Pasco MPO votes for quality of life for its residents but leaves Tampa with a cloud of bad air

May 11, 2016:
by Mauricio Rosas
Pasco County, FL - At an early morning public meeting, when most people are at work, Pasco's MPO wasted no time to approve the Tampa Bay Express (TBX) toll lanes. The leading supporter of the Tampa Bay Express (TBX) toll lanes and widening of I-275 in Pasco county is Commissioner Mike Moore of Wesley Chapel. He said, "the project would lessen commute times for Pasco motorists and enhance their quality of life." He fails to acknowledge the negative impact to Tampa's historic urban core, which will be adversely affected unlike Pasco County's suburbs.   They won't have their homes relocated or neighborhoods destroyed. On the contrary they'll have an entrance to a highway without them incurring any impact to their  suburban lifestyle. 

They'll jump on the expressway and travel through Tampa's historic district without a  care in the world. Their daily commute may cost an average of $15 to $20 a day but since they live in Pasco suburbs, I imagine they can afford it.  Meanwhile, Tampa's urban core is going to continue to struggle with the car centric lifestyle of suburbia.  And every time they come to events or work in and around  Tampa's downtown, the locals are stuck with the burden of congestion and transit paralysis. 

I bet, if those in Pasco County and Wesley Chapel were suddenly faced with extending I 275 through their neighborhood's they would be in an uproar.  However, unlike the Pasco  MPO, the residents of Pasco county would  most likely choose mass transportation to commute into the Tampa area but that solution is not on the table, most probably because it's not suitable to their suburban lifestyle.

At the end of the MPO meeting, Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority Director Ramond Chiaramonte remarked how TBX is a "critical project for our region."   Except that when he talks about the region, he's talking about the suburban areas who will not feel any negative impact to their communities. The impact they may feel will be their paychecks reduced from the expense of the toll  lanes. 

Stay up to date on the latest from the STOP TBX please visit their website click here 

Millions budgeted for TBX project property acquisition and demolition pulled

Kera Mashek - ABC Action News

6:15 PM, Apr 27, 2016

TAMPA - There's now a cloud hanging over the future of the controversial Tampa Bay expressway project. 

The TBX project promises to make your commute easier, but many say construction of the highway will sacrifice historic homes and businesses. 

Now, it looks like there's less cash to tear down some of those properties.
  
After community marches and packed meetings grassroots effort to stop the Tampa Bay Express may now have a small victory. 

$24.5 million in FDOT's budget for buying up property to build TBX was just pulled out and tucked into another project.  

Where did the money go? Ask your County Commissioner, click here

"Overall, it meets one of the things we've been asking, which is stop pushing through funding to acquire properties and stop demolishing them.  If this project is not funded, and you say it isn't going to happen, why destroy properties when you don't know where the road's going to go yet," said Michelle Cookson with Sunshine Citizens & Stop TBX Coalitions.

"It's going to be years before crews turn even a teaspoon of dirt on this project.  We don't need to sit with vacant lots or boarded up buildings for two, three, four years before the project even begins," said Lisa Montelione, Tampa City Councilwoman & Metro Planning Org. board member.

Not to mention, Hillsborough County's Metropolitan Planning Organization isn't even voting on whether to approve TBX for another two months.

"If the department of transportation is saying that this project is moving forward, I think that's a little presumptuous because it can't move forward without this vote in June," said Montelione.

And there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the TBX project itself.

"How many people, how many human beings lives are going to be disrupted?  We still don't have that number.  How many properties that are irreplaceable will be lost? We still don't have that true number," Cookson said.

The county has demanded FDOT give that information at the May MPO meeting. 

All of those pieces will help determine whether the tolled expressway becomes a reality.

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* Where did the money go? Edited by Mauricio Rosas