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Nearly 200 people attend a meeting about the Park Street/Starkey Road project, and the majority don't like what they see.
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2001
SEMINOLE -- Anna Muir has lived in her neighborhood off Starkey Road since 1969.
"I've lived there for so long, and I like my little street," Muir said.
But Tuesday, when the county unveiled its proposed plan for the widening of Starkey Road, Muir didn't like what she saw.
Part of the $18-million project includes closing median openings on Starkey at 78th Place N and 79th Place N. That leaves 78th Avenue -- the street she lives on -- as the only road in her neighborhood where residents will be able to turn left onto Starkey Road.
Muir and other residents who live in the 99 homes in Lakeside Garden Estates fear the closures will funnel too much traffic onto 78th Avenue.
"My street is going to be a throughfare now," Muir, 57, said. "It's not going to be a residential street anymore."
Muir isn't the only one complaining about the widening of Park Street and Starkey Road.
Nearly 200 people who live along the 5-mile stretch of road to be widened between Tyrone Boulevard and Bryan Dairy Road attended a public meeting Tuesday at Osceola High School. And the majority of them didn't like what they saw.
Some thought widening the road was a waste of money. Others had hoped to see signal lights on Starkey where they enter and exit their neighborhoods. Some fear adding two more lanes of traffic to the four-lane roadway will bring too much traffic, making it harder to access their subdivisions.
The project is part of Pinellas County's Metropolitan Planning Organization's 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan. Construction will begin on Park Street/Starkey Road in 2005 and last until 2007.
When that job is done, the county will spend $17.5-million to widen Starkey Road from Bryan Dairy Road to East Bay Drive. The two-year project will start in 2007.
The MPO's plans also call for a $10-million, six-lane extension of Keene Road, from Gulf-to-Bay north to Sunset Point. That project is scheduled to begin in the fall.
Eventually, motorists will be able to drive on the same route from Alderman Road in Palm Harbor south to Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena. It's part of the county's goal to create another major north-south route.
"If you look at the big picture of the whole county, this is a major corridor from the north to the south," said Jim Pleso, manager for the Park Street/Starkey Road project. "We're not just looking at this piece. This is just one piece to the puzzle."
Jim Collins, a senior engineer with the county's Transportation Engineering Division, says about 30,000 cars travel daily on the 5-mile section of Park Street and Starkey Road. And by 2020, another 8,000 motorists are expected to use that stretch of the corridor.
Collins says the new roadway will be safer, provide better traffic flow and offer the latest road design standards. When the project is done, the six-lane road will have larger median openings, a 4-foot bike lane and a 5-foot sidewalk.
Richard and Brenda Keating, residents of Lakeside Garden Estates, say they support widening Starkey Road. But like Muir, they don't agree with the county's decision to fill in the median openings at 78th Place N and 79th Place N.
Brenda Keating, 50, was so upset when she heard of the plan she handed out fliers in her subdivision urging neighbors to attend Tuesday's meeting.
The project's preliminary plan calls for extending a left-turn lane that takes motorists to the Wellington School at 8000 Starkey Road. To do this, the openings at 78th Place N and 79th Place N must be filled.
"They're going to inconvenience me and use my tax dollars to accommodate a private school," Richard Keating, 40, said.
Traffic counts show the need for the longer turn lane, Collins said.
"The cars back up in that left-turn lane into the through lane," he said. "(The extension) should take care of that."
Paul Costanzo said widening Park Street will make it a "super highway," where cars will zoom along in excess of 60 mph. Many motorists already ignore the 45 mph speed limit, he said.
"Now they want us to cross a wider road," said Costanzo, 64, board president of 6000 Park Place, a 300-resident condominium complex.
Collins said the condominium residents will have to cross only one more lane. And those who don't feel comfortable doing that can cut through a nearby shopping center to get to 54th Avenue, where there is a light, he said.
Ray Ott, who lives on Park Street, is glad the road's new design includes a sidewalk. He just wishes he didn't have to wait four years. Without a sidewalk, he said, pedestrians are in danger.
"I love the (Pinellas) Trail," said Ott, 66, a former Kenneth City council member. "I just wish it was easier to get to."
Collins said the county has delayed putting a sidewalk on Park Street because it would have to be torn up when the road project started.
Dorothy Lurati, 75, and Mary McGirr, 69, attended the meeting to see whether the redesign of the road included a signal at Starkey Road and Bardmoor Boulevard. Both women said getting to the median opening is difficult at times.
Others had requested lights at 46th and 62nd avenues. But studies show that none of the spots meet the criteria to have a signal put in, said project manager Pleso.
"We were told they weren't hazardous enough," McGirr said. "I guess someone has to get killed first."
Not everyone who attended Tuesday's meeting had a complaint. Jim Lavalley, a resident of Seminole Lake Country Club Estates, was thrilled that a signal will be installed at Burning Tree Drive.
"I'm not happy it's going to be four or five years away, but it is a great plus," said Lavalley, 67.
The county plans to shift the signal light at 84th Avenue on Park Street to Burning Tree Drive. Workers would realign 84th Avenue so both roads could share the light.
A consultant hired for the widening job will register all opinions of the project. About 1,800 invitations to the public meeting and a sheet for comments were sent to residents who live along the corridor. A summary should be ready in about a month.
"It's a draft right now," Pleso said. "We haven't finalized it."
-- Staff writer Maureen Byrne can be reached at 445-4163.
Here are some of the changes motorists can expect from the Park Street/Starkey Road widening project:
Six lanes instead of four
Wider median openings
Landscaped medians
4-foot bike lane
5-foot sidewalk
Two left-turn lanes on Park Street onto 54th Avenue
Two left-turn lanes on Starkey Road onto Bryan Dairy Road
Realignment of 84th Avenue N so 84th and Burning Tree Drive can share signal light