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Bridge Plan Controversial

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By KENNETH KNIGHT

kknight@tampatrib.com

Published: February 25, 2009

NEW TAMPA - Tampa's public works administrator Steve Daignault and two other city officials sat down last week with West Meadows and Tampa Palms residents and got an earful about a proposed bridge linking New Tampa Boulevard to Commerce Park Boulevard.

For nearly two hours, the 28 residents who attended the meeting peppered Daignault, transportation director Jean Dorzback, and neighborhood and community relations director Shannon Edge with questions about traffic counts, traffic-calming devices, landscaping improvements, access to the project consultant and the Bruce B. Downs Boulevard widening.

But the question on all their minds was, why spend $22 million to build a bridge over Interstate 75 connecting West Meadows, a relatively small community, to its much larger neighbor to the south, Tampa Palms.

The residents aired various theories.

Larry Danger, president of Audubon Landings in West Meadows, wanted to know: "Is there much of a need to get down through New Tampa through the back door?"

Suzanne Fister Levine, president of the West Meadows Property Owners Association, said she was aware Lennar Homes owns property in the area. She inquired whether the bridge was an attempt to accommodate building new houses.
Tampa Palms resident Warren Dixon III asked if the bridge was the city's attempt to sneak in the ill-fated east-west connector road using Commerce Park and Tampa Palms boulevards.

Daignault assured the residents the city has no sinister motive to build the bridge.

"I don't think the city has time to sneak a project in. I certainly don't," Daignault said in response to pointed questions aimed at him. "This is not my personal vendetta."

He said the decision was based on New Tampa's rapid growth over the past 20 years and contractual agreements to provide adequate roads to support it.

Daignault has said the city's hands are tied, and it must build the bridge.

The project was part of a road network required under state concurrency laws that allowed the city to approve several New Tampa developments, such as West Meadows and Arbor Greene. It also was named in annexation agreements for K-Bar Ranch, north of Cross Creek Boulevard, and Grand Hampton on County Line Road.

Construction is expected to start in October, shortly after Hillsborough County begins the $104 million Bruce B. Downs Boulevard widening. Both projects are scheduled to take about two years.

Daignault said having the bridge project and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard widening under way simultaneously should minimize commuters from using New Tampa Boulevard as a cut-through to avoid the widening construction site.

He said the residents would have a chance to speak to the project consultant to offer input on landscaping and other West Meadows improvements.

But the city's plan offered little comfort to West Meadows residents, who expressed concern about additional traffic on two-lane New Tampa Boulevard when the job is completed.

The residents said they fear increased traffic on New Tampa Boulevard will create unsafe conditions, especially for children who cross the thoroughfare unsupervised to reach the community clubhouse, where they go to swim, play tennis and basketball and run around the playground.

Brad van Rooyen, president of West Meadow's Promenade village, said he could not support the bridge project based on safety concerns.

"This is going to change the whole community dynamic," Rooyen said.

The commercial real estate agent said he is concerned residents who already have to cross New Tampa Boulevard twice to reach the clubhouse might decide to skip it.

Julie Thornhill of Audubon Landing and other residents said they felt the city was ignoring the will of the people who would most be affected by the increased traffic and dangerous conditions.

"Isn't it strange that the two neighborhoods that would be impacted don't want it, but the city seems bound and determined to build it," Warren said.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813)865-4842.

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