Lutz

Dump trucks will stay on Sunlake Boulevard

Disagreements among Lutz neighbors killed the tentative deal the county had with developers for a bypass road around the neighborhood.

LUTZ - A land deal that weighed on several transportation dilemmas off Lutz-Lake Fern Road has collapsed.

The deal would have created a new north-south road west of Sunlake Park. Its death means:

- Dump trucks will continue to churn past 36 homes on Sunlake en route to dirt excavations across the Pasco line.

- Centex Homes will plan a 725-home development north and east of Sunlake Park using Sunlake Boulevard as the entrance road.

- Sunlake remains mapped as a major future highway reaching into the heart of Pasco County.

- Hillsborough County transportation planners must rethink a conceptual plan to eventually route the detour road south across Dale Mabry Highway to Van Dyke Road.

"In the long run, I guess, there were too many issues involved, and Centex had to make a business decision," said Peggy Hamric, technical services manager in the county's real estate department, who worked on the deal.

The agreement was a land swap resulting from two years of negotiations. It was aimed initially at rerouting the dump trucks onto a county-owned tract and off Sunlake, which the trucks have plagued for six years. But the new road also would have taken away the big-ticket future roles that have menaced Sunlake for three decades.

The deal came together because Centex wanted to avoid the 36-year-old Sunlake Park at the mouth of its development. But it fell apart because the public reaction at a meeting in Lutz last month was fractured.

Residents of Sunlake Boulevard praised the idea, and recently submitted more than 100 signatures of support. But neighbors three blocks away, next to the proposed route, opposed it. Leaders from bigger, newer developments like VillaRosa and Heritage Harbor said diverting the trucks from a four-way intersection to a T-stop would worsen the morning traffic jams at Sunlake and Lutz-Lake Fern. And leaders from the Lutz Civic Association said a major new traffic artery was receiving back-door approval without the proper planning steps.

"That's when it became apparent to us that there was not an easy way to have that roadway realigned," said Bill Bullock, Centex's land development manager.

The deal was to go before the Hillsborough County Commission twice, for approval of the land swap and later for a rezoning to make it workable.

Bullock said the disagreements among Lutz neighbors made those votes uncertain.

Denise Layne, president of the Lutz Civic Association, criticized the county for not consulting with Lutz residents more. Public meetings were held 21/2 years ago, when the idea was hatched, and last month, after a contract was written.

"They created the mess to begin with," she said. "They didn't include us."

Layne vowed to arrange more meetings with residents of the area to try to reach a solution. County Commissioner Jim Norman said an overall look at the transportation situation was needed.

Although county officials consider the agreement dead, Bullock left the door cracked.

"The County Commission may surprise us all and say, "We would like to see you pursue the exchange agreement,' " he said. "If the county could determine a way to unite the residents out there under the flag of the exchange agreement, then it's back in for consideration."

In the meantime, Centex has the zoning and access rights to forge ahead without any community input, using Sunlake Boulevard. Although that plan would add construction and residential traffic, it would remove the dump trucks.

"When we close on the property, the truck traffic would stop," he said.

That's little consolation to Norman. "We're just going to phase from one horror of the community to another," he said.

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

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