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Baycrest boat ramp to get big upgrade

The homeowners are expected to take over the ramp and use taxing district money to spruce it up.

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - A no-frills boat ramp in the Baycrest community will soon become a boat ramp with frills. But it will be private and no longer open to the public.

"It was never intended to be capable of supporting true public use," said Michael Perotti, president of the Baycrest Taxing District. "There are only three parking spaces and it gets crowded on popular weekends."

That's why homeowners have asked Hillsborough County to transfer ownership of the boat ramp back to Baycrest, its original owner. If that occurs, the community will resume maintenance of the ramp, using taxing district revenue to make improvements.

The county's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department agrees the transfer is a good idea and will ask Hillsborough County commissioners to approve it, most likely later this month.

"It really is not a practical boat ramp for the public," said John Brill, spokesman for the parks department. "There's no place to park."

The Baycrest boat ramp is one of the county's few public boat ramps without a dock or other amenities.

"Depending on the level of the tide you have to hop off a seawall to your boat that is tied to an electrical pole," Perotti said. "Or you jump onto a stormwater culvert over broken bottles and rocks."

Homeowners are looking forward to several benefits once they are again in control of the boat ramp, including better policing of boaters who disregard the no-wake zone there.

"Repeat offenders who show no concern for other people's sea walls will have their access to the ramp revoked," Perotti said.

Residents also expect their streets to be calmer once traffic from boat-towing trucks and trailers decreases.

Construction of Baycrest, which was started in the late 1960s, was done in three phases. The developer built the boat ramp for the first phase of homes. It was meant to provide a waterfront amenity for homeowners lacking waterfront access. But when the original section of homes fell into disrepair, deed restrictions, along with the boat ramp, fell by the wayside.

When hard times hit, homeowners "cut a deal with the county to take it over," said Jack Peel, president of the Baycrest Park Civic Association.

Because Baycrest has no homeowners association and no guaranteed source of income, homeowners voted in the early 1990s to create a special taxing district.

The annual assessment has a $100 cap.

Perotti said the boat ramp project is not expected to increase residents' yearly tax more than $5 or $10.

It currently is $25.

Taxes "are not going up for the sake of going up," Perotti said.

Planned improvements include a long dock where boaters can tie or launch their crafts. Flowers and shrubs will buffer a county-owned pumping station that sits in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped property. A gazebo will provide shade and ambience on the site, which is about the size of a standard lot. There are even plans for a fish cleaning station and running water to flush engine motors.

"It's the closest thing to a park we have," Perotti said. "It will be well kept and something we're proud of."

- Jackie Ripley can be reached at 813 269-5308 or ripley@sptimes.com