Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

City official to poll residents on road improvement

Council member John Dingfelder will see whether residents support a left-turn lane on West Shore Boulevard.

By SHERRI DAY
Published October 21, 2005

SUNSET PARK - Making a stress-free left turn from West Shore Boulevard onto residential streets during rush hour seems as likely as winning the lottery.

Residents say travel on the link between Kennedy and Gandy boulevards is fraught with frustration, daily accidents and near misses.

Now, City Council member John Dingfelder proposes a left-turn lane on West Shore Boulevard from Gandy to El Prado Boulevard. He expects to present his plan in a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Jan K. Platt Regional Library.

"The mayor has told me that I need to show that there's a strong consensus out there from the residents that live in that area if she's going to be willing to do it," Dingfelder said.

"If folks want this, they're going to need to come out and show that they want it."

Over the years, some drivers have called for widening West Shore. Others want traffic lights at busy intersections or a connector between Gandy and the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway. Each plan seems to rile some of South Tampa's toniest neighborhoods.

Dingfelder said he has fielded complaints about West Shore since he took office. He hears from the elderly, who have trouble getting out of neighborhoods along Old Tampa Bay, and from motorists who wait eons to cross the road. Terrified teenagers fear learning to drive on West Shore.

The council member's proposal would alter several of the boulevard's busiest intersections.

Dingfelder said it would mirror road improvements on S Himes Avenue near the YMCA, which has a mixture of left-turn lanes and landscaped medians.

With several new developments coming to the area, including large luxury residential communities south of Gandy Boulevard and a new community at the Georgetown apartment complex, Dingfelder fears traffic along the road will only get worse.

City traffic officials agree. Already, six stretches of West Shore are among the city's most congested roads, traffic officials said.

"We're operating during our peak hours at very low levels of service," city transportation manager Roy LaMotte Jr. said. "Delay can only increase. That's why we want to make improvements in the future. We need to convince people that we need to do some master planning. We foresee the problem now."

LaMotte said the transportation department will soon begin a study of traffic issues around Gandy Boulevard, including West Shore.

The department hopes to glean solutions to current traffic problems and head off the impact of development. Dingfelder's community meetings are a welcome part of that process, LaMotte said.

After discussing his plan with Mayor Pam Iorio last month, Dingfelder approached the Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association.

There, members took a straw poll in which about half of them supported widening the road from Kennedy to Gandy. The majority favored a compromise that would place a turn lane at a few trouble spots, association president James Tagg Jr. said.

"There's certain areas where it is ridiculous not to have some sort of improvement," Tagg said. "The most obvious would be a turning lane to get on to Bay to Bay going south. It wouldn't be expensive, and it will relieve some of the real hazards and security issues."

Not everyone agreed. Longtime resident Howard Weber said installing a turn lane and widening the road would be akin to digging a hole in the sand at the beach.

"It'll just fill in," he said. "Instead of encouraging more traffic on West Shore by widening it, do something to make improvements to the major arteries. I don't know what money is going to be spent, but I'm sure it could be put to better use."

Dingfelder is likely to get a fight from neighboring communities as well.

Emmy Purcell-Reynolds, president of the Beach Park Homeowners Association, plans to show up at Dingfelder's meeting with several of her board members to register their discontent with his plan.

"Any widening on West Shore impacts the northbound and southbound traffic flow," Purcell-Reynolds said. "If you widen a street, it makes it more attractive for more cars to speed and to use that road."

It would be unfair for residents who live outside the area in which he's proposing change to influence the decision on whether to rework the road, Dingfelder said. He plans to pass out voting cards at the meeting Wednesday that will likely require people to list their addresses. After tallying the votes, he will present them to the mayor. If the public embraces his idea, Dingfelder would have to find a way to pay for the project.

Any change to the street would likely be several years down the road, if at all.

"If the majority of folks show that they want it, then we'll move forward," Dingfelder said. "If the majority say they don't want it, then I'll walk away."

Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 09:03:09]