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LUTZ - When Hillsborough County requires a developer to make road and drainage improvements for a building project, the developer usually foots the whole bill.
The Salvation Army, however, might get some help from the county.
Bernardo Garcia, assistant county administrator, will soon ask county commissioners to pay half the cost of a left-turn lane to access the new Salvation Army headquarters on Van Dyke Road.
If approved, the county's portion of the $66,000 tab would be $33,000.
"We've done share-cost agreements and the board has approved every one of them," Garcia said. He added, however, that "it's not routine."
What makes this case different, Garcia says, is the county did not originally require the turn lane when county officials approved the Salvation Army project last year, and the turn lane will fill a county need.
Before the nonprofit organization moved its new headquarters to 5631 Van Dyke Road, the county had planned to install a traffic signal at Van Dyke Road and Lakeshore Drive. After the Salvation Army's plans were approved, the organization's officers asked the county for permission to move its driveway about 200 yards east so that it can line up with the intersection and traffic signal.
"They felt it would be safer," Garcia said.
Salvation Army officers declined to comment for this report.
Garcia said the county had not planned any turn lane traveling east, turning north. When the Salvation Army asked for a turn lane, county engineers felt it would be in the public's best interest to create one.
"Even though it's a private driveway, if we don't put in a turn lane, traffic going east is susceptible to rear-end collisions while turning left," he said. "From our standpoint, for the safety of traffic on Van Dyke Road, we want that turn lane.
"We would gain some safety benefit by putting in the turn lane, and the Salvation Army would gain the benefit of having the access to their facility."
These type of cost-sharing agreements with the county and private enterprise are not routine, but they're not uncommon, either.
Garcia says the county has shared the cost of improving intersections throughout Hillsborough where it serves the public. It has also helped pay for traffic calming and stormwater projects where private landowners are willing to contribute to the costs.
He said he would not ask county commissioners to fund the Salvation Army turn lane if the charity was not willing to pay half.
"We wouldn't do it on our own," Garcia said.
After nearly a quarter-century on a shaded lakeside lot on Lake Ellen Lane, the Salvation Army moved its headquarters to a new home custom-made for its 130 officers and employees: a three-story, white, 100,000-square-foot office building.
The project cost more than $8-million, including the 10-acre site east of Lake Carlton Arms apartments. The headquarters is almost wholly administrative. It oversees 52 local offices serving all of Florida's 67 counties.
- Tim Grant can be reached at 813 269-5311 or at grant@sptimes.com