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Developers Pay To Extend Road

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By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2007

Updated: 10/15/2007 09:46 pm

BRANDON - Developers of a hotel and restaurant on the Carey Cattle Co. land at the southeast corner of Interstate 75 and State Road 60 have agreed to contribute $488,336 to extend Gornto Lake Road, a project intended to create another north-south corridor through Brandon to ease traffic tie-ups on other arteries.

Brandon Development LLC is the first developer to donate to the project, but the county is still about $13 million short.

'It is a start,' said Reg Alford, the extension's project manager.

County commissioners accepted the formal agreement with the developer and property owner Carey Farms late last month.

Commissioners rezoned 5 acres west of the Westfield Brandon mall in 2001 for a 151-room hotel and 5,300-square-foot restaurant.

By donating to the road project, the developer meet its 'transportation concurrency' standards set by the county, which require roads around new development to have sufficient capacity before the project can be built.

Rather than making road improvements for smaller projects, the county is allowing developers to contribute a lump sum to a larger nearby transportation project, said Shawn Perrine, the impact fee administrator for the county's planning department.

The county plans to extend Gornto Lake Road from where it ends in the parking lot of BuddyFreddys restaurant off State Road 60 south to Town Center Boulevard. It will be four lanes.

The price tag is about $26 million. Commissioners have budgeted $12.6 million and are expecting developers to come up with the rest.

Alford said the county is prepared to approve a contract to design the extension, but all of the construction cash will have to be available before construction can start. He said he hopes crews can begin building the extension in late 2009 and have it completed in 2011.

Charles White, the county's transportation review manager, said the county is negotiating for more money from developers such as those for Westfield Brandon, the 28-acre, mixed-use Parkview Oaks project and the Brandon Main Street project, a proposed 54.3-acre office, retail and residential complex to the east.

Alford said the county has decided to snake the road into the fringes of nearby wetlands but away from a pond to the east and BuddyFreddys and Hillsboro Memorial Gardens funeral home and cemetery to the west.

Alford said construction will disturb about an acre of wetlands and eliminate 32 parking spaces at the restaurant.

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

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