Volume 18 Issue 10
WESLEY CHAPEL Inside:
Get A Taste Of Boston!
May 8, 2010
NEWS
See page 30!
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Citrus Trace, Saddle Ridge Residents Oppose S.R. 54 U-Turn Plans Residents of Two Communities Will Have To Make U-Turns To & From Caroline Dr. When Widening Project Is Completed In 2012
An editorial by Gary Nager While most Wesley Chapel residents will be happy when the widening of C.R./S.R. 54 from Old Pasco Rd. (west of I-75) to Curley Rd. is completed (sometime in 2012), many residents of two subdivisions who access 54 from Caroline Dr. say the widening will not benefit their communities. At the April 8 public hearing hosted by Pasco County transportation officials at Atonement Lutheran Church, the county presented updates on not only the widening of 54, but also on the plans for other major road improvement projects (including the widening of I-75, the extension of S.R. 56, etc.). Since that presentation, however (and the project’s official groundbreaking on April 14), at least 30 of the 175 homeowners in Citrus Trace and Saddle
Ridge Estates have responded with angry letters to the county because they will no longer be able to make a left turn, either onto Caroline Dr. from 54 or onto 54 from that main entrance to those communities, when the project is completed. Although the C.R./S.R. 54 widening plan has been in the works since 2003, project manager Andy Alipour says that this is the first time the county had received any complaints from those residents about the elimination of the Caroline Dr. left-in and leftout turns. Most of the letters bemoaned the fact that the residents will have to make a U-turns at Saddlebrook Dr. to head east on 54 and at the new Boyette Rd. traffic light (see below) and then make a right turn onto Caroline Dr. to return home. The majority of the letters/e-mails expressed concerns about the safety of having to make multiple U-turns every day and about how those U-turns would affect commute times for those residents, but Alipour says those concerns are unfounded.
“The signals at Boyette Rd. and at Saddlebrook Dr. will be long enough to allow anyone in those turn lanes to safely make those U-turns,” says Alipour. “Those turn signal times will, of course, be significantly increased during peak traffic hours.” In addition, he says, Wesley Chapel residents and Pasco County staffers review “What those residents the plans for the widening of S.R. 54 at a public meeting don’t seem to realize is on April 8. The project broke ground on April 14. that, with the increased directions] on S.R. 54 too much.” speed on S.R. 54 in that area when the Jamie Winsett, the secretary of the project is completed, it’ll be much more Saddle Ridge Estates Homeowners unsafe to try to make those left turns Association, Inc., who was set to host a than it is now.” meeting between Alipour and other As for placing a curb cut and a county staffers and a small group of light at Caroline Dr., as many of the homeowners from both communities residents requested, Alipour says it just after this issue went to press, was would be slow traffic down too much. one of those who sent a letter to the “The curb cut would be too close county following the Apr. 8 meeting. to the signals at Saddlebrook Dr. and “Although I wasn’t living in the Boyette Rd.,” he says. “We looked at community when the county first that possibility, but felt that it would slow down the through traffic [in both This story continues on page 3.
panies – Adventist Health System (AHS, the not-for-profit healthcare corporation that operates 37 hospitals across the U.S., including Florida Hospital Zephyrhills) and University Community Health (UCH, which operates five hospitals in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties) – filed separate applications seeking certification from
the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) to build a hospital in Wesley Chapel in 2006, along with a third company, BayCare Health System. All three of the proposals were rejected by the state agency, however, which concluded that there wasn’t sufficient need, population-wise, for a new hospital in Wesley Chapel. So, the following year, AHS and UCH joined forces in their application to the state, while BayCare proposed building a teaching hospital in conjunction with the University of South Florida Medical School. But this time, the state approved the joint AHS/UCH application, giving the partnership, officially known as the Pasco-Pinellas Hillsborough Community Health System, the go-ahead to build its
Wesley Chapel Hospital Partners Exploring A Possible Merger
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Crime Suspects Caught On Video, Help Your Kids Get Ready For Finals At Academic Edge & More!
Catch ‘Broadway Comes To Tampa’ At Saddlebrook This Weekend, A Review Of The New Taste Of Boston & Much More!
See pages 3-22!
See pages 23-36!
See “Hospital” on page 6.
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The two formerly competing healthcare companies who are both in the process of building a hospital in Wesley Chapel announced in March that they plan to explore the possibility of merging. Originally, the two healthcare com-
hospital, and even overruled a later appeal of the decision which was filed by BayCare. The AHS/UCH plans call for a $121 million, 80-bed, full-service facility, which will be built within the Wiregrass Ranch tract, on Bruce B. Downs Blvd., about a mile north of the Shoppes of Wiregrass mall and S.R. 56. Although the plans for the hospital have been green-lighted, and there has been a sign in place on the hospital site for some time now, there has been little
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