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In the wee hours, council votes to allow Tampa General parking garage

By JANET ZINK
Published May 18, 2005

In the end, health care trumped a small patch of green.

Tampa City Council voted 7-0 in the early hours this morning to let Tampa General Hospital build a parking garage on 0.4 acres of city park land.

More than 500 people turned out for the special council meeting held Tuesday night at the Tampa Convention Center to accommodate the size of the crowd. Nearly three-quarters of those at the meeting were hospital supporters and employees ranging from transplant surgeons to the maintenance staff.

Council members agreed with them that the hospital's mission of providing health care to West Central Florida and educating University of South Florida medical students outweighed the importance of saving a small, underused portion of the park.

They also said that the hospital's plan to build a 0.7-acre waterfront walkway and offer of $1-million to Davis Islands residents for recreational improvements offset the loss of the parcel.

The meeting lasted until 1 a.m., with dozens of residents on both sides of the issue weighing in.

Some Davis Islands residents objected to TGH's expansion plans because of the additional traffic it would bring, and they fought hard to save the waterfront parcel at the edge of Marjorie Park.

"Building a parking garage on a waterfront park is bad public policy," said Charner Reese. "The grand views of downtown and Harbour Island from the Davis Islands park are unmistakable. Why would we want to obscure that view with a seven-story parking garage on a dedicated waterfront park?"

Some of Reese's neighbors saw it differently.

Alice Wendt said she makes regular trips to the hospital for health care, and she's often turned away from the existing parking garage because it's full. She said the pedestrian walkway Tampa General plans to build is a great compromise.

"It will be gorgeous," she said.

The Council's decision gives Tampa General permission to build a 1,400-space parking garage on the parkland and a 125,000-square-foot office building for the University of South Florida. It also allows TGH to add a floor to an expansion under construction.

TGH president Ron Hytoff has said the hospital needs to expand to keep up with the region's population growth.

"We have built out every single blank space in the hospital," Hytoff told City Council. "We're filled."

[Last modified May 18, 2005, 12:22:02]