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Neighborhood Report

Chemicals, concrete could give way to homes

Four property owners want to turn industrial Rattlesnake Point into a residential and commercial waterfront community. Some worry about traffic.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published September 15, 2006

Jutting into Tampa Bay, on the western end of Tyson Avenue and the southern tip of the Interbay peninsula, the gritty gears of industry turn. Concrete is mixed. Chlorine is produced. Propane is farmed.

But four developers want to change that. They want to transform 57 percent of the aging industrial Rattlesnake Point into a 61.4-acre residential community, with a waterfront vista to flirt with St. Petersburg's skyline across the bay.

To do that, the four property owners - Viper Ventures, Old Dutch Foods, MOBRO Marine and Lazzara Leasing - requested an amendment to the area's land use plan from heavy and light industrial use to a residential/commercial mixed-use waterfront community.

The City Council voted last week to send the proposed amendment for review by the state Department of Community Affairs, which will return it to the council in several months with comments and questions. The council will then vote on whether to adopt the amendment.

After that, the individual properties will seek rezonings.

"I'm willing to let them get past this stage, get past this hurdle," said council member John Dingfelder. But several issues linger.

If the amendment is adopted, property owners will need to relocate a chlorine plant, which will cost upward of $15-million. To help pay for the move, they will begin construction and sell residential units while industrial operations continue at the site. But they won't be able to get a certificate of occupancy until toxic and hazardous industry is gone.

The risk is that if something goes wrong during the transition, residents could be ready to move in and have nowhere to go.

Another big issue is transportation. A study presented to the City Council last week projected that future development in South Tampa could put as many as 80,000 cars a day at Gandy and West Shore boulevards, which can handle only 34,000.

To fix the traffic crunches, at least $120-million in improvements are needed in the surrounding area, the study said. The city doesn't have the money to make those improvements yet.

The Gandy Civic Association supports the idea of phasing out industrial uses on Rattlesnake Point. It gave its preliminary support of the land use change but submitted stipulations about traffic in a letter. If the city doesn't come up with transportation plans to accommodate the residents of 2,100 homes the developers want to build, neighbors will withdraw their support, neighborhood leaders said.

Still, neighbor Al Steenson believes that, in principle, residential is better than industrial - especially in his back yard.

"This is the only way we're going to get rid of that chlorine plant and that propane plant," Steenson said. "If you don't start thinking outside the box and looking for possible alternatives, you won't be able to come up with solutions."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 14, 2006, 10:14:39]