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Public's Input Sought On U.S. 301 Work

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: November 12, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - The city council wants more public input before endorsing a plan to convert Gall Boulevard to a one-way street.

The Florida Department of Transportation wants to widen the road, also know as U.S. 301, by converting it to a pair of parallel one-way streets.

City and DOT officials agreed to schedule an open house in Zephyrhills before the end of the year to address concerns from residents and business owners.

The $70 million project is aimed at alleviating congestion between State Road 39 and North Avenue. The state would limit traffic on Gall Boulevard to northbound vehicles and would raise the speed limit from 35 mph to 45 mph. All southbound traffic on Gall would be diverted to Sixth Street.

City leaders have opposed the idea of one-way traffic, particularly if both streets are widened from two lanes to three lanes.

"It's incompatible with what we're trying to do with our downtown redevelopment and our community redevelopment district," said city planning director Todd Vande Berg.

City Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson said the project was designed for people driving through town, not for people who live in town.

The original plan called for widening both one-way roads to three lanes, but DOT project manager Waddah Farah said the department would compromise by building the project in two phases - waiting until 2025 to widen the roads.

Farah agreed that building three lanes in the first phase "might be too much of a shock for a city the size of Zephyrhills."

The department has $31 million budgeted in 2013 to start buying the right of way to extend Sixth Street and for drainage ponds. Construction would cost an estimated $40 million and would start in 2015.

Project engineer Margaret Smith said that with no improvements, the highway would become so congested over the next 20 years it would take motorists 46 minutes to drive 1.8 miles during rush hour.

With the improvements in place, the same trip through town would be reduced to just over three minutes.

Wilkeson said the proposal would hurt businesses on Gall because they would lose half their exposure to potential customers. But the DOT's Farrah countered that businesses would suffer more if the council rejects the plan and allows the road to gridlock because motorists would avoid the area altogether.

Vande Berg also complained that DOT's public comments are dated.

The DOT held public hearings on the project seven years ago, but hasn't held a hearing since. Smith said it's not unusual for a road project to proceed several years after the public hearings are over. During the last hearing, in April 2001, only 12 people commented on the project and were equally divided.

Councilman Clyde Bracknell, who was on council then, remembers it differently. "Most of the input I heard was that people want to keep two-way traffic on 301," he said. "We live here. We know what the public wants."

Council President Luis Lopez said that if the city accepts the DOT plan, it would have at least seven years to prepare for the one-way conversion.

"With the proper marketing and planning, we can prepare people for this change," he said. "If we educate people, we can resolve a lot of fears from the business community."

That's why the DOT produced a 10-minute video with traffic models to show people in Zephyrhills what traffic would look like in 20 years without the changes.

"The unknown is scary," Smith said.

City Manager Steve Spina said it's difficult to predict what the next generation will want.

"None of us liked the three-lane idea," Spina said. "Maybe by 2030, we'll want three lanes."

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 865-4844.

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