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Plans Roll To Widen Parsons

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By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

BRANDON - Kelly Turley is well aware of the perpetual clogs that confound motorists trying to drive on Parsons Avenue south of State Road 60.

As a co-owner of Brandon Business Machines at 307 S. Parsons Ave., he only has to look out the windows to see the billowing clouds of exhaust from vehicles caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

It would do no good to put on blinders. Customers constantly remind him about the problem.

"It is not killing my business, but I hear about it every day," he said. "Customers say they put off coming in because they want to avoid this portion of Parsons altogether."

The traffic jams also affect deliveries, Turley said. Tractor-trailers must back in, and that blocks both lanes of traffic.

County officials hear about it as often as Turley does and have been trying to remedy the problem since 2002.

Money has been the deterrent.

Now, the county has enough on hand - about $9.5 million - to start design improvements and begin buying the land needed to widen Parsons to four lanes between S.R. 60 and Oakfield Drive.

Edd Arnold, project manager for the Hillsborough County Department of Public Works, said the county will need at least an additional $10.5 million to complete construction.

"We know the project is needed. We know the area is severely congested. It is just a matter of finding the money and proceeding the best we can," he said.

Because obtaining property is expensive in such a built-up area, the county must use a piecemeal approach, Arnold said
County commissioners set aside $4 million in Community Investment Tax collections in 2002 to improve that stretch of Parsons. Last year, the county's Transportation Task Force chipped in the extra cash - part of $500 million in road and transit projects to be bankrolled by bonds secured by anticipated revenue from the Community Investment Tax, the half-cent sales tax voters approved in 1996.

"We've searched for possible joint funding sources but couldn't find any," Arnold said.

Because businesses line that portion of Parsons, the county must buy owners out or compensate them for damage caused by the road work.
Turley said the extra lane likely will swallow up most of his company's parking spaces, so the property owners may have to buy additional land to pave a new parking lot.

Arnold said the county will seek bids to design the project in March, and he estimated the design work will take a year.

As an interim fix, county officials proposed creating a series of medians, turn lanes and traffic separators. But business owners shot down that plan in 2003.

"Let's do it right, not just some Band-Aid," Turley said, echoing the sentiments of fellow business owners in the area.

After meeting with each business owner individually, officials decided to go ahead with the four-lane approach.

The road widening won't address another problem that vexes local drivers: The traffic light at the intersection of S.R. 60 and Parsons is calculated to keep traffic on S.R. 60 moving; that limits the time drivers on Parsons have to cross or turn onto the busy state highway.

Traffic often comes to a standstill, keeping motorists from turning into businesses or side streets and generating more back ups.

Arnold and Turley hope the new design doesn't gather dust on a shelf.

"Hopefully, we will find a way to do it," Turley said. "We really like our locations, minus the traffic snarls."

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

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