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Project Not Take It Or Leave It

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - Department of Transportation officials said they won't try to ram through an unpopular road project against the city's wishes.

"We are not threatening to pull this project," DOT director Scott Collister told the city council on Monday. "It has never been our attempt to present it as a take-it-or-leave-it decision."

City leaders have been fighting the plan to widen U.S. 301, known as Gall Boulevard in Zephyrhills.

The $70 million project, scheduled to start in 2015, would convert Gall into a one-way street for northbound traffic. All southbound traffic would be diverted to Sixth Street, which already is one-way. Both streets eventually would be widened to three lanes.

Mayor Cliff McDuffie said that having six lanes of one-way traffic "would tear this town apart" and destroy the city's business corridor.

City leaders prefer a plan that would extend Seventh Street, which is already a one-way street, to carry the bulk of the northbound traffic. The city's plan would keep two-way traffic on Gall and give it more of a small-town, main street feel.

"Our goals as organizations are completely diverse," Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson said. "Their goal is to move people through town as quickly as possible. Our goal is to enhance the quality of life for our residents."

Collister said DOT would be willing to consider redoing the preliminary design and environmental study even though it could cost an additional $1 million and delay the project a year. But he warned council members that starting over from scratch puts them at risk of losing $31 million already budgeted to buy right of way.

The funding was authorized for the DOT plan, which was approved by the Federal Highway Administration. The proposed right of way acquisition, initially scheduled for 2013, has been pushed back a year.

Council President Luis Lopez criticized the DOT for continuing to push a plan that was unpopular when it was designed in 2001.

"If you ask me, the DOT is being quite obtuse in thinking that plans from seven years ago will work today," Lopez said. "It feels like we're being bullied."

Collister said all of DOT's traffic studies have been updated. He agreed to share the department's data with the city's transportation consultant so he could run his own analysis.

DOT engineers say the city's plan would be more expensive and difficult to get approved by the FHA because it affects the city's historic district. It also would create a traffic flow problem around the post office.

But a handful of residents asked the council to keep up the fight. Bill Spurrell said the cost of redoing the engineering study would be minimal compared with the cost of lost business in Zephyrhills if the one-way plan is allowed to proceed.

"For the state to say take it or else is blackmail," Spurrell said. "It's our money. We gave it to them to hold for us. Let us decide how to spend it."

The project is aimed at alleviating congestion on the 1.8-mile segment between State Road 39 and North Avenue. Construction would cost an estimated $40 million.

The City Council will wait to hear the report from its own transportation consultant before deciding how to proceed.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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