This time last year, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners was talking about small sales tax increase that was to be placed on the 2016 ballot that, if approved, would have funded an overhaul to public transit, roadways and trails. It was the second proposal of its kind in a decade for the county; in 2010 voters tanked a similar proposal. The 2016 proposal got axed before it even made it onto the ballot, of course, and now the county's weighing a nearly $812 million transportation "plan," which is really a short list of road-widening projects, safety improvements and maintenance (though small fraction may fund public transit).
The commission will talk about the proposal Wednesday, and the public can weigh in via public comment or by contacting their respective commissioners beforehand.
Recently elected Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp—who thought the above-mentioned ballot question, dubbed Go Hillsborough, didn't go far enough in trying to solve the county's transit woes—is outraged at what seems to her like a piecemeal list of projects slapped together with no vision. The proposed transit to-do list ("I hesitate to call it a plan,” she said) comprises about a page. Compare that to the thick, carefully written master plans county staffers have handed to Kemp and her colleagues that will guide their actions on fire & rescue and the county's parks system for decades.
"We have no such thing, no such process that's been done for the most important thing that we have, which is transportation and land use. There's no such thing," she said.
She said the list that will be discussed at a regular commission meeting Wednesday morning funds some important projects—like complete streets, which makes neighborhoods more pedestrian friendly—but leaves many out, and she questions why some were prioritized over others.
The most expensive project on the list calls for the widening of 3.7 miles of Lithia-Pinecrest Road, which would have a $97 million price tag—that's more than $26 million per mile.
“They say on that part of the road at rush hour, at least initially, it could speed people up by basically a few minutes," Kemp said. "Yet we have not invested and not been willing to invest in transit.”
Meanwhile, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, which is largely funded by ad valorem tax dollars, operates the county's buses on essentially a shoestring. And having an anemic mass transit system, as some research points to, limits the economic opportunity for people who can't afford a car or can't operate one due to a disability. Plus, public transit can move people around more efficiently, thus reducing traffic and carbon emissions.
But Hillsborough County and the Tampa Bay area in general continue to lag on transit and if roads like Hillsborough's Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Pinellas's Ulmerton Road are any indication, widening roads isn't exactly a silver bullet for solving traffic woes.
That's why Kemp is hoping residents who want to see significant change in the county's approach to transit and transportation will come to Wednesday morning's meeting at the County Center to offer their thoughts on the county's "plan" as well as what more can be done.
“We need to start hitting a reset button and really preparing for the future," se said. "We're just behind everywhere else and it's time to start moving forward.”
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2017.