Despite nearly 200 speakers —many of them critics — rallying against the controversial project, Tampa Bay Express, which critics derisively call “Lexus lanes,” is officially moving forward.
The Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted 12-4 shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday morning to fund the $6 billion project, also known as TBX. The project, which would add 90 miles of toll lanes to interstates 75, 275 and 4 and would upgrade the Howard Frankland bridge, will now be formally included in the annual Transportation Improvement Program for the next five years.
Advocates for an alternative to the project are now grappling with the possible destruction of up-and-coming neighborhoods like Tampa Heights, now worry about the negation of decades of hard work to create community in otherwise neglected areas.
They also say the project — in their minds, one of a bajillion highway expansions — could never supplant a comprehensive transit overhaul that would include expanded public transit and a better network of pedestrian pathways.
Here's how it all went down that Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
Supporters among the large crowd of speakers said TBX is a much-needed solution to alleviate Tampa’s traffic congestion problem.
“It would be shameful if FDOT funding intended for Hillsborough County went elsewhere. That would only ensure gridlock in Hillsborough County,” longtime tea party activist Sharon Calvert said. “We must expand and improve our interstates that are the foundation and the backbone of our transportation network in Hillsborough County.”
Others emphasized that TBX is necessary because it contributes to Tampa’s mobility and booming economy.
“The economy won’t work. We can’t deliver goods and services. People can’t get to work if mobility isn’t there,” Ken Roberts said. “The way we deliver mobility in this area is by the TBX project.”
To critics, TBX will disproportionately impact low-income residents and minorities. People are also concerned that TBX will destroy neighborhoods like the aforementioned Tampa Heights, a neighborhood that has organically sought to revitalize itself in recent years.
“We’re looking at more destruction on Central Avenue, where people have worked hard to establish their new businesses, where people have worked hard to regenerate and revitalize these communities,” said Walter L. Smith II, candidate for the Florida House of Representatives. “Now in a matter of months—in a matter of a few years—there’s a possibility that they’d have to move out of their homes… and businesses that they’ve worked so hard for will have to be destroyed.”
It's a part of town that's already lost ground, and in some places was divided, by the original construction of I-275 decades ago, destruction and division from which the community is still trying to recover.
“We can’t lose even more of our historic fabric here in Tampa,” Smith said.
MPO staff announces that there are no more speakers…well into the wee hours.
Zebrina Edgerton-Maloy
Hillsborough County Commission Chair Les Miller expressed similar sentiments when he attempted to block some of the most controversial provisions of the TBX project, which include the reconstruction of the I-4/I-275 interchange in downtown, Interstate 275 from downtown north to Bearss Avenue, and I-4 east to Plant City.
The motion was struck down by an 11 to 5 vote.
Several critics also conveyed their skepticism on the Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) ability to keep their end of the TBX bargain.
“All you have to do is look at FDOT’s track record going back decades to see that they don’t keep their promises,” said Amanda Brown. “Let’s take a look at last August at the conditions set forth by Mr. Miller that many of [the MPO board] voted on. We see that those conditions have not been met and that FDOT has not fulfilled their promise.”
Hillsborough County Commissioners Kevin Beckner and Sandy Murman both proposed amendments that would require FDOT to ensure that human and economic impact will be reduced.
“We no longer can allow and accept as a community that we are going to take the dictation from the Florida Department of Transportation, but this needs to be more of a partnership,” Beckner said. “We, as a board and a community, have a right and we must absolutely receive the following information before we can make final determination on any part of this plan as a whole.”
Beckner’s measures aimed to address critics’ concerns.
They required that FDOT present reports on the human impact of TBX, that they try to negate financial impacts on residents of neighborhoods expected to be affected or displaced, that environmental impact is considered, that the positive financial impact of the project be studied and proven and that a network of CSX tracks be studied for potential development of public transit, among many other things.
Proponents of (and opponents to) TBX stayed well into the night to see what the MPO would decide.
Zebrina Edgerton-Maloy
Murman’s amendment called for FDOT to update the MPO on the project and its implications.
Both amendments were unanimously approved by the Metropolitan Planning Organization Board.
Although the Tampa Bay Express was approved by MPO Thursday, TBX is still subject to changes. The MPO board would have to approve the Transportation Improvement Program every year, which could affect TBX funding in the future.
“This conversation is not over,” said City of Tampa Chairman and MPO Vice Chair Harry Cohen. “This conversation hasn’t even started.”
This article appears in Jun 23-30, 2016.