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Brandon Hits Growth Spurt In 2007

Staff Michael Spooneybarger

Fire Rescue officials disperse an ammonia leak by spraying large quantities of water at 301 and the Alafia River. The evacuation forced road closures at U.S. 301. The ammonia leak in Riverview has forced school officials to close Riverview Elementary School. Classes at Riverview Elementary are canceled, school board spokesman Steve Hegarty said. However, if parents have child care issues, their children can go to Spoto High School at 8538 Eagle Palm Drive in Riverview. Children can catch their regular bus, which will take them to Spoto, or parents can drive their children to Spoto.

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By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 29, 2007

BRANDON - It was a year of growth, sadness and celebration.

Stores opened. A favorite sheriff's deputy was killed. A plume of toxic ammonia threatened homes and lives.

Any slack left by a slumping housing market was more than tightened by the birth of new stores, places for a snack and other commercial endeavors.

Developers unveiled plans for new residential and commercial projects. Residents rallied to keep new development from disturbing their neighborhoods.

The year 2007 had its fair share of big news. As the dawn of 2008 approaches, we take a look back at the year's major headlines.

Officer Down

A reminder that Brandon is no longer a bucolic, small-town community came in the early hours of Aug. 15 when .45-caliber slugs slammed through Hillsborough County Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Hamlin Harrison's cruiser as he crossed Lumsden Road and Kings Avenue.

The popular, 55-year-old lawman had just finished a night of operating DUI checkpoints when he was ambushed by Michael Allen Phillips, sheriff's officials said. Investigators said Phillips killed Harrison with two shots to the upper body.

Phillips died shortly afterward in a shootout with sheriff's deputies at his nearby home. Two sheriff's office snipers each put a shot into Phillips, 24, who had a rap sheet of 19 arrests. The sheriff's office has not determined why Phillips killed the veteran officer.

The county named the intersection of Lumsden Road and Kings Avenue in Harrison's honor this month.

Toxic Plume

Tales of hidden treasure tempted a trio of teenagers to tap into an ammonia pipeline running under the U.S. 301 bridge over the Alafia River in Riverview in early November, unleashing a billowing, toxic cloud that caused days of havoc.

The 16-year-old boy accused of drilling into the steel pipe was burned over 20 percent of his body and is facing criminal charges. Officials said he had heard a tall tale that money was buried under the bridge and tried to find it.

The ammonia leak forced the evacuation of 300 residents from a half-mile area, cost shop owners untold sales and closed a major commuter artery for two days.

A welding expert was flown in from Houston to help cap the pipeline. But it started leaking again five days later, again closing U.S. 301 for an hour until a valve could be repaired.

The pipeline runs from Polk County to the Port of Tampa and carries about 697,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia daily. The chemical is used in fertilizer processing.

New Stores, Homes

Shoppers got some new outlets in the past year.

Operators of the Westfield Brandon mall and area shopaholics celebrated the opening of a new $60 million, 150,000-square-foot expansion in March.

The new western wing added 16 stores and restaurants, including the anchor, Dick's Sporting Goods. The Cheesecake Factory was the first of four new sit-down restaurants to open. Merchandise at other shops includes a mix of books, children's clothing, upscale cosmetics, shoes and teas.

The crush of commercial openings wasn't limited to the mall. New stores and gyms opened nearby and crept eastward along State Road 60 into Valrico and along Bloomingdale Avenue and Lithia-Pinecrest Road.

Seffner got a new CVS pharmacy where a Texaco station used to operate at Parsons Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Smaller strip centers proliferated along the area's major and less frequented roads.

At the same time, Falkenburg Road emerged as a major growth corridor.

Construction began on a 256-unit town home complex at Falkenburg Road and Progress Boulevard, where Centex homes also plans to build about 1,400 single-family residences.

Nearby, land is being cleared for the Crossroads Town Center retail project at Causeway Boulevard and Falkenburg Road. A developer is awaiting final approval for another mega-project that includes 700 apartments, a 400-room hotel, a corporate park and a 565,000-square-foot retail center with space for big-box retailers.

Road Work

Residents got glimpses of future road projects throughout 2007.

As part of the county's approval for a massive residential development west of FishHawk Ranch, formerly called Lake Hutto, FishHawk developer Newland Communities agreed to make $72 million in transportation improvements. Newland inherited the obligation when it purchased the 3,200-home, 1,129-acre project from Pulte Homes in May.

Newland's engineers have unveiled their plans for a four-lane Bell Shoals Road south of Bloomingdale Avenue. Work is expected to begin in January 2009 and be finished by July 2010.

Newland also is widening FishHawk Boulevard to four lanes between Bell Shoals and Lithia-Pinecrest roads. Work is expected to begin in November 2008 and last until May 2010. The Lake Hutto agreement also calls for Newland to make Lithia-Pinecrest four lanes from Bloomingdale south to Adelaide Avenue.

The county also is in the midst of an engineering and environmental study of Lithia-Pinecrest from State Road 60 south to County Road 39. The results of a traffic study showed Lithia-Pinecrest must be six lanes to handle traffic increases anticipated in the next decade.

The county also debuted plans to extend Gornto Lake Road to create a new north-south artery. Work will wait until 2009 while the county tries to find the $11 million it needs to finish funding the $23 million extension.

Bus Route Debacle

Although no new schools opened this year in the Brandon area, there was much confusion on the first day. Hundreds of students started with new bus stops, longer walks and worried parents.

As part of its new Transportation Improvement Plan, the school district retooled bus stops and routes in parts of east and southeast Hillsborough.

District officials said the plan was designed to make school transportation more efficient and promised to make student safety a priority.

In Brandon, the changes required some students to walk nearly 2 miles to new stops or cross busy roads to board the bus. By the end of the first school week, dozens of parents with concerns about new stops called the school district and The Tampa Tribune to complain.

Some parents whose children were assigned to catch the bus to Cimino Elementary School on Bell Shoals Road at the entrance to the South Oak subdivision staged a protest and met at the stop with John Franklin, who was hired by the district this year as its new general manager of transportation.

Pearl Chiarenza, a South Oak parent who organized the protest, said the district agreed to move her child's stop off Bell Shoals and back to its original spot inside the subdivision. In October, the district tweaked route times and pickup spots in some areas, including South Oak.

District officials expect to implement similar changes across the county before the start of the 2008-09 school year. The plan calls for fewer bus stops; a minimum of 500 feet between stops; no fewer than two or more than 20 students at each stop; and no bus runs down narrow, dead-end or one-way streets.

Meeting Places

The area also continued its search for a central meeting spot.

Plans for the Brandon Main Street project continued to stall as developers and county planners hashed out details. A main sticking point is how much of the needed transportation improvements the developer would have to pay.

The Main Street project will be a neotraditional town center with a mix of homes and shops south of Oakfield Drive between Lakewood and Pauls drives.

A number of groups are hunting for a place to put the Brandon Advantage Center, an arts center, expo hall and community training and education facility. Those pushing for it are looking for at least 10 acres for a facility larger than 50,000 square feet. The search has focused on the Brandon campus of Hillsborough Community College off Falkenburg Road.

Brandon will get at least one new service center next year - a new government service center on Pauls Drive south of Oakfield Drive. Workers are putting the final touches on the $4.2 million facility set to open in February. It will house offices for the circuit court clerk and property appraiser, saving residents the bother of going to Tampa for routine government services. The facility also will have a 200-seat town hall meeting room.

Reporters Laura Frazier and Yvette C. Hammett contributed to this report. Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampa trib.com.

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