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Parking lot or passageway?

Part of the lot could be used as access between a shopping center and an apartment complex.

By JACKIE RIPLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published December 21, 2007

CITRUS PARK - Navigating a parking lot can be risky business even in the best of circumstances. But when a portion of that parking lot is used as a way to get in and out of an apartment complex, the odds for mishap can only go up.

"There are going to be accidents up the ying yang," said Citrus Park homeowner Linda Gadbaw of a plan to connect the Post apartment parking lot to the adjacent Publix parking lot. "People are going to go straight down that lane of parking as if it's a drive-through street."

Post wants to put 300 apartments on 20 acres on Gunn Highway next to the Publix and across from Sickles High School. But dumping that much traffic onto the already congested north end of Gunn has raised some eyebrows with transportation officials.

An agreement, entered into by Post Properties and the owner of the Publix shopping center, allows motorists to go directly from the apartments to the shopping center parking lot without driving on Gunn. To do so, they'd use a new road on the east end of Publix, west of a TECO easement.

"I think it's a good thing," said Anthony Everett of Post. "It will put less traffic on Gunn and people can go right to the shopping center next door."

Jeffrey Jenkins, who oversees the so-called Citrus Park Village plan, says the agreement provides an important piece to the puzzle and creates connectivity between the properties.

"The county's concern was with the number of motorists going out of the apartments onto Gunn just to go into Publix," he said.

Yet Jenkins does not have the final say. The county transportation must still sign off on the plan.

And a spokesman for Publix said the supermarket chain is unaware of any such agreement.

Gadbaw predicts motorists will use the proposed new roadway as a cut-through to avoid the intersection, "especially people needing to get to the Veterans" Expressway.

She and other Citrus Park residents question putting 300 apartments on a road already overburdened.

"Publix access is part of the equation," Jenkins said. "And if for some reason that equation falls apart, something else will have to be done to mitigate that transportation impact."

Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or at 813269-5308.

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 21:59:12]