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Judge Sides With Hillsborough Schools On Road Work Tab

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 30, 2008

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County School District does not have to pay for roads or other traffic improvements that do not touch school property, a circuit judge ruled Monday.

Hillsborough County commissioners had argued the school system should help pay for road improvements made necessary by new school openings, even when those improvements were up to a half-mile away. Commissioners had threatened to withhold impact fee money paid by developers, and meant for schools, to finance the road projects.

But Circuit Judge Ralph C. Stoddard sided with the school board, saying the county couldn't withhold the money. Stoddard ruled that when state law says school boards may pay for improvements that are "contiguous" to a school campus, that means the roads must be "touching at a point or along a boundary."

The school board asked for the ruling after county officials threatened to deny approval for three new schools near Plant City unless the school system paid for new turn lanes and traffic signals at two nearby intersections. One of the intersections is a half-mile from the school site. The offsite work would have cost the school board $2.8 million, according to Cathy Valdes, the school system's chief facilities officer.

It was not clear Monday afternoon whether the county would appeal the ruling. County Administrator Pat Bean and County Attorney Renee Lee could not be reached for comment.

School board attorney Tom Gonzalez said he and school officials are hopeful the judge's ruling will settle the matter.

"I think what it does hopefully is gets us back to where the county and the school board were some time ago before the county changed their position, which was building schools together," Gonzalez said.

At issue was a state statute that lists conditions under which a school board may pay its share for roads or other utilities. One section of the statute says the board may pay if the work is "contiguous to or runs through" school property.

A following section, however, says a board may pay its share of "onsite and offsite system improvements."

Stoddard said in his ruling that all improvements that are contiguous are necessarily offsite. But all offsite improvements are not necessarily contiguous.

The county had argued that if the school board didn't pay its share of offsite road improvements, the county would be stuck with the bill for road work required because of new schools. The county had to slash more than $80 million in spending in the fiscal 2009 budget because of property tax reductions and a slowing economy.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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