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Plan May Remove S.R. 56 Roadblocks

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Developers extending State Road 56 across Wiregrass Ranch met face to face for about an hour Thursday with officials from Publix in an effort to resolve a 2-year-old dispute.

The informal, closed-door meeting at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey brought together the six parties involved in the widening of S.R. 56 to six lanes east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

The 25 people attending the meeting represented Publix, Pasco County, the Department of Transportation, the Shops at Wiregrass mall, Locust Branch LLC and the Meadow Pointe IV Community Development District.

The road builders have been stymied in their plans for building S.R. 56 to its full width because they've been unable to get permission from Publix to enter the Shoppes at New Tampa - permission they need to finish building the road to six lanes.

Without that permission, the Department of Transportation has said S.R. 56 can open in October with five lanes, which will let the Shops at Wiregrass open for business.

Without the sixth lane, however, the highway won't be allowed to open to Mansfield or Meadow Pointe boulevards, the DOT has said.
County officials convened the gathering after Publix became the spoiler in the effort to widen the highway to its full width.

The Lakeland-based grocery chain had declined to agree to road plans that eliminated Publix's hopes for a four-way intersection that would let eastbound drivers on S.R. 56 turn left into the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza.

In his talks with the road's builders on Thursday, James Leckey, Publix's director of real estate, suggested turning one of the highway's three left-turn lanes into a lane serving the plaza. A similar design is in place in Polk County and works there, Leckey said.
DOT officials appeared open to the idea, at least on a temporary basis.
Transportation officials will consider that option when they meet Thursday with Developers Diversified Realty, Publix's landlord at the Shoppes at New Tampa. Also on that agenda will be two right-in/right-out access points for the plaza - one in front of the stores for customers, the other at the rear for delivery trucks.

"We sure don't want consumers mixing with the trucks," Leckey said.
Leckey assured the other parties in the room he'll sign off on whatever the DOT decides next week.

"I realize that's my last resort," he said. But, he noted, a single right-in access point along S.R. 56 would likely kill the shopping center.

On Wednesday, the county commission will meet with the builders of S.R. 56 to iron out details of revised construction deal. They will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, New Port Richey.

But even as they resolved one simmering dispute, the developers and grocers might have created another by suggesting Publix trucks could exit the plaza on Williamsburg Drive along its southern border.

Williamsburg Drive is a county road and the lone access point for the subdivision of the same name, which sits behind the Shoppes at New Tampa. The county has banned trucks from the road, but could change that after a traffic signal goes up there early next year.

That signal would give delivery trucks a simpler path out of the plaza than one now envisioned, which requires them to do a U-turn on S.R. 56 at the eastern end of the Shops at Wiregrass - a maneuver that will become risky once the highway opens beyond the mall.

"We're going to examine it," Pasco County Commissioner Pat Mulieri said of the potential Williamsburg truck exit.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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