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Transportation Key To Seffner-Mango Plan

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

SEFFNER - Residents of Seffner and Mango who are mapping out a long-term development plan for their community learned some details last week about how the county and state choose road projects, fund them and prioritize them.

Members of the Seffner-Mango Community Plan Committee can use information they gleaned from county officials Thursday to help them devise their plan, County planner John Healy said.

"The basic intent of a community plan is to define a community vision for the future," Healy said. Knowing the area's transportation needs is part of that process, he said.

Ned Baier, the county's chief transportation planner, explained where money comes from for various road projects and how the Metropolitan Planning Organization sets up a five-year working plan, based on priorities. The MPO is a panel of county and municipal officials who oversee long-range transportation planning.

"The county has doubled its transportation budget to just under $1 billion over five years," Baier said. Projects are prioritized based on a weighted system, with improving safety and relieving congestion as top priorities, he said.

He and other officials emphasized that road widening is not always the best solution. Other options should be researched, including expanding bus service and making use of rail transit and other modes of moving people.

Linda Stachewicz, a government liaison with the Florida Department of Transportation, suggested residents visit www.tbarta.com, a Web site for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority that has information about long-term plans to develop a transportation system that includes alternatives to road widening.

Stachewicz also described several projects in the planning stages for the Seffner-Mango area, including the widening of three segments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Highview and McIntosh roads.

The Department of Transportation will begin purchasing right of way between Kingsway and McIntosh roads in 2013, she said. Eventually, that leg of King Boulevard will be widened from three to four lanes, she said.

Further west, the road will be widened from two to five lanes from Highview to just east of Parsons Avenue, also beginning in 2013. And King Boulevard from Parsons to Kingsway Road will be widened from three lanes to four starting in 2011.

Stachewicz also noted that resurfacing and sidewalk installation on U.S. 92 between Eureka Springs Road and Thonotosassa Road South already is under way.

In addition to getting an update on transportation plans, the community plan committee welcomed new members. Last month, the group agreed to extend the boundaries for the Seffner-Mango Community Plan a mile east to McIntosh Road. More than a dozen residents from that expansion area attended the meeting to learn how the plan might affect their lives.

The committee meets the third Thursday of every month at the Hillsborough County Extension Office, 5339 S. County Road 579. The meetings are open to the public. Questions and comments can be directed to Healy at (813) 276-8393.

To learn more about county and state plans for road work throughout Hillsborough go to www.theplanningcommission .org and click on "Metropolitan Planning Organization."

To find out about funding for road projects, go to www.hillsboroughcounty.org, and click on "Planning & Growth Management."

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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