. and Country Club Rd.
Moore said plans to widen Old Pasco Rd. were at one time in the county’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) but were removed during the 2008 economic downturn. He said he was going to try to get the project put back into the LRTP.
He said the county is looking into applying for state infrastructure grants to pay for any potential widening project.
Pasco commissioners recently approved $89,788 for HDR Engineering, Inc. to conduct a road safety audit (RSA) and study for Old Pasco Rd. from S.R. 54 to north of Overpass Rd., a 3.32-mile stretch.
While the RSA is unrelated to the BCC’s approval of the business park, Moore said it could determine that such a need to widen Old Pasco Rd. exists.
However, the study, expected to take four months, is focued more on road safety issues and safety improvements than widening.
That study will take a look at the Old Pasco Rd. intersections with S.R. 54, Post Oak Blvd., Foamflower Blvd., Dayflower Blvd., Country Club Rd., Bonnie Blue Dr., Deedra Dr., Sonny Dr., Lindenhurst Dr., and Overpass Rd.
To District 7 Tampa City councilman Luis Viera, there is nothing like the sight of a filled room for one of his town halls and New Tampa Council meetings.
This time, on May 2, it was the Jeri Zelinski Community Room at the New Tampa Regional Library, which was filled with local residents with questions about water, fire and emergency service, traffic and future developments.
But mostly, traffic.
Hillsborough’s countywide District 5 Commissioner Ken Hagan — who is running for the District 2 seat that represents all of New Tampa — was the guest at the May 2 New Tampa Council meeting. Viera actually had to recuse himself and leave the room halfway through the meeting when the discussion turned to an issue — the connection of Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd. (see stories on pages 1 & 4-5) about which he had a hearing the next day.
What did you miss?
Here’s some of the more interesting tidbits from the hour-long meeting:
Parks, Parks & More Parks
Comm. Hagan was asked about building a cricket field in the area, which turned into a conversation about the progress of a park on 50-plus acres of land in K-Bar Ranch. Hagan said the park will be paid for by the county — which has already set aside $5 million for the project, he added — but will be maintained and run by the City of Tampa in a rare city-county collaboration.
Ken Hagan
He says the park has the blessing of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, and the two parties are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a non-binding agreement that lays out the terms, details and each party’s responsibilities as they pertain to the park.
As for the what amenities the park would offer, Hagan is unsure. He said, however, that sports fields will not be one of them. At one point, an athletic complex was envisioned, but according to the commissioner, “the city felt that was too intense.”
Another park, this one a public-private venture, is planned for the Branchton Park area, south and west of the intersection of Cross Creek Blvd. and Morris Bridge Rd.
The county bought 10 acres of land for $1.17 million to complete its holdings in the Branchton Park area and open the way for development, as reported last November in the New Tampa Neighborhood News.
Hagan said he is hoping for a creative project. He also said that he expects there will be some commercial development on the corner of Cross Creek Blvd. and Morris Bridge Rd., with the developer funding a lot of the potential amenities, like a splash pad, dog park or zip line.
Hagan also said that he is excited about the The Village at Hunter’s Lake project across the street from Hunter’s Green, saying it will break ground in October. As for the New Tampa Cultural Center, he said that planned jewel will be opening in 2020.
“It will be a centerpiece for the community,’’ Hagan said.
The Zombie Road Returns?
Plans to build a 3-mile East-West Road (E-W Rd.) connecting New Tampa Blvd. and I-275 died in 2008, but it never fails to draw some conversation at Viera’s New Tampa Council and town hall meetings.
That’s probably because some local residents remain convinced it would actually help solve some of New Tampa’s current traffic woes. As originally proposed, the E-W Rd. would direct traffic through West Meadows and connect from where the Gateway Bridge ends at Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms to a new interchange on I-275. The roadway was expected to help decrease the delays at the I-75/S.R. 56, I-75/BBD, and I-275/Bearss Ave. interchanges.
As Hagan recalled, most of New Tampa was in favor of the road, but residents of West Meadows and Tampa Palms Areas 4 & 8, where the road was proposed to go through, banded together as a formidable opposition group.
There were other problems with the proposed road as well, from environmental concerns to whether or not to make it a toll road.
“I would still support taking a look at it and making another run at it,” said Hagan, whose parents lived in West Meadows at the time, but still supported the E-W Rd. “I can certainly see how that would relieve a significant amount of congestion.”
At the other end of the same road, Hagan also was asked if there are any plans to extend Cross Creek Blvd. to U.S. 301, but he said there are not.
“When you look at our unfunded list of projects, priority-wise that would be pretty far down the list,” he said.
The same goes for widening Morris Bridge Rd., north of Cross Creek Blvd. Although it is a constrained road and currently prohibited from being widened due to environmental concerns, with the extension of S.R. 56 and the continued development in K-Bar Ranch in that area, the two-lane, well-worn Morris Bridge Rd. has “future problem” written all over it.
Surprisingly, no one complained about the intersection of Cross Creek Blvd. and BBD, which continues to be a major nuisance for commuters in peak hours, although the City of Tampa is currently studying it.
A BBD Pedestrian Bridge?
The idea of a pedestrian bridge, or a foot bridge, crossing over BBD from Live Oak Preserve (or even the Pebble Creek area) was presented again by Sigrun Ragnarsdottir and, is it just us, or does it make more and more sense every time it is brought up?
Think of it — a bridge for students to be able to walk, ride a bike or otherwise cross over an extremely congested road to get safely to Wharton High. It would be safer than relying on traffic lights — and the common sense of drivers probably holding their cell phones in one hand — to cross BBD, and surely more parents would let their kids walk or bike to school, reducing the number of cars piling up on BBD for drop-off and pick up.
Yes, a pedestrian bridge recently collapsed in Miami, and the cost of construction probably kills any chance of making this happen. But, when you look at the other high schools in Hillsborough County, there are aren’t any others – even Chamberlain (Busch Blvd.), Plant (Dale Mabry), Sickles (Gunn Highway) — where the majority of its local students have to cross a busier and more dangerous road than BBD to get to and from school.
Police On The Radar?
As the population of New Tampa continues to grow, so does the need for a police substation in the area, according to a few local residents. Viera said that, at the moment, however, a police substation is a “want…whether or not it’s a need is a point of distinction.” He added, however, that the idea of a police substation is on his radar.
“It’s something that, as we see more growth in this area , we are going to want to take a look at because right now, we’ve pretty much got police hanging out at 7-11, and that’s not the most amenable plan,” he said.
Hagan said a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) substation is being put at a new park in Carrollwood he is championing, and then it hit him — maybe it’s something that could be done at the proposed K-Bar Ranch park. “I hadn’t thought of that before,’’ he said.
The Elephant In The Room
You kind of got the feeling from the start that people were just killing time waiting for someone to bring up the whole Kinnan-Mansfield thing, and of course, it came up.
Short recap: Nothing has changed.
Hagan wants it connected, and said it was a travesty that the issue has dragged on this long. It appeared everyone in the room pretty much agreed.
Someone in attendance joked about sneaking in there and connecting them overnight, another said they could just borrow the equipment being used to widen BBD, and another suggested a boycott of Wiregrass Ranch businesses.
Judging by our stories on pages 1 and 4, however, it is a situation that hopefully is entering its endgame this summer.
As the final segment of the massive Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. widening project chugs towards its completion, transportation planners are looking at a few other ways to help with traffic flow at some New Tampa hotspots.
District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, whose district covers the city portions of New Tampa, says there are multiple projects in the exploratory stages that could provide some relief at busy area intersections, and another that will add a light at the site of the new fire station being built on County Line Rd.
“Some of these could really improve traffic for New Tampa residents,” Viera says.
The most notable of these proposals is a pre-design study — which determines if a certain design is possible — currently underway to potentially add a third left turn lane where westbound Cross Creek Blvd. drivers turn south onto southbound Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (see map). According to the project report, there are currently four alternatives being studied.
One would build a third left turn onto southbound BBD, while keeping the two lanes that currently cross over BBD to New Tampa Blvd. and into West Meadows, and the lane that turns northbound onto BBD.
A second option would be to extend the existing dual left turn lanes almost back to Dayflower Dr., to prevent the common bottlenecking that occurs during peak travel hours.
“We need to figure out which option would work best,’’ says Jean Duncan, the city’s director of transportation and stormwater services.
Viera, who travels along that stretch of Cross Creek Blvd. from his Hunter’s Green home, says he has been pushing for one of these two options since being elected to the City Council last November. “I’m hopeful that the study can conclude that a third left-hand turn lane is a viable idea,’’ he says.
A third option would be to convert one of the two lanes that cross over BBD into the third turn lane, while the fourth option builds a third left turn lane, and takes away one of the two lanes crossing BBD and converts it to a second right turn lane for those trying to turn right (north) on BBD towards Pebble Creek.
There are currently no plans, however, to add another right turn lane on BBD for those turning east on Cross Creek Blvd., another thorny spot for rush hour travelers. Viera says that problem, however, may be mitigated by studying and tweaking traffic signal patterns.
A New Tampa Mobility Enhancement Project, a $306,000 study, is looking into ways to maximize the benefits of the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), which uses real-time data from things like speed sensors and cameras to determine if any action needs to be taken (light timings, re-routing, etc.) to improve and enhance traffic flow.
When Cross Creek Blvd. and BBD were widened, Duncan says, the intersections were built with the ATMS, which included upgraded cabinets that house the guts of the signal system, and uses fiber optics instead of copper. New Tampa is fortunate, she says, because 3/4 of the city is still using the less effective copper-wired cabinets, which are DOS-based and not as intelligent.
“New Tampa was one of the first to get it,” she said, adding that the city is working with the Florida Department of Transportation to upgrade the rest of the city over the next five years. Duncan says the city actively manages traffic signals, whereas the county does not.
The Mobility Enhancement also includes a roundabout feasibility study to identify possible locations for modern roundabouts in our area.
Three intersections in New Tampa are being considered.
The first is at the junction of Compton Dr. and Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms, where a stop sign on Compton Dr. and another across the street at the B.J.s Wholesale Club handle a busy flow of traffic. The second is just down the road at the intersection of Compton Dr. and Tampa Palms Blvd., where traffic currently is monitored by a four-way stop.
Also being considered for a roundabout is the intersection of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and Highwoods Palm Way, which runs through the Highwoods Preserve Corporate Campus, a mile or so from BBD.
Duncan says that there is a big national movement towards roundabouts, which have proven to be cheaper, safer for drivers and pedestrians and more sustainable than lighted intersections.
Lastly, the city is working on adding a traffic signal at County Line Rd. and Trout Creek Dr., to accommodate the needs of the new Fire Station 23.
Viera says he has been told the fire station will open by the end of the 2018, and the first design submittal and review for the signal has already taken place and is on an accelerated pace to be completed at the same time the fire station is expected to open.
The new Tampa Premium Outlets mall (center) isn’t scheduled to open until October, but traffic already is piling up daily near the S.R. 56/I-75 interchange in Wesley Chapel.
It’s said that, “If there’s a will, there’s a way,” and that seems to be the work ethic of the crews currently hustling to finish Simon Property Group’s newest outlet mall -— the Tampa Premium Outlets on S.R. 56 — in time for a planned October opening in the Cypress Creek Town Center (CCTC) Development of Regional Impact (DRI). Continue reading
