Pavement Opposed In Preserve Land

By SUSAN M. GREEN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 27, 2007

RUSKIN - Planners who drew a conceptual route for a bypass highway through rural Hillsborough County probably didn't mean to connect the dots that mark preservation lands on the map.

But with 30,000 acres being safeguarded through Hillsborough's Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program in south county, those dots might be hard to miss.

Officials with Hillsborough's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department have logged opposition to the conceptual route for a bypass, as shown in the proposed long-range South County Transportation Plan that until last week was headed for county commission consideration early next year.

"This South County Transportation Plan completely ignores the existence of ELAPP sites and, instead, is focused on using existing rights of way to accomplish its goals," Peter Fowler, a division manager with the parks department, wrote to the planning commission on Sept. 27.

County planning officials have said the proposed bypass route, shown roughly following an old railroad corridor, is conceptual only, and efforts would be made to avoid protected sites. A look at the county's ELAPP map indicates a road would have to zigzag considerably to dodge preservation tracts in the area.

The transportation proposal had been headed to the planning commission and county commissioners for consideration as an amendment to Hillsborough's Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, considered a blueprint to guide development.

Planning officials pulled it out of a batch of proposed amendments in the face of public protest, largely about the bypass. The earliest it could be considered again would be mid-2008, said Peter Aluotto, director of Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management.

At least 130 people packed a meeting room Tuesday at the SouthShore Regional Service Center, and several told officials they were offended that road corridors, even conceptual ones, would bisect preservation areas.

Fowler's memorandum identifies at least seven sites from the southwest corner of the county to north of Plant City that would be in the path of the proposed bypass, as shown on the county's Planning and Growth Management Web site. At least three others - Cockroach and Piney Point creeks, Cockroach Creek Greenway and the Little Manatee River Corridor sites - stand inside the boundaries of a wide corridor where planners envision the bypass being built.

Four preservation tracts could be affected by other new roads in the plan that is intended to identify transportation needs for the next 40 years.

Fowler said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he is most concerned about Balm-Boyette Scrub, a 4,900-acre preserve that spans Balm-Riverview and Balm-Boyette roads on the north side of Balm.

The land used to be threaded by railroad tracks connecting Boyette to Wimauma, and the right of way still exists. It is home to a Tampa Electric Co. transmission line corridor after the county settled an eminent-domain lawsuit with the power company in 1997. The settlement stipulated the land would be used only for power lines.

Roads through preserves can separate habitats needed by wildlife for foraging and raising young, affect drainage patterns, increase roadkill and interfere with site management, such as prescribed burning needed to encourage native plant growth, Fowler's memo said. A high-speed, multilane highway like the bypass would be particularly devastating, Fowler said.

He suggested to planners that a bypass, if needed, should wind along the Hillsborough-Manatee county line to connect with County Road 39, which could be widened to hold more traffic. He said this week he had not received feedback on that idea.

He said he has met with county planners recently and in years past to discuss the potential effects of road construction through preservation tracts.

"This is nothing new to me," Fowler said.

Whether new roads could push through protected sites likely would be up to county commissioners and legal interpretations of the county ordinance that established the ELAPP program 20 years ago, Fowler said. He said the ordinance discusses preservation and conservation for sites acquired through the program.

"It doesn't really say anything about roadways," he said.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.