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Plans for plant vex residents

Honeywell wants tax breaks to decontaminate and redevelop the land. Neighbors are wary.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published July 30, 2006

NORTH TAMPA - Angered and anxious for answers, Egypt Lake residents gathered Thursday to hear a company's plans for a local industrial site it polluted and abandoned decades ago. The former Honeywell plant is in many of their back yards.

Soon, retail and office space could occupy the site near the southwest corner of Waters and Himes avenues, company attorney Laurel Lockett said.

That is, if county commissioners approve the company's request to designate the 21.48 acres as a "brownfield," a government classification that will speed the site's redevelopment.

Honeywell - a maker of defense, transportation and electronics components - polluted the soil, groundwater and a nearby lake from 1965 to 1983.

The brownfield designation would give the corporation a chance to seek state tax breaks on the decontamination and redevelopment of the property, where a 165,000-square-foot plant has sat vacant since 1996.

Honeywell has spent about $15-million cleaning the site, according to spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld. The brownfield designation would help the company finish the job within a year, Lockett said, and get the property back onto tax rolls.

Honeywell hopes to have a developer for the property by early 2007.

Company, county and state representatives composed most of the audience of about 60 at Egypt Lake Elementary School on Thursday. But the handful of residents attending remained doubtful.

"The way they're dragging their feet, I don't trust them," said Desi Romero, who has lived on Edna Court, next to the site, for 16 years.

While Honeywell insists that the site poses no health hazard, Holly Didden said she's still concerned about water quality. "You're afraid to let it get on your car or your dog or your lawn," she said.

How the site should be cleaned has been a point of legal contention for years between Honeywell, residents, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and David Simon of the Simon Family Trust, which owned and leased the land to Honeywell.

Honeywell bought the property from the Simon Trust on June 20.

Last September, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ordered Honeywell to come up with decontamination plans by the end of 2008. Honeywell challenged the order the next month.

It's too little too late, said Angela Romero, wife of Desi Romero. "Why did it take so long?" she asked. "We're frustrated. We're angry."

Stephanie Austin, who lives less than a mile from the site, said the proposal at hand - not the past - should be the community's focus now.

"I see this as a good thing," Austin said. "It's the quickest way to get what we want accomplished."

County commissioners are scheduled to vote on Honeywell's brownfield designation proposal at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, in the commission's boardroom at Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E Kennedy Blvd.

Amber Mobley can be reached at 813 269-5311 or amobley@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 29, 2006, 21:47:40]