TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa city planners expect to get an earful at a pair of upcoming meetings from folks who live in neighborhoods south of Gandy Boulevard and in newly identified flood and evacuation zones.
There has been tremendous growth in the area over the past few years and that has raised concerns about public safety.
“I’m very confident,” Tampa’s Director of City Planning Stephen Benson said.
Benson says there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to the recent boom in neighborhoods south of Gandy Boulevard. For now.
“The growth and development that has occurred to date has been part of the comprehensive plan for many years. It’s been planned for,” Benson explained. “What’s been different is the rate of growth. It’s increased at a quicker pace than what was projected.”
But people who live and work in the area don’t see it that way.
They’re concerned by the addition of more than 5,000 units over just the past few years with more on the way. And on both sides of the South Tampa peninsula south of Gandy, there’s essentially one way out — north.
“We are very much afraid we are going to end up riding out the hurricane in our cars because we can’t get out,” Carroll Ann Bennett with the Tampa Homeowners Association of Neighborhoods said.
Homeowners say neighborhoods south of Gandy would be in big trouble if they suddenly had to evacuate for a natural or even man-made disaster like a leak or fire at nearby Port Tampa. Flooding or other issues brought on by hurricanes.
“We need to be able to express that to the city,” Bennett said. “Because these are very big fears in our community.”
They’ll get the chance to do that at a pair of community meetings, where the city will talk about the impact of new storm evacuation maps and flood projections and how that will shape the area’s future growth.
“Lifelines there for the most vulnerable populations to access hospitals, schools, food, grocery stores,” Benson said.
The city also says the addition of the Selmon Extension through South Tampa has alleviated a sizeable portion of the traffic concerns that had been expressed regarding storm evacuations.
This first of two meetings will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Gandy Civic Center on Oklahoma Avenue. Another is slated for 6 p.m. on June 30th in the Palmetto Beach neighborhood.
Tampa hopes the presentations will answer questions and address concerns. But neighbors say city planners should prepare to spend as much time listening as speaking.
“More growth in the evacuation zones of A and B in South Tampa is risky. It’s foolhardy. It’s reckless,” Bennett said. “And in dangerous people.”
“What we are looking at is from now going forward,” Benson explains. “What we can do to make some different decisions. Because the future is going to be different than the past.”
The city of Tampa says at this point it has no plans to place a development moratorium on the neighborhoods south of Gandy.
They say the development taking place there has been part of and is in line with the city’s long-term growth plan.