Neighbors show up to quash East Tampa motel

By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Published February 16, 2008

TAMPA - After granting a first approval last year, City Council members unanimously reversed their decision Thursday and squashed a developer's plan to build a four-story, 121-room motel in an East Tampa neighborhood.

What happened between the first and final votes? Neighbors came together to protest.

Many residents of the working class neighborhood learned after the first hearing in November that Liberty Investment Properties planned to build a Value Place off 50th Street and E Columbus Drive.

At least four other motels already exist within 10 blocks and have comparable rates to Value Place's proposed $249 per week, or $35.57 per night.

Residents blame existing motels for crime in the area. Ernest William Preston Jr. told the council he was too scared to go jogging because of the drug deals he has seen at his street corner. Tom Kirkland presented council with a list of police calls to the area's surrounding the motels - about 11,000 in less than a year, including prostitution, drugs and assault.

A couple of dozen neighbors addressed the council, and 433 signed a petition to stop the motel. No one spoke in favor of the project, except for Bob Smith, the developer's representative.

Smith was caught off guard by neighbors who showed up at the second hearing Dec. 20, so council members continued the meeting to Thursday, giving him time to meet with neighbors in the interim.

They met last month, and he told them developers planned to invest $8-million in the project. Smith said staff would be trained to turn away troublemakers and that the weekly rate would attract traveling workers, not prostitutes.

In the end, council member John Dingfelder said the project was too big and intrusive on the neighborhood. The others voted with him.

Before this motel project, many of the residents had never spoken at a City Council hearing. Among them was Daniel Dorosh, who said the hearing was just a beginning in unifying the area.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or 813 226-3354.

[Last modified February 16, 2008, 00:35:39]