HCC-City Land Swap Unlikely

PLANT CITY - A land swap to preserve municipal recreational facilities adjacent to Hillsborough Community College is probably impossible, Plant City commissioners learned at their June 23 meeting.

City Manager David Sollenberger said hopes of saving Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex with an acre-for-acre trade are doused by the lack of land suitable to accommodate eventual expansion of the campus.

Last year, HCC officials announced that within a decade, the 40 acres east of the Plant City campus will be needed for classroom buildings and other new facilities.

In the mid-1970s, to attract the college into establishing a Plant City campus, commissioners agreed to donate 80 acres at Park Road and Cherry Street. HCC is using half of the land, leasing the other 40 acres to the city for recreation facilities.

"The problem the city had was finding suitable land for an exchange," Sollenberger told commissioners. "We're not able to work out something that makes a lot of sense."

After meetings of Sollenberger, other city staff and HCC officials, including Felix Haynes, president of the campus, it was determined the only available city-owned land is 4 acres on Park Road, Sollenberger reported.

That site would impact the tourist information center at the Mike Sansone Community Park entrance, would be difficult to link with the existing campus and is too small, Sollenberger reported.

"I am hopeful we can extend the lives of those facilities," Commissioner Bill Dodson said of the park, adding that retaining it as long as possible allows the city to maximize the benefit of expenditures there.

The local campus south of Interstate 4 has more than 6,000 students, expected to double within a decade, necessitating an additional 370,000 square feet of classrooms and other space by 2017, HCC officials have said.

Dodson suggested the city could allow HCC to construct buildings taller than those permitted elsewhere in the city, enhancing the classroom space per acre.

"I hope those kind of discussions continue," as both the college and city can benefit, he told Sollenberger.

Mayor Rick Lott asked that discussions continue until all possibilities are exhausted.

"I don't think the door is closed," said Sollenberger, adding that he left open the possibility of future talks.