A coalition of Hillsborough County government bodies hosted a public forum Tuesday intended to gauge public opinion on the county's future public transportation developments.
More than 150 people attended what is planned to be the first of up to 15 public forums planned for the next year and a half on the topic.
The meeting began with a presentation by consultant Herb Marlowe, who served as the moderator of the event. While making clear that there no comprehensive plans for the county to present, Marlowe emphasized the future growth of Hillsborough County, with an estimated 600,000 new residents by 2040, and spoke of seeking to develop job opportunities and having a region that can compete on a national level.
Things got interesting once Marlowe began seeking opinions from the audience. Using a format that used an opinion sheet asking questions such as “How important are transportation improvements to job growth in the County?” on a scale from 1 to 5, attendees were selected based on what number they picked, with one response for each respective number.
Given that the pro-transit portion of the audience, wearing blue stickers plastered with the phrase “Try Transit”, had about twice the attendees as the opposition, Marlowe's efforts to create a balanced debate while also allowing each person to only speak once proved impossible. This led to any person who wasn't completely pro-transit more opportunities to talk.
Nevertheless, there were a plenty of arguments both for and against the topic. The familiar tropes of the debate were revisited, with the argument of transportation losing money and the plan ignoring outlying areas of the county being put against the argument that developed transportation would make Tampa Bay more competitive for businesses to relocate to and allow for the region to become more ingrained and better to live. Some of the more interesting attendees included a 16-year-old who feared that he would eventually have to move away to live in a suitable region; and Andrew Blikken of the Tampa Bay Bike Share extolling the potential of public-private partnerships related to developing transportation.
The largest point of criticism was actually directed at the absent County Commission. There was a consensus amongst the audience that the debate would simply be a rehash of the conversation on the topic that has gone on for decades with limited action. There was also criticism of the commission's leniency in allowing for the development of Tampa's suburban sprawl and now placing an expected tax on citizens to make up for their mistakes.
“I think it's important to understand that the County Commissioners and mayors were specifically not invited to participated,” said Eric Johnson, director of the Department of Strategic Planning for Hillsborough County, in explaining the absences. “I think they would have come if that was the plan but the process that we had developed was wanting them to work together and build a relationship between the cities and the county that we haven't historically had. Tonight was to start to get the public engaged. What we wanted was for a hired facilitator to facilitate their discussions and also facilitate the community discussion. We're not at the point of having a public hearing. There's nothing for the public to react to. We just wanted to build up public discussion, get the feedback tonight, and we will move forward and react to this.”
Once the forum ended after more than an hour of discussion, there was an overwhelming desire by many in the audience to see the next step in the process, and some concept of a master plan.
“I think that anytime 150 people can come out and pack a room on something where they're not really bringing in any results, but just to show that they care deeply about an issue, should show the county commission and the mayors who weren't here to hear them that this is the biggest issue,” said Phil Compton of the Sierra Club. “People really do care and they want this county to develop a plan now, sooner rather than later. This is not part of the 2040 planning that's long term. Ask any person's perspective. This is about what we are going to do and when we are going to do it and how we are going to get there. How we're going to come up with the money and how are we going to keep up with every metropolitan area in the United States. More talk and no action is not going to cut it for people here in Hillsborough County. We're all frustrated.”
Despite the large pro-transit turnout, most of those who opposed any type of transit tax left unconvinced.
“We live in the unincorporated areas, so we currently pay for HART. It was an award winning bus system, it was third tier but it was award winning,” said attendant Joseph Clemis. “We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars for what's third rate, it doesn't even get to us at all. Now the city of Tampa says they want light rail, they want an alternative. So the city reaches out into the pockets of the people and say 'you don't deserve this, we're going to take it and use it down here'. And we already see it's going to be government run.If the city of Tampa wants this and they feel that it sides with their economic growth then they should pay for it. I have no problem with them paying for the buses and trains that run through their area, but it wouldn't touch me. All I go to is the airport, the mall in Brandon and the beaches in Clearwater.”
However there were some in attendance who had come around on the issue, most notably a Republican primary candidate for the Hillsborough County Commission District 7 seat, Don Kruse.
“We have to come together, even though I'm a Republican, transportation should be a non-partisan issue," Kruse began. "We need to start doing things in Hillsborough County. I'm a third generation Floridian, my grandmother was born here in 1902. My grandfather was a Tampa police officer in the 1930's. What's funny is we had a better transportation system in Tampa than what we have now, it's non-existent.We have to do something that is smart growth and smart transportation. In 2009 when the tax first came up I said now was not the time to ask for the tax, but here we are four years later. Now is the time. In the next two decades our population is going to increase by 500,00 people. Some people are short sighted . They're not looking towards the future and what we need to do. We have to create for our grandchildren, put the infrastructure in place.”
The next transportation related meeting will be on August 14. It will be a discussion amongst the three mayors (Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Apollo Beach), the chair of HART and the County Commission. While the public won't be directly involved, it will be televised and open to the public. A follow up meeting for citizens to react will be planned after.