When the Tampa City Council met in early May to debate a rezoning that would allow M/I Homes to proceed with building 700 new homes in K-Bar Ranch, council members got stuck on one major point:
There aren’t enough roads in the area to allow residents to get in and out of their new neighborhood.
Without connections to Pasco County, particularly merging Kinnan St. in New Tampa with Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe, more homes would mean more residents who are essentially trapped with just one road, Kinnan St., out of their neighborhoods.
So the discussion was postponed until June 28 in the hopes that Pasco, with help from a yearlong Wesley Chapel Roadways Connection Study, which was near completion, would provide some answers.
The report is out. And no, it hasn’t.
At a May 29 open house at the Porter campus of Pasco-Hernando State Community College, an executive summary of the report was presented to roughly 75 locals — including politicians on both sides of the argument — but didn’t address actual connections in a way many who attended may have hoped.
How that ends up affecting future development in K-Bar Ranch remains to be seen. The Tampa City Council will take up the debate again June 28. But, any decision they make will have to be made without any promises of any connections between Hillsborough and Pasco counties. And, Pasco is in no rush to make a decision on the issue.
The public comment period about the Roadways Study ends today, and AECOM, the consulting firm that did the study, isn’t scheduled to present them to the Pasco MPO until August. A final study report will be finalized following that meeting, and then Pasco County will run a public opinion poll — basically an up or down vote on each of the connections, as well as combinations of connectors — in September or October.
The Pasco MPO will then meet in October to review the final study and decide what recommendations to make to Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners (BOC). The BOC will have the final say, with no date given for a final vote.
Connecting only Kinnan to Mansfield — the streets still separated by a 30-foot hop-skip-and-a-jump patch of dirt and bushes — without any other connections being made, was not studied.
District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the Meadow Pointe area, says connecting Meadow Point Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy remains his favored option, and is opposed to connecting Kinnan-Mansfield.
“I think some people possibly thought the study would show maybe just a couple of hundred cars a day (added to Mansfield traffic with the connection),” Moore said, “but the study shows obviously that’s not the case. It’s anywhere from 500 to 4,000 (according to traffic projections). If anyone thinks Kinnan-Mansfield can handle 4,000 cars a day, it’s just not reality.”
When it was pointed out to Moore that the gap between 500 and 4,000 is significant, and that 500 cars could be only 250 making round trips, he said “That’s still a lot.”
At the original roadways meeting May 15, 2017, Pasco residents who filled out public comment cards were opposed to the connection, but only by a 37-36 margin.
“Now that we’ve done the study, and people can see the numbers, the true numbers, I have a sneaking suspicion that will change quite a bit,” Moore said.
While extensive, the study included no recommendations. It only went as far as listing positives — alternate routes during accidents, economic benefits, convenient travel to attractions in Hillsborough County, and relieving the traffic of up to 7,000 vehicles per day on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Cross Creek Blvd. — and negatives, like the increased traffic with minimal congestion relief for Pasco County roads and almost $2-million in additional improvements needed, with connections. The study looked at four alternatives, including a no-build alternative that would put up a gate for emergency vehicles and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations at Kinnan-Mansfield, but no connection for general public use.
Other alternatives studied included:
• Connecting Kinnan-Mansfield and K-Bar Ranch Blvd. to Meadow Pointe;
• Connecting only K-Bar Ranch Blvd to Meadow Pointe Blvd.; and
• Doing all three possible connections: Kinnan-Mansfield, K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.-Meadow Pointe Blvd., and Wyndfields Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
Tampa’s District 7 councilman Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa, attended the meeting and was disappointed by the lack of specificity in the study. However, he was pleased by the prospect of at least an emergency gate at Kinnan-Mansfield.
Moore said Pasco County proposed one two years ago, and even offered to split the costs, but Tampa rejected it.
“I’m not looking at this from a political perspective,” Viera said. “If we can have a compromise for now, if a gate is built only for first responders, that’s a net positive. We obviously want to go further. That’s getting to first base, and we want a home run. But right now, that would be a net positive for both sides from a safety perspective.”
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