The MPO's annual public hearing to establish funding priorities for the next five years of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) drew a record crowd on Tuesday evening, August 4. More than 360 residents and business representatives attended in person, with another 65 attending via GoToMeeting, to weigh in on a Tampa Bay Express (TBX) being added to the priority list.

TBX is a $3 billion investment in the region's transportation infrastructure with 42 miles of interstate improvements including replacement of the northbound Howard Frankland Bridge and two major interchanges in Downtown and Westshore, explained FDOT's Development Director Debbie Hunt. "TBX connects four of the major business districts in our region - the USF Innovation District, Downtown Tampa, Westshore, and Gateway in Pinellas County, supporting economic growth," she added. The proposed express lanes generally will be built in the medians of I-275, I-4, and I-75, and tolls will vary by time of day to manage demand and congestion. FDOT is conducting a study of potential toll revenues, to compare with costs of construction, road maintenance, and potential express bus routes.   

MPO Chair, Commissioner Lesley "Les" Miller could relate. "I was born in Tampa on 18th Avenue... When the interstates came through in the 1960s, there were no public hearings; people couldn't come down and talk. That interstate came down right in front of my wife's mother's home," said Commissioner Miller. "So I understand the anxiety the Tampa Heights and Seminole Heights communities are feeling today, because I know what went through that neighborhood when I was growing up.

Tampa-Hillsborough Greenways and Trails Plan Update and asked for your ideas via a short survey. This project is ongoing, so you still have time to make suggestions.

Sponsored by the MPO in partnership with Hillsborough County, City of Tampa, and others, the study has been updated with many good ideas and suggestions from the GO Hillsborough public meeting participants. The City/County Greenways & Trails Committee members also gave their thoughts, hosting a workshop in May.

Next steps include field reviews of the feasibility of constructing these trail segments. Some wish-list trail connections, to be evaluated include:

• Extending the Town 'N Country Greenway east to serve the Leto/ Egypt Lake area
• Completing the South Coast Greenway and extending it northward to the Selmon Greenway
• Exploring routes in Brandon
• Connecting the Downtown Riverwalk and the Courtney Campbell Trail with a greenway

Over the past two years, the Planning Commission and the City of Temple Terrace have listened carefully to citizens, property owners, and elected officials all in an effort to form an exciting vision of the future of Temple Terrace. The vision guides the City's Long Range Comprehensive Plan and includes: preserving urban and suburban housing choices, emphasizing more mixed-use urban style development to major corridors and activity centers, and safer streets that promote alternative modes of transportation. These corridors will help form places for major activity centers, and the opportunity to design complete streets will make them safer for all travelers, giving more access by more visitors and residents to the businesses and the beauty that make up Temple Terrace.

Activity Centers are the intersections of major multi-modal corridors on the City's Vision Map. The update begins to incentivize redevelopment along multi-modal corridors and within major activity centers as well as promote safer streets and alternative forms of transportation. Proposals for these areas promote redevelopment of non-residential properties into mixed-use developments along multi-modal corridors.

Complete Streets are focused on so new development encourages walking, bicycling, and public transportation use, and makes these transportation options safe and convenient. A key component supports the orientation of buildings toward pedestrian and transit infrastructure rather than toward automobile infrastructure. 

Multimodal District. Temple Terrace was the first municipality in Florida to establish a multimodal transportation district citywide. This year, the MPO provided the technical support to update the district plan, identifying and estimating the costs of needed improvements to walk, bike, and transit systems. The multimodal district ties together the City's transportation plan with its growth strategy.

Review the draft plan. The updated Temple Terrace Comprehensive Plan has been reduced from 700 pages to 300 pages. Entering the public hearing phase on its path to adoption expected in early 2016, the plan will go to a Planning Commission Public Hearing on August 24 and a Temple Terrace City Council Public Hearing on October 20. Comments and feedback can also be provided to Tony LaColla, AICP, 813/273-3774 x350.

Hillsborough County will soon dedicate its latest segment of trail. Originally scheduled for Friday, August 7, the ribbon cutting ceremony has been postponed due to recent heavy rains and flooding. The new segment of trail was made possible by Hillsborough County with the cooperation of the Southwest Florida Water Management District (owner of the Brooker Creek property), and with the assistance of a federal grant prioritized by the MPO.

Running along the edge of the scenic Brooker Creek Headwaters in the northwest corner of the county, the new 3-mile trail connects to the Suncoast Parkway Trail at the Lutz Lake Fern Road interchange complete with parking, permanent restrooms, a covered picnic area, and anautomated pay station - the first at a County trailhead. Mostly a twelve-foot-wide asphalt path, portions of the trail are on boardwalk through wetlands.The southern end of the new segment terminates at Van Dyke Road, just east of Gunn Highway.  

A final short link, yet to be constructed, will extend further south to the existing Upper Tampa Bay Trail's end at Peterson Road Park. The final link will create a 50+ mile continuous trail, including the existing 7-mile Upper Tampa Bay and the 41-mile Suncoast Trails, and ultimately provide a path to the East Coast via Florida's recently funded Coast-to-Coast Connector Trail.

For more information, contact the County's Citizen Engagement office at 813/272-5275.

FDOT celebrated the grand opening of the Pinellas portion of its Courtney Campbell Causeway Trail on June 22nd. With Hillsborough's portion completed in 2013, this scenic new trail along the south side of the causeway now stretches for a continuous 9 ½ breathtaking miles!

Check out how the Courtney Campbell Causeway Trail came to be with FDOT District 7's Lee Royal.

At the east end, the trail connects to the Skyway Park in Town & Country and, by way of another trail alongside the bay and Veteran's Expressway, to Tampa's Cypress Point Park. At the west end, the Causeway Trail provides access to Clearwater and to Safety Harbor by way of Bayshore Boulevard, and eventually will link to the north-south Pinellas Trail and Gulf beaches.

The $23 million project, which includes three pedestrian bridges, won federal Transportation Enhancement program funding and other support from the Florida Department of Transportation after years of advocacy by the Courtney Campbell Scenic Highway advisory group, Westshore Alliance,Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, and the MPO Chairs' Coordinating Committee of West Central Florida, which prepares a regional plan and priorities for major cross-county trails.

Parking is available on the Tampa side of the trail at Ben T. Davis Beach. More info now available through the Rails to Trails Conservancy.