TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Community Plan For Greater Brandon Sought

ADVERTISEMENT

By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

Updated: 11/29/2007 07:11 pm

BRANDON - When it comes to community planning, some Brandon residents want to think big.

Rather than trying to limit a long-term growth plan to the traditional Brandon core, a group spearheading the Brandon community planning effort would like to include surrounding neighborhoods.

"It would lend itself to everyone having a greater voice and greater opportunities," George May, the honorary mayor of Brandon and a Bloomingdale resident, said at a community plan meeting Monday.

Rather than creating separate community plans for Brandon, Seffner, Bloomingdale and Valrico, members of the Brandon group said a single plan would be better.

The character and history of individual neighborhoods could be protected, they argued, by creating "overlay" districts within the larger plan.

"Everyone could keep their sense of community, and we would have a greater area to plan and a large voice," said Lisa Rodriguez, a Brandon resident and civic activist.

Those in favor of taking a broad planning view said problems threatening the various communities - such as clogged roads, unbridled growth and environmental concerns - don't end at neighborhood boundaries and must be solved comprehensively.

"When it comes down to fighting these things, we will have a greater voice when we combine," said Gladys Will, who lives off Bell Shoals Road.

The only potential stumbling block to this grand vision is the residents of the surrounding communities.

County officials envisioned individual plans for each community to direct growth. Seffner residents started discussions on their community plan three months after the Brandon group.

Some Seffner residents have said they want part of what's now in the Brandon community planning area rather than looking to join forces.

The county's dividing line between Brandon and Seffner is the railroad tracks south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The Seffner group wants to move it south to Windhorst Drive.

Representatives of both groups are scheduled to meet this month to try to work out their differences.

Residents of Valrico aren't scheduled to begin their community plan until late next year. County planners are set to meet with Valrico community leaders this month to gauge their interest in whether to join forces with Brandon or go it alone.

Bloomingdale is set to start drafting its community plan in 2011. Some Bloomingdale residents want to join in the Brandon community plan and are trying to get letters of support from homeowners associations.

One of those pushing for the all-inclusive greater Brandon approach is Richard Rios, a Valrico resident participating in the Brandon group as a representative of the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

"Valrico would have a much stronger voice as part of a central Hillsborough community plan," he said.

Changing the plan's name to central Hillsborough to give it a broader geographic description could make it more palatable to people in surrounding neighborhoods, Rios and others said.

"If it wasn't all Brandon, maybe the others wouldn't be that territorial," said Laura Simpson, a Brandon chamber vice president.

Some committee members bristled at spending the entire meeting debating boundaries. Others said without defining the area, no one would know where to concentrate planning.

County planners told the group other communities must agree to be included in the Brandon plan. If they don't, the boundaries remain the railroad tracks to the north, Bloomingdale Avenue to the south, U.S. 301 to the west and Valrico Road to the east.

"From this room, you can't decide there is a greater Brandon area," said Joe Incorvia, the county's director of community planning. "Whether you like it or not, you have to go through the process."

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT