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Opponents of major new mall relent

By TIMES WIRES
Published January 23, 2007

Opponents of one of the biggest mall projects in the Tampa Bay area abandoned their legal challenge Monday.

The move came four months after attorney Ralf Brookes, supported by the Sierra Club, sued to stop the Southwest Florida Water Management District from awarding a long-sought permit to the Richard E. Jacobs Group, developer of the Cypress Creek Town Center.

The reversal clears a major hurdle for the 1.3-million-square-foot mall.

Brookes' lawsuit was scheduled to be judged at the state Division of Administrative Hearings in March. That, and any subsequent appeals, would have set the project back for months, at a time when it is racing with rival mall projects in central Pasco to be the first to get off the ground.

Wednesday, representatives from the Jacobs Group and their engineers WilsonMiller met with Brookes and his clients, Robert and Shirley Jones, who live beside the proposed mall.

By Friday, they had reached a compromise.

Cypress Creek Town Center is back on the agenda for Swiftmud's governing board meeting Jan. 30. The agency's staff has already recommended approval of the project.

BROOKSVILLE

Police chief, others allowed back to work

It's back to work for the three Brooksville employees recently put on administrative leave.

On Monday, City Manager Richard Anderson reinstated police Chief Ed Tincher, police Lt. Rick Hankins and human resources director Ron Baker.

The City Council had put them on paid leave as a feud between Tincher and Baker consumed City Hall.

Treasure Island bridge to close on Thursday

The Treasure Island Causeway Bridge will be closed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday while crews pour concrete for the new structure.

Westbound traffic will be detoured at 79th Street on Causeway Isles to Causeway Boulevard North or South. Eastbound causeway traffic will be detoured at 104th Avenue, except for local traffic to the Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club and Paradise Boulevard.

Traffic to and from Treasure Island is being directed through Madeira Beach to the north and the Corey Causeway in St. Pete Beach to the south. Boat traffic will not be affected.

Pasco man dies in wreck of race car

A 65-year-old New Port Richey race car driver died Sunday after hitting a wall at the Charlotte County Motorsports Park.

Hugh Murphy of 7239 Arboretum Way was in the 40th lap of the V-8 Enduro feature event when the crash occurred about 2:45 p.m., the Punta Gorda racetrack reported on its Web site.

Emergency workers took Murphy to the Charlotte Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Elsewhere

CHEERLEADING LAWSUIT: The parents of a girl injured during cheerleading tryouts at Land O'Lakes High School in 2003 are suing the Pasco County School District. David and Harriet Boyd say their daughter, Haryjoivid, was unsupervised while performing vaults and flips on a hardwood floor. As a result, the lawsuit says, no one was there to break their daughter's fall, and she has suffered permanent physical injury.

CAVE TO BE SEALED: An Illinois investment group planning to develop World Woods Corp. property in northern Hernando County has submitted a report that calls for sealing the entrance to an environmentally significant cave on the property. Sealing the cave "probably is not going to do anything good or bad for the cave," said Lee Florea of Tampa, who has a doctoral degree in geology and previously mapped the underground corridor.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 01:49:02]