Volume 18 Issue 11
Inside: Wharton’s Boys Tennis Team Wins Another State Title! See pages 34-35!
May 22, 2010
The Direct-Mail Newspaper Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! THIS INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER IS DIRECTLY MAILED TO: NEW TAMPA: Arbor Greene • Cory Lake Isles • Cross Creek • Grand Hampton • Heritage Isles • Hunter’s Green • Hunter’s Key • K-Bar Ranch • Lake Forest • Live Oak Preserve • Pebble Creek • Richmond Place • Tampa Palms • West Meadows WESLEY CHAPEL: Aberdeen • Belle Chase • Brookside • Chapel Pines • Country Walk • Lexington Oaks • Meadow Pointe • New River • Northwood • Pinewalk • Pine Ridge • Saddlebrook • Saddleridge Estates • Saddlewood • Seven Oaks • Lakes at Northwood • The Villages of Wesley Chapel • Wesley Pointe • Westbrook Estates • Williamsburg
Residents Stonewalled Over Lack Of Noise Buffers Along BBD By Michael Smith While most people agree that the widening of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. will help ease the problem of traffic congestion (eventually), some local residents whose homes are close to the roadway fear that it will make another problem – the noise of traffic zooming by their windows – even worse than it already is right now. “You can hardly hear yourself talk when you sit out on the porch,” says Janice Clements, who lives in the Faircrest condominiums in Tampa Palms. “When you’re inside with all the doors and windows closed, it’s not as bad, but you can still hear it, and when motorcycles or big trucks go by at night, it wakes me up.” That’s the situation as it stands now, but Clements and her neighbors are worried that when New Tampa’s main thoroughfare is widened to either six or eight lanes — which will bring the traffic much closer to the block wall that separates her home from BBD — the problem will become unbearable,
The attached condos at the front of the Lake Forest community (left), are hidden by a block wall and a thick stand of trees, and were not approved for noise buffers, while the condo and rental apartment units at the Enclave at Richmond Place (right) have no wall and no trees and are scheduled to receive a buffer under the BBD widening plan. especially if the widening includes the block wall, and many of those residents existing wall could be raised to block addition of a light rail track along the also enjoy the noise buffering qualities some of the traffic noise, but county eastern edge of the roadway, as has of some large oak trees that line the personnel never returned her calls. been proposed in some of the potential wall, but community officials have been Lake Forest residents had a little configurations for the BBD widening contacting county commissioners to say more luck, as a member of the county’s that have been presented by the county. they are worried that the widening will public works department came to one The situation is the same a little to make the noise problem in those homes of the community’s recent homeowners the south, where 32 condominium and condos even worse. association meetings to address the units and a smaller number of singleClements says she tried for several noise issue, but he told the association family homes within the Lake Forest weeks to contact county officials to ask members that the county does not community also stand right next to about the possibility of some type of include noise buffers in any of its local BBD. Lake Forest also is separated from noise buffer being included as part of roadway projects, mainly because of the street by a 6-foot-high concrete the widening project, or even if the See “Noise” on page 6.
Taxpayers To Vote On Transportation Sales Tax Referendum
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Beltran Dental Surgery Offers The Latest High-Tech Treatment Options, Get More Cash For Your Gold & Wharton High Wins Its Third State Tennis Title!
We Recap The Taste Of New Tampa In Words & Pictures, Our 2010 Summer Camp Guide, Great Roast Beef Is On The Menu At Jersey Mike’s & Much More!
See pages 3-46!
See pages 47-60!
ECRWSS
LOCAL NEWS, BUSINESS, SPORTS & EDUCATION
take an hour or more to get to work, the percentage of commuters who carpool or use alternatives to driving like walking, biking or taking public transportation, and the Travel Time Index, which compares how long a commute takes during rush hour to how long the same trip takes under ideal conditions. The tax supporters said that the money raised by the tax should be used not only to bring light rail to the county, but also to improve such alternatives as improved bike lanes, bus service and other public transportation options, See “Tax” on page 7.
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way improvement projects countywide. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who was one of the first speakers to voice her support for the tax referendum, called it “the most significant public policy issue of this century,” but opponents of the proposal, who were in the minority at the hearing, were not so complimentary, calling the proposal “a huge tax boondoggle” and labeling the BOCC members as “tax and spend politicians.” Those in favor of the tax increase pointed out that Tampa Bay was named as having the worst commute issues among 60 of the top metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to a survey conducted earlier this year by Forbes magazine. The survey examined such factors as the percentage of commuters who
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After hearing from nearly 200 speakers who argued both for and against the proposal, the members of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) voted May 13 to place a referendum seeking a one-cent sales tax increase on the ballot
for voters to approve or reject this fall. The debate came at a recent public hearing, held at the All People’s Life Center in Tampa, which was the ninth in a series of meetings held to gauge public opinion on the proposed tax. If it is passed, the tax will raise money for the implementation of light rail and other public transportation and road-
Dated Material Please Rush!
By Michael Smith
For Advertising Information Call 813-910-2575 • Volume 18, Issue 11 • May 22, 2010 • www.NTNeighborhoodNews.com
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