40 St Revitalization and Corridor Project

( http://www.tbo.com/southtampa/MGB5HJB6UPE.html ) reporter Kathy Steele reveals that the City of Tampa has not been entirely honest with us. After telling us they were $ 4 million short of the bid for Segment B the article quotes Steve Daignault of the City of Tampa stating that the segment is really $6 million short. Personally, I am devasted. After trusting the city to get the project started as promised, Segment B is now several months behind schedule with no relief in sight. If you you can, please attend the MPO meeting on August 1st in the BOCC boardroom in the County Center at 9 a.m.

Assuming that Daignault is telling us the truth, that the project is now an $86 million dollar project, the FDOT (federal and state) contribution is still 87.5% and the county and city contribution is 12.5%. 12.5% of $86M is $10,750,000, or $5,375,000 for each the county and city. Now the city has already contributed some of their contribution for the McKinley Road segment as well as monies for the ROW acquisition of Segments B (totally acquired).

The County has given the city, since 1998, about $4.5 million, nearly all of their half of the money.

What this means is the city should not have to contribute any more than $4 million total to the rest of the entire project!!! And that’s based on $86 million total cost for 40th Street.

Something is wrong. The city is contributing money to other road projects. What happened to the county’s contribution? Where is the city’s portion?

There is absolutely no reason why Segment B should not have already started construction. None whatsoever.

Council Wants Development Restriction for Bayshore but Denies Same for 40th Street

ON July 20th City Council, wanting to preserve Bayshore Boulevard, asked the City Attorney to investigate restricting development there. The 40th Street Task Force has asked for the same kind of development restrictions for years, until 40th Street is completed...and told it is not possible.

The City of Tampa transportation department reported a single bid for Segment B of 40^th Street. This segment will probably be the most expensive segment (from Hanlon Ave south to Hanna Ave) as it requires not only straightening the road and widening it, but completely replacing the bridge over the Hillsborough River. Although they had placed a high estimate of $17 million on this segment the bid came in at $21.7. Nevertheless, the Mayor claims that nothing will impede the city moving forward with the project, even though we are already three months behind schedule on beginning construction of Segment B.

The nerve-wracking part of all of this is that since the bid is higher than the current LAP the city must now revise the LAP with approval from the MPO, FDOT, City Council and USDOT. I am concerned that this will take longer than we can afford to wait so the more pressure we can place on FDOT etal to move this process forward the better.

In addition to the construction of the road the City of Tampa Building and Housing Services Department, lead by Cyndy Miller, is working with the 40^th St Task Force to create a village feel with the new anticipated commercial and residential areas along the corridor. Using CPTED and other methods they anticipate the Temple Crest neighborhood to be a working model not only for the city and state but the nation in regards to how to re-vitalize a community and its’ transportation corridor with an emphasis on community instead of focusing on the car. This is an exciting part of the project to be moving towards.

Finally, I hope to see 40^th Street completed soon as it plays an important role in transporting people from northern areas of Tampa to Ybor City and the Central Tampa core. We also provide a continuous route to USF from these areas and because 40^th Street is an uninterrupted route from SR 60 we can plan HART routes to transport students to USF from all over Tampa as well as provide intermediate Park- N Ride areas for New Tampa and University Area folks who want to go downtown.

Finally, our proximity to East Tampa and its’ revitalization and Temple Terrace and its’ planned core downtown renovations, Temple Crest has an opportunity to be a major player in the Near North area, complementing, hopefully, the entire northeast area of Hillsborough County.

Of course I’m prejudiced, but since you’ve now seen my home, you’ll understand why I want to preserve this jewel in the city of Tampa while finding a way to connect it to other areas of the city.

There are written records of our neighborhood requesting improvements to 40th Street since 1948. Now that we are finally seeing work beginning on the project (knock wood) I think it is a good time to reflect upon what 40th Street represents not just to the residents of this road but to the neighborhood as well.

Everyone in Temple Crest is impacted by 40th Street. We must not only drive on this road but the deterioration has affected our property values, contributed to crime, all of which has caused the city to not give a second thought to relocating section 8 and public housing projects. Over the years our reputation as a desirable neighborhood has suffered. The list goes on and on.

I hope the residents of 40th Street appreciate that the entire neighborhood has devoted countless hours to re-vitalizing the road. In fact the neighborhood, in the hopes that improving 40th Street will re-vitalize the entire area, has sacrificed as well.

The residents of 40th Street will have a beautiful corridor with new sidewalks, drainage, sewers and water lines. Through numerous meetings we have worked to help remove the TIPFF easements from their properties.

That’s what neighbors do for each other…we help, we look out for each other.

As we have fought for 40th Street improvements we have not fought as hard for sidewalks in other parts of the neighborhood. We knew if we did it might detract from our battle to improve 40th Street.

Much of the neighborhood still has TIPFF easements on properties, including my own. I could have fought to have our easement removed but I knew if I did that it might impair progress on 40th Street.

Regnas and River Hills Drive need new sewer lines. But a fight for these enhancements would have given the city reason to delay 40th Street.

Yukon needs widening, it needs sidewalks. But if we fought for Yukon would we have lost even more time for 40th Street? Of course it would.

The neighborhood has stayed focused on 40th Street, primarily to the benefit of a few residents and hopefully to the benefit of all of us, because I know that fixing this road will fix many of the problems in our neighborhood.

For many years we have joined in charting a course of revitalization for Temple Crest that finally is visible on the horizon. Sometimes that means putting our own needs aside or at least resisting the temptation to put our own needs first, for the greater good, for the needs of the neighborhood.

50 years from now most of us will be gone from this earth. Hopefully, our neighborhood will be a better place for what we are doing now.

Hopefully our legacy will be how we worked and sacrificed together to create a better place for a few and an asset for us all.

I have just received this news from Shannon Edge of the City of Tampa's Neighborhood Relations Department:

I went to City Council to dispute TECO's claims about buried utilities on 40th Street. Read the article by Kathy Steele: