Idlewild ready to unveil traffic control plan

Neighbors of the huge new church have been anxiously waiting, hoping their rural roads won't be overwhelmed.

By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 10, 2002

LUTZ -- For three years, neighbors of Idlewild Baptist Church's future campus have wondered and worried what will happen when Idlewild's 8,500 Baptists converge on the winding roads of Lutz.

On Friday, Idlewild plans to submit its answer. The church will propose traffic plans to the county and the state that may not satisfy every neighbor, but will address most concerns.

The church proposes to:

-- Build a two-lane road from Crystal Lake Road to N Dale Mabry Highway.

-- Largely prevent motorists who enter Dale Mabry via the new road from traveling straight into Calusa Trace.

-- Staff key intersections with off-duty sheriff's deputies during big church events, as it does currently on Bearss Avenue.

-- Align its secondary entrance on Van Dyke Road nearly 500 feet east of Crenshaw Lake Road, to discourage traffic into Crenshaw Lakes.

-- Build a landscaped roundabout on its new road, off the northwestern edge of the Idlewild property.

"They just felt that it softens that area," said Tom Franchina, Idlewild's project manager for construction of the new campus.

In addition, the church is negotiating to build a left-turn lane for westbound Van Dyke traffic turning south onto Dale Mabry. The lack of such a lane currently contributes to half-mile back-ups during evening rush hours on Van Dyke, easily Lutz's worst traffic headache.

Road changes are crucial for more than the Idlewild traffic. The land west of Idlewild's 143 acres has the zoning potential to become the area's largest shopping and office complex short of a full-blown mall. North of there lies the future home of 650 apartments. And additional land fronting Dale Mabry could be developed for busy "big box" stores.

All these possibilities prompted Hillsborough County's planning department earlier this year to commission a study of the area's traffic future. The study still is under way.

Calusa Trace question

Idlewild, meanwhile, committed to build an east-west road across the property in its agreement to buy the land for its new home.

The church's transportation analyst estimated that 70 percent of Idlewild's traffic will reach the church on the new road from Dale Mabry and another 10 percent will use the new road from Crystal Lake Road.

The Calusa Trace Master Association has been lobbying desperately for more than a year to prevent the new road from connecting to Calusa Trace Boulevard in a way that would form a bypass around congested Van Dyke. The association contends such a bypass would lure traffic onto a road that dozens of children cross daily, between their homes in Calusa Trace and Schwarzkopf Elementary School and a small county park.

Idlewild's response will be an intersection that requires westbound motorists to turn north or south at Dale Mabry. Someone determined to go straight would have to make a partial left, then veer back toward the right onto Calusa Trace Boulevard, Franchina said.

"You're going to have to make an effort to go straight," he said. "Our design discourages people from going forward."

Specifically, Idlewild proposes to build a right-turn lane and two left-turn lanes for westbound traffic. The left-turn lane in the middle would be closed off with plastic posts most of the time, but would be opened by off-duty sheriff's deputies during heavy church traffic.

The intersection won't have a traffic light. It's too close to the existing Dale Mabry light at the Veterans Expressway, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Idlewild projects that 14 percent of its worshipers will arrive by driving south on Dale Mabry, then turning left onto the new road. The church proposes to build a left-turn lane in the Dale Mabry median and to extend the concrete median well into the intersection, again to divert east-west traffic away from Calusa Trace.

"We pushed the envelope even with the DOT to please the people in Calusa Trace," Franchina said.

Gerry Reno, the Calusa Trace homeowners' president, said he would reserve judgment on the proposals until he has seen drawings. But he fears the arrangement won't protect his subdivision from drivers.

"If there's just a very light deterrence, they're going to find a way to go around it," Reno said.

Reno had advocated that the road connect with Dale Mabry at Cheval Boulevard, not Calusa Trace. Cheval wouldn't have to worry about stray traffic because its private roads are gated, Reno said.

Dodging Crenshaw Lakes

The new road will connect at its eastern end to Crystal Lake Road, one of the quietest and shadiest country lanes in Lutz. It could become a busy east-west artery. Residents there have asked that the new road be closed except during busy church times.

Franchina said that would be up to the county. The road will become a county road after Idlewild builds it. But county officials haven't received the plans and are reluctant to discuss that question until then.

Idlewild projects that only 9 percent of its traffic will enter and leave the site via the intersection of Dale Mabry and Van Dyke. But the church wants to unsnarl that intersection with a left-turn lane.

The family trust that owns the property immediately southeast of the intersection is obligated to build such a turn lane. But that obligation is binding only when the property, a shopping center site, is developed.

Idlewild hopes to build the left-turn lane before it opens, with compensation from the Irene B. Shell Revocable Trust.

"That's under discussion right now between the church and the Shell Property owner and their consultant," said Charles White, Hillsborough County's transportation review manager.

East of Dale Mabry, Idlewild initially proposed to align its southern entrance with Crenshaw Lake Road. But neighbors there made a request similar to Calusa Trace's: Please route traffic away. Some 15 percent of Idlewild's traffic is projected to use the entrance.

So Idlewild moved the proposed entrance nearly 500 feet to the east.

"That was what worked better for them," said Ken Smith, Idlewild's minister through administration. "It worked fine for us."

-- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com .

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright