New golf cart crossing helps Sun City residents get to Walmart

Golf carts are the best - and most popular - way of getting around Sun City Center.

Cars often share the road with the electric vehicles in the south Hillsborough County retirement community. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sun City Center covers about 12 square miles, allowing most of its residents to get by without owning an automobile.

"In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was employed by Stafford's Drugs in Sun City Center and there were a lot of golf carts then," said county Commisssioner Rose Ferlita. "Since that time, the population has increased greatly, and so has the number of carts."

Sun City Center now has close to 22,000 residents, according to the local chamber of commerce, and more than 100 of them came out - with their carts, of course - to celebrate the debut of a project nearly three years in the making.

This morning, Ferlita and other state, county and community officials attended the opening of a path that will allow Sun City Center residents to drive their golf carts across U.S. 301 to a Walmart store in nearby Wimauma.

"Not all our votes are unanimous, but we were proud to have a unanimous vote on this particular issue," said Ken Hagan, chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission.

The path - it will connect drivers from East Del Webb Boulevard to the signalized intersection of U.S. 301 and Cape Stone Avenue - also will be open to residents of Kings Point, a gated community within Sun City Center.

Demand for safe golf cart access to the Wimauma Walmart has been an issue in Sun City Center since the store opened in 2007.

The Florida Department of Transportation approved the U.S. 301 crossing at Cape Stone Drive in May 2009. County commissioners in November approved funding to obtain right of way and to build the crossing.

Work on the 800-foot golf cart path began in January and was completed last month. The path is a crushed-asphalt surface and includes several golf cart-only barriers. The intersection at Cape Stone Drive also has been improved to include a new golf cart traffic lane out of the Walmart shopping center, and traffic signal changes to allow easier crossing for golf carts and pedestrians.

The $150,000 project was championed by the Sun City Center Community Association and dedicated residents, including Walt Cawein, chairman of the Sun City Center Golf Cart Path Steering Committee.

"Our mantra throughout the process was, 'Safe and legal,'" Cawein said. "We took care of the legal today; the 'safe' is up to all of us."

Cawein's and the county commissioners' remarks were followed by a golf cart parade in which elected officials and Sun City Center residents rode the new path.

Though the project is a significant victory for people in the area, there still is work to be done.

"The fact that they opened this path is a success, but there are still bugs that need to be ironed out," said Jerry Cooley, a Sun City Center resident and retired construction worker.

The project is a temporary solution and will be removed once the area where the path is located is developed. At that time both pedestrians and golf carts - which only are allowed to be driven during daylight hours - will have access across this area.

Concerns aside, Cooley plans to take advantage of the new path.

"I didn't use to make any trips out to Walmart, but I sure will now," he said.