 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Road realignment on tight schedule
By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
LUTZ -- Hillsborough County commissioners this week cleared away a legal snag that was holding up reconstruction of a confusing intersection. Work could begin soon. The county hopes to acquire the necessary land within days, said Tom Mueller, the county's project manager. "We hope to be under construction this month," he said. The work will realign County Line Road with Collier Parkway in northeast Lutz. Now, the two busy roads meet Livingston Avenue 65 feet apart. The haste is rooted in money. The project's $800,000 costs are being divided among Hillsborough and Pasco counties and the Florida Department of Transportation. The DOT's share of $283,290 carried a condition that it be used by June 1. "We had hoped to break ground in the fall," Mueller said. The holdup stemmed from the land deal. To realign the intersection, workers must reroute County Line across the southeast corner of the current intersection, to match Collier at a new traffic light. A 1989 rezoning allowed a shopping center and small neighborhood on the rest of the property. Landowner Jack Greenslade agreed at that time to donate a strip for the realignment. Hillsborough required Greenslade, among other zoning conditions, to connect his future development to public water and sewer lines. Now, the county would make no such requirement, as land use policies seek to steer growth away from rural areas by prohibiting water and sewer lines there. The closest Hillsborough lines to Greenslade's land are several miles away. But just across the road, Pasco County is willing to connect its lines to the property. Pasco and Hillsborough drafted a deal, common among local governments, in which Pasco will sell such service wholesale to Hillsborough, and Hillsborough will resell it to Greenslade or a subsequent property owner. Fearing the arrangement could trigger similar deals along the Hillsborough-Pasco line, two Hillsborough County commissioners delayed approval of the arrangement until this week. As approved, it allows only Greenslade's property to use Pasco water and sewer services. Mueller, the engineer, was confident the work still can be finished by June because it's relatively simple. The new road can be built while the old one operates unchanged. "We basically have virgin land to work with," Mueller said. "We don't have a lot of traffic-maintenance issues." -- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com .
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times |
