Letters needed! Come to Hearing! Protect Cockroach Bay, fight sprawl, traffic

Please e-mail the commissioners.
Ask them to deny these 2 related Comp Plan amendments: CPA 09-13 & CPA 09-14.
See sample letter below

Join us at the Public Hearing
Thursday, August 13, 6:00 p.m.
County Center, 2nd Floor, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., downtown Tampa

Unfortunately, the developer has persuaded the Ruskin Chamber to support this, in the name of "economic development." (See "wrong jobs, wrong place" in letter below.) So unless we get a big turnout of opposition, the commissioners will be led to believe that citizens support this atrocity.

The developer's lawyer, David Mechanik, just hosted a fundraiser last week for commissioner Kevin White, leading the Tribune to question White's recent vote for another Mechanik client. Mechanik has contributed to most of our Commissioners -- his was the very first check deposited in Commission chair Ken Hagan's account, after he opened it for his current campaign.

Without a strong showing of citizen support, this well-connected political fundraiser, backed by the Ruskin Chamber, could persuade the County Commission to approve their project. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of this breach of sound planning principles, but the County Commission makes the final decision.

You can speak if you want, but all we really need is for you to show up, pin on one of our badges, and stand with us when we ask for all opposed to stand up. This is the only item on the agenda, so we won't have to wait. Bring your friends & family! Watch your government in action. Opposition includes Tampa Bay Sierra Club, U-CAN, the Sundance Homeowners Association, & the SouthShore Democratic Club.

Carpools forming in Sun City Center:
Send an email to SSDEMCLUB@gmail.com, before August 11, if you want to carpool. For a subject use "Aug 13 Carpool."

Submitted by Mariella Smith, 645-4218. Please forward this message to other interested citizens.
_________________________
Sample letter to commissioners:

To: Ken Hagan <hagank@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Jim Norman <normanj@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Mark Sharpe <sharpem@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Rose Ferlita <ferlitar@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Al Higginbotham <higginbothama@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Kevin White <whitek@hillsboroughcounty.org>, Kevin Beckner <becknerk@hillsboroughcounty.org>

Subject: Please deny Inland Port System's Cargo Distribution Center: CPA 09-13 & CPA 09-14 (Hearing Aug. 13)

Dear Commissioners,

Please deny Comprehensive Plan Amendments 09-13 & 09-14. This proposal for a "multi-modal" cargo distribution center near Cockroach Bay is in the wrong place. It is inconsistent with our Comp Plan, our transportation plans, our environmental goals, smart growth principles, and the Tampa Port Authority's plans.

The Planning Commission board unanimously recommended denial, in concurrence with the planning staff recommendation. The proposal is contrary to so many Comprehensive Plan policies, the list is 10 pages long!

A host of negative comments & concerns have been raised by MANY reviewing agencies. (Download easy-to-skim highlighted excerpts of agency reviews here: http://www.box.net/shared/rg5xjbpjz2 )

A few of the MANY reasons for opposition:
• Environmentally sensitive site -- surrounded on 3 sides by nature preserves we've spent millions to acquire & preserve -- site is approved for acquisition & protection by county & state because of ecological value. (Map: http://tr.im/RockPondMap)
• Far outside the Urban Service Area -- where it would attract expensive urban sprawl, requiring infrastructure we cannot afford. Non-rural development eating up rural farmland & green space is not "Smart Growth." (Aerial: http://www.box.net/shared/3ms1p21t7q)
• Pouring massive truck traffic onto south county roads that can't accommodate the additional traffic (45,765 trips per day!) -- County planners say this would require major road improvements, but MPO says our transportation plans don't include any such improvements out in this rural area. Anyway, we can't afford to widen these roads. FDOT says the developer's traffic studies are flawed and underestimate their traffic.
• Commuter & truck traffic on "failed" (too congested) roads -- I-75 is failed from 674 south to the county line. Hwy 41 is destined to be a failed road soon, given all the development that is now approved — not yet built, but already approved.
• Coastal High Hazard Area & FEMA floodplain -- unsafe location, adding traffic to evacuation routes, where damages to the structures, and the additional urban development & infrastructure required, will raise insurance costs for all of us. Storm damage to hazardous material containers & required sewage treatment system would pollute Cockroach Bay.
• Toxic & Hazardous Materials stored onsite in area subject to flooding & storm damage, in sensitive ecosystem -- could require expensive cleanups.
• Toxic air pollution linked to cancer & asthma risks from diesel truck traffic, would also pollute sensitive wildlife habitat & bay waters, coat surrounding neighborhoods in soot (http://tr.im/DieselCancer)
• Sewage treatment plant in sensitive ecosystem -- would add a new point source of nitrogen pollution to Tampa Bay (public utilities aren't available far outside Urban Service Area). Storm damage or flooding would pollute Cockroach Bay.

The wrong jobs, in the wrong place:
• This California developer promises new jobs come with "Multi-modal" Distribution Centers -- but look how that turned out in California: http://www.box.net/shared/xlei6jhc07
• In California's "multi-modal" hubs, most of the workers are "thoroughly exploited" Hispanics (25% - 40% undocumented immigrants), employed through temp agencies, and paid very little. Hardly any work full time.
• Since the warehouses generate no retail sales, the local municipalities don't collect much revenue.
• Although the developer plays to our hope that more jobs would help fill empty houses, that hasn't happened in California, where their larger warehouses sit in a region with the third-highest foreclosure rate in the nation. Workers mostly live in poor trailer parks with makeshift dirt streets. Poverty abounds.
• The developer promises 1800 jobs. Where will these people commute from? To avoid the charge that these jobs will spawn sprawling new subdivisions nearby, in Hillsborough's rural area, the developer claims all these commuters will go back home to Manatee county every day. If so, then these are all jobs for Manatee residents, paying no taxes to Hillsborough county, but clogging Hillsborough's roads (like Pasco's residents coming into north Hillsborough county to work) leaving Hillsborough residents to pay for the road improvements.
• 1800 jobs mean 1800 workers + their spouses and children. They'll want housing, schools, police & fire, restaurants, shops & services near their jobs -- but in the Rural Area, we'd have to build all the infrastructure from scratch!

New jobs should go in the Urban Services Area, where the infrastructure is. We can't afford the new infrastructure required for all this new sprawl in the Rural Area. We can't afford to provide the infrastructure we need WITHIN the Urban Services Area -- we're $8 BILLION behind on road improvements alone!! Our county planners know all this -- that's why they strongly recommend denial.

Please concur with county planners, the Planning Commission and the many citizens asking you to deny these 2 related plan amendments.

Sincerely,

(your name & address)

_________________________________________
More info:

Lots of info on SouthShore Dems site:
http://www.southshoredemocraticclub.org/inlandport.html
with alert on their home page: http://www.southshoredemocraticclub.org/

Aerial showing rural area at south county line:
http://www.box.net/shared/3ms1p21t7q

Map showing surrounding preserves:
http://tr.im/RockPondMap

MPO = Metropolitan Planning Organization
FDOT = Florida Dept. of Transportation
These and other agency comments:
http://www.box.net/shared/rg5xjbpjz2

County staff reports:
(these include lots of info & maps which are exactly the same in both reports):
CPA 09-13: http://tr.im/0913pdf
CPA 09-14: http://tr.im/0914pdf

Concerns and Issues were raised by:
• Tampa Port Authority
• Port Manatee
• Emergency Management
• Sundance HOA County Involvement Committee Comment
• Environmental Protection Commission
• Planning and Growth Management
• Economic Development Comments
• Manatee County Planning Department
• Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
• FDOT – Freight Movement Study Consultant

Previous News reports:
   • http://southshore2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/22/ss-distribution-center-proposed/news/
   • http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/17/port-says-it-doesnt-need-south-shore-distribution-/news-breaking/
   • http://www.observernews.net/artman2/publish/Top_Stories/Residents_Weigh_Pros_and_Cons_of_Container_Shipping_Center.shtml
   • http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1013015.ece

Questions? call me: Mariella Smith, 645-4218