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Hillsborough County officials want to create a high-tech corridor along Interstate 4

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#1 ·
Cows, Dinosaurs Could Get High-Tech Company


News channel 8 photo by PETER MASAA
Travelers along I-4 near Dover get a view of Frank Bates and his "Airstream Ranch."

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 24, 2008

Updated: 10:22 pm

SEFFNER - Commuters and cross-state travelers on Interstate 4 zip past cow pastures, Dinosaur World and a string of Airstream campers nose-down in the dirt.

Unlike Interstate 95, flanked tightly by houses, malls, hotels and warehouses from Melbourne to Miami, the I-4 corridor is a mix of quirk, gigantic sales centers and car lots, strawberry fields and rural homesteads. Much of the corridor remains wooded or vacant.

Hillsborough County commissioners see that as an opportunity for economic development - a way to diversify the economy and fill in the gaps with industrial and high-tech businesses that could give a much-needed boost to the tax base and create higher paying jobs.

They are targeting the 26-mile stretch between Tampa and the Polk County line for software manufacturers, medical research parks and similar businesses.

"It's agricultural, it's residential and it's commercial," said County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, whose district includes part of the study area. "We need to focus. I don't know that people today want to build houses on I-4. We need to face the facts on this."

Next year, planning commission staff will work with the county's growth management and economic development departments, Plant City officials, the state Department of Transportation and other agencies to study how best to develop the corridor.

"My understanding is the county commission wants to look at higher-skills industries, like biomedical or tech business that might relate" to the University of South Florida, said Stephen Griffin, executive planner for the planning commission. "We're not looking for your typical wholesale distribution centers."

First Time It's A Priority

Discussion of I-4's potential has occurred previously, Griffin said, but this is the first time county commissioners have made it a priority.

"The basic premise is that we want to control our economic future," said Bruce Register, corporate business development manager for the economic development department.

"Our role is to guide the county commission on how to take the best advantage" of the county's assets, Register said. "I would love to see it all high-tech, but I'm a pragmatist. We need a glomeration of industry."

There will be hurdles.

Vacant property along I-4 has more than a dozen designations for future land use, from agricultural estate to light industrial and neighborhood mixed-use. County water and sewer lines are not available, and homes and businesses use wells and septic tanks because much of the corridor is designated rural.

Accessibility also is an issue. On average, about 209,000 vehicles per day traverse the 26-mile segment of interstate, DOT figures show. Many of the parcels along I-4 are accessible only from U.S. 92 or Knights-Griffin Road, both with only two lanes and ill-suited for heavy truck traffic, nearby residents say.

County planners acknowledge that must change if the business corridor concept is to succeed.

Some residents of rural areas near the interstate say opening I-4 to large businesses by broadening the urban service area, which allows county water and sewer hookups, could lead to more intense development in eastern Hillsborough County.

"It's expanding the urban service area, there's no ifs or buts about it," said Terry Flott, director of the Seffner Community Alliance and founder of United Citizens' Action Network, both growth watchdog groups. That would make it easier for developers to build north and south of the interstate, she said.

"Seffner still has some country aspects," Flott said. "It's always been able to maintain a little bit of quiet. The move has been on to destroy that."

Higginbotham said restrictions in the plan could prevent annihilation of the country flavor.

Many Say It's Logical Step

Developers and owners of large swaths of land along the interstate see the corridor plan as a natural.

"Light industrial along I-4 would make sense," said attorney Vincent Marchetti, who recently represented a client seeking to change the land-use designation on a 92-acre tract in Seffner from one home per acre to one that would have allowed 564 homes and 175,000 square feet of light industrial or research park space. Marchetti's client, Maury L. Carter & Associates of Orlando, also requested that the county allow water and sewer hookups for businesses, a change he says would spur economic development.

Commissioners turned down the first request, opting instead to study development of the entire I-4 corridor. Marchetti withdrew a second request.

Grace McComas, who lives between U.S. 92 and I-4 in Seffner, doesn't oppose the corridor idea. But she does object to putting more truck traffic on U.S. 92, which she fears would happen with more development along I-4.

"U.S. 92 is a curved two-lane road, and no one has any plans to widen it in the near future," McComas said. "To plan to use it for light industry ... would just increase road traffic."

Plant City's involvement in the study will include looking at alternative traffic routes, said planner Rob Anders.

He said I-4 already is too congested. He and county officials had preliminary discussions about charging developers a fee for road improvements on alternative routes, he said.

They also discussed asking Plant City to provide water and sewer service west and east of its corporate limits.

THE STUDY

Hillsborough County's Interstate 4 corridor study will consider:

•The types of land-use and zoning changes needed to accommodate economic development.

•Whether to expand the urban service area to allow county water and sewer lines along the corridor.

•Making amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint for growth in Hillsborough County, to allow light industrial and high-tech businesses along I-4.

•Requesting input from state agencies, other municipalities, residents and developers.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/24/na-cows-dinosaurs-could-get-high-tech-company/
 
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#5 ·
Personally, I fail to see the validity of building up that stretch of I4. One of the things its got going for it, is that it is rural. Most of the people that live out there, do so for that exact reason and as a lifetime resident of Northwest Hillsborough County I can attest to the disatisfaction with rampant development. In my mind it would make infinitely more sense to build something like this closer to Tampa rather than out on the skirts of Eastern Hillsborough. Just my $0.02.
 
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