Residents and environmental regulators are concerned about what's to become of Cypress Creek if developers have free reign over 511 acres of land near Interstate 75.
By JAMES THORNER
Published August 3, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - The morning sun strains to pierce the canopy of oak and cypress as the canoes glide over the black water of Cypress Creek.
Lyle Wolding and Randy Sherman turn their paddles into rudders to navigate around the limb of an antique oak that blocks half the channel.
At the approach of the aluminum and fiberglass canoes, aquatic birds and alligators splash below the surface for safety.
Wolding and Sherman realize they're following an ancient waterway that eventually spills into the Hillsborough River. For thousands of years, American Indians knew this terrain well.
A 60-foot-high hill that rises over the flood plain of the creek, after a good rain, stands spiky with the burnt flaked edges of stone honed centuries ago by Indians.
"The last person to touch that was 700 or 800 years ago. Or it could have been thousands of years," Wolding said as he holds to the sunlight a chip of flint-like chert. "This topography has not changed much since Florida was here."
But the hum of traffic on Interstate 75, a mere half-mile downstream, reminds the men that this isn't the heart of Amazonia. Far from it.
Cypress Creek separates Wolding's and Sherman's property from 511 acres that Tampa developer Robert Sierra would like to convert into a regional mall, hotels, shopping centers, offices and maybe apartments.
Cypress Creek Town Center: That's the tentative name of the mall. At 1.5-million-square-feet, it's supposed to be among the biggest in the region. Some county officials are thrilled about the potential for millions a year in sales and property taxes.
But the project scares nature lovers such as Wolding and Sherman who bought homes on the west bank of Cypress Creek for a secluded life among the hawks, deer, tortoises, owls and cranes.
That giant oak limb they paddled around in their canoe? It's near the path of a proposed bridge to carry traffic from State Road 54 south to County Line Road.
A similar fate awaits the hill that archaeologists estimate was a hunting camp for hunters from roughly 5,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. A federal survey map from 1849 indicates an ancient Indian trail ended near there.
Becaused the sandy knoll hides chips of worked stone rather than graves, villages and other profound cultural artifacts, the state suggests it's not worth preserving. A road probably will level it.
Sherman, who spent a half-million dollars on a house and eight acres beside the creek three years ago, knows he can't stop development. But he wants it done right.
"Let's not sell our soul to the devil," he said. "If it's all about money at the expense of the creek and the wetlands, to me it's an awful deal."
Plan draws more than local critics
Several state regulators are also less than smitten with the mall plans. As a major tributary of the Hillsborough River, Cypress Creek is classified as an Outstanding Florida Water.
The water eventually finds its way into the mouths of hundreds of thousands of people as Tampa draws most of its drinking supply from the Hillsborough.
Led by the state Department of Environmental Protection, regulators have yet to be convinced such a large mall meshes with the watery terrain. They don't want untreated water, in some cases tainted with motor oil from mall traffic, spilling into the creek.
Despite elevated bacteria in the creek, partly from cow manure, water quality reports note the creek is odorless and has a healthy fish population.
"You're not allowed to degrade the creek any further ... it can't get any worse," the DEP's Brenda Arnold said of the creek's inclusion on the Outstanding Water list.
The agencies are just as critical of plans to upset, and in many cases uproot, 104 acres of the 186 acres of wetlands on the land. The Southwest Florida Water Management District deemed it "not reasonable" and suggested Sierra scale back the mall.
"Wetlands hold water. They also purify by filtering water through the soil," water district environmental planner Mikel Renner said. "They essentially act like a kidney."
One suggestion is to shrink the project by stacking cars in a parking garage and making the mall multi-story. At a meeting with government types in May, mall planners weren't keen on the idea. Sierra's engineers are redoing the plans to try to please regulators but wouldn't share details with the Times.
Quiet already harder to come by
Seen from above, Cypress Creek, wrapped in trees, runs like a green snake against a backdrop of yellow-green cattle pasture on either side.
As the canoes head downstream, a clearing appears on the right. It's pasture belonging to the 322-acre King Marvel Ranch. The bridge is supposed to cut across here, running from the mall property to the King's.
Wolding dips his paddle, doesn't hit bottom and announces the water, black with the tannins of decaying plants, is probably 12-16 feet deep.
The creek widens into a large pool and bends east toward the interstate. A gar fish longer than a foot lunges above the surface, its scales glinting silver.
"If we are real quiet we can sneak up on the 14-foot alligator," Wolding said.
But quiet is getting hard to come by. The roar of passing cars and trucks gets louder as the boats drift downstream and emerge in a mostly treeless part of the creek clogged with lily pads.
Up ahead is the rusty steel side of an I-75 bridge. On the other side of the highway, the creek fans out into a shallow flood plain partly scarred by dirt mining from the construction of SR 56. It's time to turn back.
In evaluating developers' devotion to wildlife, Wolding and Sherman aren't encouraged by the clear cutting of oak, pine and cypress they noticed over the creek on the Sierra property.
The men stomp across stumps and charcoal and bare sand that use to be a gopher tortoise burrow. Sierra's representatives said they didn't get a logging permit, but claim they didn't need one since they were following best management practices set by the state.
"What's that old expression, "Ask for forgiveness, not for permission?"' Sherman said as he crunched over bits of burnt log.
"It was like an enchanted forest back there," Wolding said.
Sierra's people suggest logging has rendered the land less valuable for wildlife preservation - and thus more valuable for development. The DEP would have none of that.
"Areas of indiscriminate logging were noted on the site visit, which did not appear to follow any sort of harvesting best management practice," A DEP surveyor noted in a review of the project.
Wolding fears more of the same if the mall developers are given carte blanche to make over the land. He doesn't relish the thought of being "walled out on all sides" as if he's living in a subdivision in Carrollwood.
"It's just a paradise. It's just a gorgeous place to live," Wolding said. "I'd hate to sell any of it."
- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at 813 909-4613 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4613. His e-mail is thorner@sptimes.com
