County planners demand road improvements for the Bearss Avenue site, which is near a busy I-275 interchange.
By BILL COATS
Published April 4, 2004
LUTZ - A golf range on Bearss Avenue would be transformed into a major shopping center under a rezoning that's to be debated at a public hearing Thursday night.
The shopping center would feature a 189,000-square-foot "big box" store such as Home Depot or Wal-Mart, although the developers haven't revealed whether they have a specific retailer lined up. Two smaller stores, totaling 66,350 square feet, would share the big store's parking lot.
County planners are endorsing the project. But they are attaching demands for a wide array of turn lanes and other road improvements.
"This site, with Bearss Avenue there, has a history of having some traffic issues with it," community planner Kristin Tolbert said. "So road conditions are definitely a big part of this."
The stores would be built just off the northeast corner of Bearss and Nebraska avenues, a block away from one of I-275's busiest interchanges. Thanks to heavy commuter traffic from Lutz and New Tampa, Bearss already carries more vehicles than it was built for. The shopping center would add nearly 9,500 trips a day, planners estimate.
The developers, Tampa's Morin Development Group, would have to build:
* A westbound right-turn lane on Bearss that would stretch from Nebraska to 12th Street, and perhaps as far east as Skipper Road.
* An eastbound left-turn lane on Bearss at the shopping center's main entrance, which will be a quarter-mile east of Nebraska.
* A westbound left-turn lane on Sinclair Hills Road, which is along the site's northern boundary, from West Burrell Drive to Nebraska.
* A northbound right-turn lane on Nebraska at Sinclair Hills.
* An eastbound right-turn lane on Sinclair Hills from Nebraska to the project's northern entrance, which would be just east of the CSX Transportation railroad tracks.
The company also might be required to install traffic signals at the Nebraska and Sinclair Hills intersection and the Bearss and N 12th Street intersection. It could be required to lengthen the existing left-turn lanes from westbound Bearss to Nebraska and from southbound Nebraska to Bearss.
Finally, Morin could be required to create north Hillsborough's first triple left-turn lane, where double lanes now carry traffic from eastbound Bearss to northbound Nebraska.
Much of the final road work would be based on future traffic studies projecting such things as the number of vehicles that could back up at the shopping center entrance during the evening rush hour. Morin would be required to keep the turning traffic out of the Bearss flow.
"If they don't do it, then they pay fees that would pay for it," Tolbert said.
The shopping center would be next door to two neighborhoods, and "buffers" would be required along those streets. Residents facing the project along N 12th Street and Sinclair Hills Road would see 5-foot berms topped by shrubs and 12-foot trees. Behind the berms, Morin plans a retention pond for the full length of its 12th Street frontage.
Neighbors around Lake Burrell have negotiated extensively with Morin's representatives since they sought the rezoning last June. The county originally scheduled a public hearing for last September, then repeatedly postponed it while Morin and the neighbors addressed their differences. Thursday night's hearing is set for 6 p.m. at the County Center in Tampa.
Even last Friday, it wasn't clear where the neighbors stand.
"I know that they still have some outstanding concerns," Tolbert said.
One neighbor, John Ballard, said he was hoping to hear from a neighborhood leader who had studied the latest plans.
"We know they're going to build something and we can't stop it," Ballard said. "If we can get a few concessions, like better drainage, that's my main concern."
- Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com[Last modified April 3, 2004, 08:37:14]
