News

Southern bypass tabled for now

Lithia residents maintain they were misled; a county commissioner calls for an investigation.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
Published October 20, 2007

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TAMPA - Faced with an onslaught of criticism, officials on Friday put the brakes on a controversial bypass road that could someday run through south and east Hillsborough County.

At the same time, a county commissioner called for an investigation into the actions of county employees who helped put together a new south Hillsborough transportation plan that includes the bypass.

Commissioner Al Higginbotham, who represents that area of the county, is responding to complaints from Lithia residents who say the plan was hatched in an atmosphere of secrecy and misinformation. They say a county transportation manager misled them by telling them this bypass - which would theoretically run through Lithia - wasn't part of any plan.

"I have enough folks saying they don't feel like they got a fair shake in the bargain," said Higginbotham, a Plant City Republican. "I want to know what happened, and whether they were really excluded. At first blush it appears they were."

At issue is the bypass or "beltway," a new six-lane highway that would divert traffic off Interstate 75. There is currently no money budgeted to build this road, but it's a subject of much debate.

Its proponents say another highway will be badly needed someday to prevent gridlock because of future growth in population and traffic. The road's critics say it would open the floodgates for more suburban sprawl along its route.

Later this year or early next year, the Planning Commission and county commissioners were scheduled to consider adding the bypass to Hillsborough's comprehensive plan, a blueprint for how the county will grow. That would have allowed the county to start setting aside land for it.

Instead, it's off the table. On Friday, county officials notified east Hillsborough activists that they're pulling it from a list of possible amendments to the comprehensive plan, at least for the time being.

"It's not looking like there's going to be support for that anytime soon," said Peter Aluotto, the county's director of planning and growth management. "We are going to go out into the neighborhoods, and we are going to revisit this issue."

A series of public meetings on the subject will be held in Ruskin, Riverview and Lithia, starting next week.

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The bypass recently appeared on a map of the new South County Transportation Plan, which recommends road improvements through 2050. On the map, the new highway is a wide swath, with its exact location still undetermined.

Two committees drafted the plan. One was mostly government officials. On a second committee of "stakeholders," 12 members represented developers while six represented south Hillsborough neighborhoods.

Now Lithia residents are complaining that they were never consulted.

"The outreach to citizens was almost nonexistent," said Pam Prysner, president of a 100-member group called RLAND, Rural Lithia Area Neighborhood Defense. Home owners associations "and civic organizations weren't notified. Known community advocates, many of whom had expressed an interest in transportation issues, weren't invited."

She was one of six people who complained Wednesday to the County Commission about this.

They also asked for an investigation of Ned Baier, the county's transportation planning manager. They said he misled them at public meetings by saying the bypass wasn't in the county's transportation plans.

They provided e-mails and DVDs of Baier's comments. That prompted commissioner Higginbotham to review their evidence and then ask County Administrator Pat Bean to investigate.

Baier said he couldn't comment on the allegations. He has previously noted that the county would not build the bypass, and that it was included in the south Hillsborough plan to recognize that the state or a toll-road agency might build it someday.

Baier's boss, Aluotto, defended him.

"Knowing Ned as I do, I don't think he was being purposefully deceitful. Nothing he did was to his benefit," Aluotto said. "They felt that some people weren't included in the process. They feel like they've been shut out. We're going to go back and remedy that."

Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or 813 226-3435.

 

FAST FACTS

If you go

Public meetings on proposed South County Transportation Plan

Ruskin: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday , South Shore Regional Service Center, 410 30th St. SE

Riverview: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Riverview High School cafeteria, 1311 Boyette Road

Lithia: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5, Pinecrest Elementary School, 7950 Lithia-Pinecrest Road

 

[Last modified October 20, 2007, 01:25:06]