Gall Boulevard work iffy

After more than a year of negotiating with the Florida Department of Transportation about the future of Gall Boulevard, city leaders are prepared to reject the $70 million road project.

"We're not making any progress," planning director Todd Vande Berg said. "They're still stuck on the one-way plan."

Vande Berg asked the city council on Monday night for a decision: Either accept the DOT plan to widen U.S. 301, also known as Gall Boulevard, or reject it and risk losing the funding.

There wasn't a formal vote, but Mayor Cliff McDuffie and several council members spoke against the DOT plan.

DOT District 7 Secretary Don Skelton said he thought the two sides were moving closer to an agreement. "This took us a little bit by surprise," he said. "Obviously, we've got more work to do with the city."

The road 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.

"What it really comes down to is staff really feels that it's going to be detrimental to our businesses on U.S. 301," Vande Berg said. "And it will adversely impact our community redevelopment plan."

The project is aimed at alleviating congestion on the 1.8-mile segment between State Road 39 and North Avenue, but 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.

"They don't care what we think or feel about our future," Councilman Luis Lopez said. "They just want to move cars."

DOT already has allocated $31 million to buy right of way for the widening project beginning in 2014. Skelton said the district office plans to spend the money in 2014, if not in Zephyrhills, than for some other project.

City Manager Steve Spina said he will ask state Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, to intercede on the city's behalf so it doesn't lose that funding. He wants Weatherford to arrange a meeting between city officials and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos - away from the District 7 office.

"I think our state representative will want to have a say in whether that amount of money comes out of his district," Spina said.

Weatherford said he supports the city's desire to "maintain its character and charm" and would schedule a meeting in Tallahassee with Kopelousos. "We probably need to engage the secretary to put it on her radar," he said. "As long as I'm in the Legislature, I will make sure we don't lose that money."

Skelton said DOT engineers have studied the city's proposed plan and found that keeping two-way traffic on Gall will only create gridlock.

"We're not trying to move traffic at 50 mph, but we do want to keep it moving," he said.

In other business, council members agreed to move forward with plans to remodel the city's downtown fire station, which has been out of service for nearly two years.

Spina recommended that the city act as general contractor to save time and money, and use city employees for some jobs. The first phase, remodeling the firefighters' living quarters, can be accomplished without hiring an architect or engineer.

The second phase would include work on the building's exterior, a new roof, and converting some of the bays to office space. The city will apply for a federal block grant to help pay for those improvements.