Training camp or nature park?

The Bucs want the land for weekday practices. Others want Hillsborough County to buy and preserve it.

By RYAN MEEHAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 31, 2002

TAMPA -- To preservationists, it's 70 acres of quiet, unspoiled woods.

But to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it may soon be a great spot to run, pass and kick.

The team wants to build a training facility at the site on Morris Bridge Road in north Hillsborough. But opponents say it's a valuable piece of nature well worth preserving.

"We're just trying to keep this area intact," said Hadrian Alegarbes, a nature tour guide and opponent of the training camp.

Attorney John Grandhoff, representing the Bucs, wants to purchase the land from its private owners for $3.5-million. The team would use it for practice sessions on weekdays before home games. The facility could open as early as next year.

In an attempt to protect the property, Alegarbes recently nominated it for purchase by the county's Environmental Land Acquisition and Protection Program, which would maintain it as a nature preserve.

But that could take more than a year. And the owners of the property would likely lose millions in the deal because the government typically pays only the appraised value of the land, not its market value.

The property is owned by Gail Benton, who declined comment when reached by phone, and Elaine Aldridge, who did not return repeated phone calls.

The site is currently zoned agricultural/rural, which limits its development to one house per 5 acres. But a zoning hearing master will be asked to change the classification next month, which would allow the Bucs to build parking lots, three fields and several buildings.

The property is almost completely surrounded by conservation lands owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The county's land development code says public lands "shall be protected from any adjacent development" that could be potentially threatening to its environment.

Some think such threats exist.

In a June 27 letter, Swiftmud land use manager Colleen Kruk noted that the water district conducts prescribed fires seasonally in the land surrounding the site. Although neighbors are usually notified, she said, that isn't always possible.

Kruk also expressed concerns about six 70-foot-tall lights planned for the three practice fields. She said birds sometimes fly into them and die; moreover, when the lights are on at night, animals get confused because many of their behaviors are dictated by changes in daylight. Animals, she said, could abandon the area.

That's a moot point, said Bucs spokesman Jeff Kamis.

The Bucs do not practice at night during the season, he said. And during an average summer training camp stint, the team uses lights about two times.

The Bucs have held summer training camp at the University of Tampa since 1987. But the school is undergoing renovations this year and couldn't accommodate the team.

The Bucs now are training at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. It's unclear if the Bucs will use the proposed training facility for summer camp, Kamis said.

Also unclear is the significance of the land to the animals that live there. Both Grandhoff and the county have sent out environmental scientists to survey it.

Grandhoff says the land is nothing but an old orange grove.

Bernie Kaiser, environmental scientist for Hillsborough County's Department of Planning and Growth Management, says the land could include "essential wildlife habitat." That means it might contain an animal population that couldn't sustain itself if the site was built.

Kaiser gave an example.

"If there are 30 gopher tortoises on the Bucs site and 10 on the Swiftmud (land surrounding it), then there could be a problem," he said.

But the study conducted by Grandhoff's consultant indicate just the opposite of Kaiser's hypothesis.

Forty-two gopher tortoises were found on the site and more than 190 are estimated to live on adjacent land owned by Swiftmud. The report concludes that construction of the site would not jeopardize the tortoises' viable population and wouldn't violate county code.

Kaiser isn't as optimistic. He said it is possible some tortoises that inhabit the land will die if the facility is built.

Only one other species, the Sherman's fox squirrel, was found on the property. But there were only two of them, and their nests were located off-site, according to the report.

Even if the Bucs do build, both sides can find common ground, Kaiser said. But it will take extra work.

"There might have to be some adaptation on the human side," Kaiser said. "That means not dumping chemicals and herbicides on the fields, and watching out for tortoises."

Louis Hellman regularly rides his bike on a trail that runs through the plot of land and isn't happy that it could soon be taken over. But he has lived in Tampa since the 1960s and has seen this happen before.

"Hey, you can't fight the Bucs," he said.

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