SR 52 bypass options draw criticism

Two proposals would re-route traffic around Saint Leo, which doesn't allow four-lane roads. To widen the existing road through town could require an election.

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 21, 2000

SAINT LEO -- City and county residents jammed Town Hall Monday night in the biggest public meeting in years, unanimously opposing a proposed State Road 52 bypass that would loop a four-lane road south of the town across groves and fields.

More than 35 people packed the small board room, filling the seats and standing along the walls.

Eyeing proposed routes drawn by engineers for the nearby 1,965-acre, 6,700-unit house and condominium golf development, residents living in the rural countryside south of town were outraged.

"You're passing your problems on to someone else," Beth Reynolds-Tillack told the board.

"Our house sits right here," resident Linda Babb said, pointing to a line on a map where the road could go. "I've lived there my entire life. I am shocked and very emotional when I see this. . . . The first time I saw this I was knocked off my feet."

The house, she said, has been standing since before an 1887 Pasco County survey.

The idea for a bypass began as a passing thought and gained steam since Mayor Janis Klingle brought up the idea at a March commission meeting.

Her first idea, to improve the loop south of town using Curley and Prospect roads, caught the imagination of county planners, and she later brought it to mayors of neighboring San Antonio and Dade City, and the leaders at Saint Leo University.

Since then, engineers for the Cannon Ranch project pitched in by drawing a couple of proposals loosely based on Klingle's idea and the geometric road-building principles employed by the Department of Transportation.

Town commissioners called Monday's public hearing to gauge reaction to the proposal before agreeing to any suggestions.

In each of the proposals, SR 52 connects with Clinton Avenue, south of Dade City, linking Saint Leo with a four-lane route to U.S. 98.

The routes offered by Cannon Ranch engineer Art Woodworth both cut south of Saint Leo, which bans four-lane roads in its comprehensive growth management plan. Both would come off SR 52 in San Antonio, with one cutting just north of Wichers Road, on the southern edge of the Saint Leo University golf course, and the other dipping below Wichers Road, across orange groves.

As they viewed the routes on a large easel, spectators could be heard talking among themselves, with the mayor banging the gavel for quiet throughout the meeting.

"My house is right here," Gabriele Hull said.

"That goes right through Mother's house," someone else remarked.

The crowd agreed both were bad suggestions, but many in the path of the proposed southern routes said they liked an alternate suggestion of straightening and widening the existing road.

Adding to existing SR 52 would require the town of Saint Leo to change its comprehensive plan, which could require a town election, Commissioner Richard Christmas said.

Straightening the road would cut across the sharp turn between Saint Leo and San Antonio, running the road up a hill, across orange groves and the Saint Leo Abbey garden grotto before reconnecting with the existing road in front of the university.

"I didn't realize until you people showed up tonight what an impact this was going to have," Commissioner Donna DeWitt said. "I sympathize with you. I wouldn't want it going through my home either."

San Antonio Mayor Roy Pierce said he and Klingle met with county officials Tuesday and said planners appear to be still gathering information.

Klingle urged county residents to contact their commissioners with their feelings and encouraged everyone to attend county Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings.

The next MPO meeting is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 10 at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey.

The county's Engineering Services Department is scheduled to hear public input on a proposal to widen Clinton Avenue -- possibly connecting to a SR 52 bypass -- at the historic old courthouse in Dade City from 4 to 6 p.m. on July 10.

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