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Neighborhood report

Community has spoken: no left-turn lane for West Shore

By SHERRI DAY
Published November 4, 2005

SUNSET PARK - The verdict is in. For residents who favored adding a left-turn lane to portions of West Shore Boulevard, it's not good news.

More than 200 people showed up at City Council member John Dingfelder's town hall meeting Oct. 26 at the Jan K. Platt Library to voice concerns about congestion on the road. The majority voted against the proposed change.

Residents from more than 20 South Tampa neighborhoods cast 205 votes, representatives from Dingfelder's office said. Of those, 113 residents voted against adding a left-turn lane along portions of West Shore from El Prado to Gandy boulevards. Seventy voters supported the lane, and 22 residents said they were undecided.

Responses from Beach Park and Sunset Park represented 37 percent of votes cast. Of those, 75 percent voted against the proposal.

Dingfelder organized the meeting to gauge the community's support for improvements along West Shore. He previously said if the residents do not favor the left-turn lane, he would abandon efforts to implement it. He now pledges to keep seeking solutions for West Shore's traffic woes, perhaps through creating a task force or by hiring an engineering firm.

"We're going to keep looking at it," he said. "It's my district, and I feel strongly about traffic safety."

[Last modified November 3, 2005, 08:47:07]