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Bus hub proposal has city perplexed

Clearwater officials plan to fight a rezoning proposal that would move a bus terminal from downtown to a county location south of the city.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published April 9, 2006

CLEARWATER - When trying to remake a city, every decision matters.

Even the placement of a bus station.

In Clearwater, city officials are fighting to keep the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus terminal downtown, saying a city center cannot be much of a city center without it.

Transit officials love the sentiment, but it came six years too late, they say. Proposals to build new facilities downtown were derailed twice - by the city .

And for the transit agency, which is desperate to replace its outdated, cramped facilities, opportunity only comes so often. Officials there are ready now to pounce on a deal that doesn't involve Clearwater, because it's out of Clearwater.

Clearwater officials are upset.

The transit authority's executive director is dumbfounded.

And a resident in the neighborhood where the new terminal might bring 200 bus trips a day - he's angry.

All of it makes for a big-time political mess - over a bus terminal.

* * *

There's one thing everyone seems to agree on: The transit authority needs a new terminal in or around Clearwater.

The current facilities, on less than an acre near the Church of Scientology's Flag Building, are just too small, said PSTA Executive Director Roger Sweeney.

"Buses can't get in the area," Sweeney said. "And we can't provide more services if we wanted to."

For six years, Sweeney's agency, the city and Pinellas County have searched for a new location for the terminal. On two occasions, Sweeney believed PSTA found a match. Then, at the last minute, the city rejected the plans.

Now developer Ben Kugler has offered a fix. He will sell PSTA about 3 acres just south of the city off Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in exchange for the current PSTA property in downtown.

The land would need to be rezoned and a new station built, but Sweeney says the location at the intersection of King Avenue and Wyatt Street would work. The buses would still run through Clearwater; the hub would just be moved somewhere else.

The deal "is good for the taxpayers," said Sweeney. The new facility should cost less than $3-million to build - $2-million from a grant the agency has received and about $1-million from Kugler. Construction would start right away.

"This is as good of a place as any," Sweeney said.

* * *

The northeastern corner of Wyatt and King is in unincorporated Pinellas County, and for now, covered with deteriorating tennis courts. A church is to the south; a retention pond and forest are to the north and east, and homes are to the west.

Both roads around the property have two lanes.

City officials drove to the site. They looked around. They couldn't believe Sweeney was right.

And they weren't bashful about saying as much.

"First, I thought, you got to be kidding me," said City Council member Hoyt Hamilton. "Then I thought, you got to be out of your mind. You're looking at a local neighborhood, that is primarily residential, and you're going to stick a bus transfer station in the middle of residences."

Mayor Frank Hibbard called PSTA's plan "unrealistic."

Hamilton continued.

"I'm not a transportation expert," he said, "but that makes no sense. It is beyond my comprehension how PSTA can see that as a viable location."

Council members went as far as to pass a resolution last week opposing the rezoning of the land to permit the bus facility, even though the facility isn't even in Clearwater.

City officials will fight the rezoning, which will be decided by the county. They want to keep the bus terminal downtown.

* * *

Emanuel Richardson built his home on Hawkins Street in 2001 to get away from the traffic. Now he worries it's coming to his back yard.

Richardson would see the bus terminal from his driveway; he lives in one of about 50 homes across the street from the proposed location.

He's against the idea, as is every neighbor he knows, Emanuel said.

"It's going to be bad if they put a bus terminal in here," said Emanuel, 65 and, of all things, a retired bus driver. "We won't be able to get in and out of here."

PSTA officials said the new facility would be designed to minimize noise and the roads would be able to handle the additional bus traffic.

The city, meanwhile, argues 200 bus trips every day is too many for two-lane roads.

Richardson sides with the city.

"I wish they would put it some place else," he said.

But where?

City officials say they are committed to finding a downtown location that could meet both PSTA's and the city's needs.

Sweeney, the transit authority executive director, has heard that before.

"Yeah, they want it to be downtown, but only where they want it to be, and they haven't told us where that is yet."

[Last modified April 9, 2006, 00:20:18]