Rural renegades 600 strong try to slow the unrelenting march of development, which sees the quiet community as prime territory.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published May 28, 2004
SEFFNER - The glass of Pizza Hut iced tea before Terry Flott is half-empty - which, she will happily tell you, is quite appropriate.
"I'm not an optimistic person by nature," Flott says. "If I expect the worst, then I'm not disappointed when it happens."
Given how dispiriting the past nine months have been for Flott and her Seffner neighbors, she seems like the top choice to lead a fight to preserve the community's character in the face of major development.
Flott has been a driving force in founding the Seffner Community Alliance Inc., a coalition of more than 600 homeowners trying to block - or at least downsize - three major public and private development projects in Seffner.
"We want to keep the character of this community, which is still very rural," said Flott, who was elected president of the group at its first official meeting on Tuesday.
Larger than a homeowners group but not quite a lobby, the SCA is already well known in downtown Tampa for its tenacious efforts to preserve Seffner's quiet way of life.
"When I first met Terry, I could see the passion that she had," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who during a public meeting last fall advised the residents to unify. "I think this is the first step - or the second or third step - in creating a community that the residents want."
In the past nine months, the SCA has protested plans for a $20.8-million truck weigh-in motion station on Interstate 4 and a housing development.
The most recent project to draw the SCA's ire is Hillsborough County's proposed $7.5-million, campuslike Traffic Transportation Management Center near U.S. 92 and Kingsway Road. The 90,000-square-foot facility, which would house a traffic control center and operations and engineering staff, has not been approved, though construction is slated for late 2005.
A public meeting to discuss the project in April was postponed after the alliance complained that it wasn't well publicized. The meeting is now tentatively set for late June, though no date has been set.
"They know that we are becoming some type of force to be reckoned with," said Debra Griffith, an SCA vice president who lives in the Lake Weeks subdivision.
The Lake Weeks Homeowners Association is one of several groups on board with the SCA; others include the Shangri La and Parsons Pointe homeowners associations, the Hickory Hill Special Tax District and the Taylor Road Civic Association. In all, the SCA hopes to encompass an area roughly bordered by Interstate 75 to the west, I-4 to the north, McIntosh Road to the east and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Windhorst Road to the south.
Residents first jumped into action last fall when they learned that the Archerd Co. was planning to erect 98 townhomes and 252 single-family homes on 102 acres near U.S. 92 and Kingsway. After much lobbying, the residents swayed commissioners to approve an alternate plan for 299 homes and 157,000 square feet of retail space.
Shortly thereafter, the group went after the Florida Department of Transportation's planned truck weigh-in motion station off I-4 near Kingsway, between the Mango and McIntosh Road exits. At one February meeting, residents were told there was no way to stop the project, which will replace an existing station near Plant City. Seffner had been chosen from among about a dozen other sites, and construction is set to begin in 2007.
Still, residents cried foul over the added noise, pollution and U.S. 92 traffic anticipated. DOT officials don't intend to shelve the project, but they have altered plans to include more noise-reducing berms; engineers also invited residents to participate in a noise study.
The County Commission, led by Hagan, approved a motion to formally oppose the DOT station. The motion was largely symbolic, but it made residents feel supported.
When Flott heard about the county's traffic center plans, her frustration turned to shock. The county-owned land could be used for a new library or park, she and other residents said. While Hagan says the center is "nowhere near being a done deal," Mike McCarthy, director of the traffic division of the county's public works department, says the Seffner site was the best of more than a dozen studied countywide, and 2005 is still an optimistic start date for construction.
"I truly believe that this (site) is a good one for it, and that we can make the community comfortable with us," McCarthy said. "I just hope that the community out there will listen and give us a chance to present and then talk about their concerns."
Flott, 53, a former administrator for a chain of medical practices, said her volunteer role with the SCA is more than a full-time job.
"I'm developing dark circles and wrinkles," she says with a chuckle.
She figures she has maybe two years of running the show in her. She hopes by then the Seffner Community Alliance will be strong enough to stand on its own, and someone else can take the reins.
"They already know the name downtown," she says. "They already know me, they know my face. ... I don't want it to be my face. I want it to be the alliance's face."
That will only happen, members say, if the SCA's efforts result in significant change.
"People will do what they can do, but if something positive doesn't happen, they quit too easily," says SCA secretary Dawn Danet, a Shangri La resident.
One thing is certain: Fighting back against major development is no small task.
"You're not going to walk in and make a huge impact overnight," Flott says. "One person can't do it all. Not even four people. It's going to take everybody to play a part in it."
With the SCA, Flott says, that just might happen.
"I have a good feeling about it," she says. "And I don't usually have a good feeling."
Members of the Seffner Community Alliance will attend a town hall-style meeting with County Commissioner Ken Hagan at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Armwood High School, 12000 U.S. 92 in Seffner. For information on the SCA, visit www.geocities.com/seffnercommunity or call Terry Flott at 689-8490.
