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East-west road may cut through West Meadows
By JOHN BALZ, Times Staff Writer WEST MEADOWS -- The consultant studying options for an east-west road has recommended that the city build the thoroughfare through a corridor that steers motorists through West Meadows. The other corridors under consideration "would face significant long-term public and agency controversy, and are potentially fatally flawed from an environmental perspective," says a draft of the URS Corp. report, which also says those routes "do not satisfy the objective of the project need." The objective is to reduce traffic on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and the path called corridor B, which intersects with Commerce Park Boulevard near the new Freedom High and Liberty Middle school site. The corridor will do that on some portions of Bruce B. Downs by 9,600 cars per day, the study said. Corridor B culminates with an Interstate-275 interchange 1 mile north of Livingston Avenue. The city has the option of accepting or rejecting URS' recommendation. "We're going to read it, digest the material and make a selection very soon," said Mahdi Mansour, a traffic engineer overseeing the east-west road project for the city. If the recommendation is approved, the city would likely authorize URS to conduct a detailed study that would pinpoint more precisely where the road would run. The city retains the option not to build an east-west road. In the end, the decision came down to construction complications. Building in corridor B would cause the least disruption to neighborhoods and environmentally sensitive acres, said Ron Gregory, a vice president at URS. Corridor A, which cuts through a southern portion of Tampa Palms, might displace seven homes. Corridor C, along the border of Hillsborough and Pasco County, could affect 22 homes. "The harsh reality of potentially buying and relocating . . . is unavoidable to the study team," the report said. Geographically, Corridor B cuts through Tampa Palms. But the only way for other New Tampa drivers to access it is to use New Tampa Boulevard in West Meadows. That fact is one reason why West Meadows residents have generally opposed Corridor B. But URS received more comments from Tampa Palms residents who opposed Corridor A. "It had a tremendous amount of human and neighborhood impacts," said Gregory of corridor A. Building in corridor C would disturb about 85 acres of floodplain, which act as a natural sponge to help store excess rainwater. Habitats for the Tampa mock vervain and the wood stork, both endangered species, would be affected. An even bigger potential obstacle is 10 acres along Cypress Creek that are part of the Hillsborough County Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program. Federal, state and county laws require that the county receive compensation, a new swath of protected space, if the land is built on. However, planners said they might not have been able to find enough land to make an equal swap. -- John Balz can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or at balz@sptimes.com.
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From the Times Letters |
