Neighbors on Waverly are fed up with the noise, the dirt, the stench. The city works to sort out parking and other issues.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published November 11, 2005
BAYSHORE BEAUTIFUL - Ah, to stake your claim along, and just off, Bayshore Boulevard: the sun, the water, the waves, the view.
The good life.
Oh, and the inability to pull out of your driveway. The stink of rarely cleaned portable toilets. The film of dust covering your car, your hedges, your garden gnome. Construction workers sitting in your yard, eating lunch.
And the project manager who tries to tell you to move your car so one of his trucks can park in its place.
Such has been the lot of numerous homeowners who live on Waverly Avenue, the cross street where Bayshore's newest and grandest condominium tower is being erected.
As construction of the 23-story Alagon on Bayshore continues, residents are feeling the impact of South Tampa's rampant development.
And the city's elected officials and employees are learning that current city codes and procedures might not be enough to sustain residents' quality of life during the development drive.
The issues came to a head last week at a Tampa City Council meeting, as council members and city staff worked to determine what's gone wrong with the Alagon project and how to ensure such issues are avoided in the future.
"This has caused us to inventory all of our parking regulations, to see that some of the signage we have remains in place, and also install new signage," said Roy LaMotte, the city's transportation manager.
While some of the concerns have arisen on previous projects, City Council member Rose Ferlita said, problems with the Alagon construction "brought it to the surface." So she tried to focus on remedies for this project and future ones.
"One problem with these projects is there's the projected date versus the real date of completion," she said. "The residents at Waverly have been putting up with this for about a year."
The biggest issue with Alagon is that a new crew of workers came in midway through the project, Ferlita said.
While the original crew had agreed to several regulations, including a plan to park several blocks away from Bayshore, that went out the window with the new crew, she said. Waverly became virtually impassable.
So Ferlita asked the Tampa Police Department and the city's code enforcement and transportation departments to work on a more comprehensive and proactive plan to deal with the building process for all projects. "We want to have a checklist," she said.
The city has worked out several of the issues with the Alagon crew, LaMotte said. The builders assured they will change the portable toilets more frequently and screen them better. They also will wet down debris so it doesn't cause clouds of dust.
Already, the traffic situation has improved.
"We've asked the contractor - and they have complied - to put a person out into the field directing their incoming deliveries, which means that if a truck pulls up, they will designate an area for dropoff," LaMotte said. "They know they cannot stop in the middle of the road."
The project superintendent could not be reached for comment.
While Ferlita was visiting the site, she said, a worker told a resident she needed to move her car to make room for a construction vehicle, even though the resident's car was legally and appropriately parked.
Ferlita also noticed a truck parked close to Bayshore, in an area restricted by a "No parking here to corner" sign. She pointed it out to a worker.
"I asked the guy to move the truck, and he said, "No, it's the boss' truck,' " Ferlita said.
The response didn't fly with Ferlita, who got the truck moved.
Soon afterward, however, the "no parking" sign curiously disappeared.
"Did we ever find out what happened to the sign?" she asked LaMotte at last week's council meeting.
Nope, LaMotte responded, but he had advised the construction superintendent he "wouldn't play a cat and mouse game with putting it back up and taking it down."
Heidi Bodor's Waverly Avenue home is across MacDill Avenue, well west of the construction, but close enough to notice "big vibrations and pounding," which recently ceased.
However, construction trucks continue to park in front of her home, and the congestion has prompted her to take a new route to her daughter's school.
"That's why we bought here, so we can travel right out to the water," said Bodor, who is fairly understanding about the inconvenience. "I guess it's something we're just going to have to deal with."
