Transit will change in the future, Spratt says

The county soon will run out of ways to improve roads, predicts the county administrator, who supports mass transit as an option.

By JULIE CHURCH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 1, 2002

PALM HARBOR -- When Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt moved from Miami-Dade County to Dunedin five months ago, he thought traffic here would be better.

He was wrong.

"One of my biggest challenges is getting from point A to point B," he told about 60 people Tuesday morning during a speech at the Palm Harbor Library.

As a result, he said, "my learning curve has been mainly geographic." Like all newcomers to Pinellas, he has had to learn the best way to negotiate and avoid congested roads.

But for Spratt, getting around is more than a personal issue. If ignored, transportation problems could hurt the county's economy.

"Managing traffic congestion is popping up on business surveys as an increasingly big deal," he said.

Based on what he's seen, Spratt thinks Pinellas soon will reach a point at which the county's main roads no longer will be able to handle the masses of cars and trucks that use them each day.

Spratt did not give any indication that he wants to abandon the county's plans to improve its road network. For example, the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization's long-range plan for U.S. 19 is to turn it into a limited-access highway with overpasses at major crossroads. That will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In the meantime, the MPO plans to use $25-million appropriated by Congress on improvements to make U.S. 19 safer for motorists and pedestrians.

What Spratt did suggest was looking into other options in addition to building roads.

"We will soon run out of space to build and improve roads, and commuters will face more and more delays," he said. "We need to start looking into investments in mass transit."

Some of the options Spratt suggested included improving the bus system or possibly building a monorail or people-mover system similar to those in Miami-Dade. Miami's Metrorail cost $50-million per mile, and the people mover in Miami cost $100-million per mile, he said.

"We've got to make non-auto investments in mass transit," he said. Because of the cost, he said, the county would need state or federal support and credible plans to make that kind of mass transit system a reality.

During the hourlong discussion, Spratt said his other priorities include maintaining the efficient, low-cost government he feels Pinellas County has now and making sure that public services keep pace with population growth.

"Pinellas County is the most densely populated county in the state," he said. "Your challenge is not growth management but redevelopment management. We need to make sure this continues to be a pleasant place to live."

While Spratt talked about transportation, North Pinellas residents attending Tuesday's meeting voiced concerns about taxes, combining public services and annexation.

"I moved to the county primarily to lower my tax base," said Roger Gambert, 66, who has lived in Palm Harbor for 15 years. "The tax base keeps getting higher and higher. Why don't we just form a city of Palm Harbor if we're going to pay these high taxes?"

"I can tell you there is a county government structure already in place," Spratt said. "And there is an economy to that. If you build a city, you need to replicate that structure; and that costs money."

Jim and Esther Brown have lived in Palm Harbor since 1956. They would like to see fire departments combined throughout the county.

"Why don't we just go metro to save some money?" Jim Brown, 76, asked.

"We need to tread lightly on the issue of consolidating fire services," Spratt said. "It is a public perception issue. It is certainly something that can happen up here, but some people feel that we have better control by having separate fire districts."

Spratt said that since he started as county administrator, he has been asked to speak to a number of groups and has heard many different concerns.

"This group was definitely more interested in the annexation issue," he said.

Without naming names, he criticized municipalities that "cherry pick" annexations by selecting more valuable properties to add to their cities while leaving less valuable properties to the county.

Spratt compared the effect of annexation on the county's tax base to a dripping water faucet.

"You don't notice it leaking drop by drop," he said. "But when you see the bill, you know it's leaking."

-- Julie Church can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or church@sptimes.com.

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