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South County Road Plan Stalls For Public Input

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2007

RUSKIN - A long-range plan that projected a slew of new rural roads and two new Alafia River bridges for south Hillsborough County won't go before county commissioners early next year as announced after residents said they were shut out of the planning process.

Dubbed the South County Transportation Plan, the proposal was touted as a way to preserve road corridors needed to address population growth into the year 2050.

It won't formally be considered by planning commissioners or elected officials until at least mid-2008, said Peter Aluotto, Hillsborough's director of Planning and Growth Management.

'I think there's been sufficient unhappiness and commotion over it that we'll have to re-examine and rejustify the whole thing,' Aluotto said Monday.

Public meetings on the plan will go on today in Ruskin and Wednesday in Riverview as scheduled, Aluotto said, as will a Nov. 5 meeting in Lithia.

'We're glad that it's not too late' for public input, said Kelly Cornelius, vice president of a 100-member watchdog organization called Rural Lithia Area Neighborhood Defense, or R-LAND.

She said she remains disturbed that projects such as the long controversial Brandon Bypass or Beltway could be proposed for inclusion in Hillsborough's Comprehensive Growth Management Plan without R-LAND knowing about it. She and others said county officials repeatedly said the bypass was not part of the plan, but it showed up in final recommendations for a plan amendment.

'We want a transparent process, so this doesn't come as a surprise to us,' Cornelius said.

Described as a multilane highway sweeping from the Port Manatee area northeast through rural Wimauma, Balm and Lithia, the bypass was identified as needed by the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization in 2004 but remains unfunded. If the road ever is built, financing would come from state or regional agencies, not the county, officials have said. Computer modeling showed the road would be needed to divert traffic from Interstate 75, officials said.

Other projects drew the ire of community leaders in Riverview, Gibsonton, Wimauma and Lithia, who said the plan was hatched by the development industry and would promote urban sprawl.

Aluotto said his staff made a mistake in proceeding with the $100,000 South County study without including more residents. The survey started about six months ago and yielded a plan drafted mostly by county staff and developers. However, he said he stands by growth projections that show up to 500,000 people in the county south of Bloomingdale Avenue by 2050.

If Hillsborough adopted policies that steered growth toward neighboring counties, Aluotto said, major improvements still would be needed because traffic would stream through Hillsborough. He said critics of the plan will have to come up with proposals to address the congestion.

'It's unfortunate in this county that we ... demonize builders and developers and polarize the community,' Aluotto said. 'Almost everybody who lives in a house has a developer to thank for it.'

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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