BRANDON, Fla. — Rush hour on U.S. Highway 301 in Hillsborough County leaves drivers going nowhere fast.
“It’s bad,” says one frustrated driver. A mass of humanity and a shortage of roads are creating gridlock in the fastest-growing parts of Hillsborough County.
“Oh, it’s made it almost unbearable. It’s a really difficult thing. If you leave at 7 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. It took me close to an hour to go 5.8 miles last week,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Michael Owen said.
Owen grew up in Brandon. He says in the late 1970s and early 80s, it was a cow town.
“There was dairy farms and cattle and orange groves. That’s what it was and it was a magical place to grow up. I loved it,” Owen said.
As Brandon got crowded, developers looked for land elsewhere in Hillsborough County.
“You’re probably looking at close to half the growth in the next 10 years, believe it or not, is still migrating toward east and south county,” Owen said. The influx of people has created a shortage of schools.
“People move to south county and they don’t have a school for their kid, a middle school,” Owen said.
The rapid growth has also created a dangerous dilemma. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Dennis Jones said the county is 28 fire stations short. Fourteen of those are needed in eastern and southern Hillsborough County.
“The commissioners are aware of it. County leadership is aware of it. The county administrator is very well aware of it. We absolutely need a permanent funding source to be able to build a couple of fire stations a year just to try to catch up with the tremendous population growth,” Jones said.
The National Fire Protection Association calls for a unit to be on the scene within 8 minutes of a call. In parts of Hillsborough County, the response times are between 9 ½ to 12 minutes depending on the type of call.
“So if we can’t get to you within 8 minutes in a fire, it’s scientifically been proven that after about 8 minutes, the fire is going to expand and extend beyond the room of origin. It’s going to expand to other rooms of the house. The entire house then gets involved. What that means to the citizens is more injuries, more deaths, about four to ten times more. When you talk about fire responses it’s always a matter of life and death,” Jones said.
While growth has exploded, roads are lagging behind. County and state leaders are pushing for an extension of the Leroy Selmon Expressway and possibly a bypass on Interstate 75.
“If you look at the Gandy, it is a great example of a success story. So what we would like to do is that same type of flyover over east and south county, over 301, which would give us an exit off Bloomingdale, Gibsonton Drive and then Big Bend Road," Owen said.
Extending the Selmon Expressway would take more than a decade and require federal help.
“We’ve got to come up with solutions. The problem is the age-old problem is money. We have over a $9 billion budget. We spend every dime,” Owen said.
Many view the rapid development as both a blessing and a curse. Vibrant new communities lack the infrastructure that is needed.
“I still believe east and south county is the best place that you can live. It’s the best place you can raise a family. Talking about schools, we have the best schools on our side of town. We just have challenges because of the growth,” Owen said.