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Generator site inconsistent with comprehensive plan

Generator site inconsistent with comprehensive plan

The emergency generator should be moved to an appropriate commercial or industrial locale, but this emergency generator should not remain on Bayshore Boulevard and it should not be relocated to the back yard of the residents of the Monte Carlo Towers or Grovewood.

The Bayshore generator is not in the front yard of the Monte Carlo Towers, as some claim. Rather, it is in the front yard of the city of Tampa, on Bayshore Boulevard, the city's signature and historic roadway.

Its current location is inconsistent with Bayshore being designated as a linear park, is incompatible with the character of Bayshore, is inconsistent with the city's comprehensive plan for Bayshore and does not meet the definition of public art. The city has spent millions on refurbishing this roadway, and the generator detracts from the purpose and function. Moreover, it would be an unfortunate effort to shift the city's mistake to one group of residents - those of Monte Carlo and those living on Grovewood.

The generator is a community matter and should be located in an area that serves the community but does not inordinately burden a few residents. It should be sited in a commercial-industrial area.

If a private developer or even TECO attempted to site an 8-foot-tall generator in a similar location, development review and the City Council would most surely deny the request as inconsistent and incompatible with the neighborhood.

Moreover, it belongs in a higher flood zone so that it functions as it was designed to.

Lastly, the city's easement behind the Monte Carlo is for drainage purposes only. It has two drainage structures on it. To locate an impervious structure on a pervious area may cause flooding problems for those on Grovewood or the Monte Carlo garage, which is below grade.

Let's not compound one problem with another. We ask that the city of Tampa do the right thing.

Joyce Nader and Adrian Cuarta

Residents of Monte Carlo Towers

Get pollution-fighting boat out of dry dock, on water

According to a recent Times article, the city of Tampa plans to divert $300,000 to $500,000 to move an emergency stormwater generator because some nearby residents believe it does not belong in the middle of Bayshore Boulevard, complaining it would be ugly.

Meanwhile, the idea of operating a depollution boat that would greatly improve the Bayshore area and all of Tampa along the Hillsborough River by removing floating trash, debris and otherwise improving the environment and aesthetics, sits in dry dock with no funding. Talk about ugly and smelly!

At least the generator won't produce a stench derived from bad water quality and rotting debris as you often find on Tampa's waterways. As council member Dingfelder said in the paper, "If you have company coming to town and you live up in Seminole Heights, you probably bring them down and show them the Bayshore, because it's our jewel. And we have now trashed our jewel with a bunker."

Dingfelder knows area waterways remain "trashed" by floating debris and other pollutants, both visual and chemical. He has been working diligently with the Tampa City Council and the administration to get this boat on the water for more than four years.

Somewhere, this idea, which would reap tremendous benefits to the Hillsborough River, the bay and the port, has hit a snag and can't break free of a bureaucratic whirlpool. The next time I have visitors come to Tampa and want to show them the beauty of the Riverwalk or the Bayshore, we'll do so from the car, with the window rolled up.

And to Dingfelder, keep up the good work! Your efforts are appreciated in keeping Tampa a nice place to live, work and play.

Alan Wright

Old Seminole Heights

[Last modified October 5, 2006, 07:13:34]