The developer of Cypress Creek Town Center could issue bids for a redesign along County Road 54, also known as Wesley Chapel Boulevard, as early as February.
If that happens, construction could begin in April to widen a stretch of roadway from its intersection with State Road 56 north past a planned entry in the mall.
“That’s optimistic,” said Brent Whitley, vice president of Sierra Properties Inc. “But, we want to be completed by the end of the year.”
Additional roadwork by Pasco County might not happen until 2020, but area residents are eager to see a start on easing traffic woes on the existing two-lane portion of Wesley Chapel Boulevard.
(Kathy Steele/Staff Photo)
More than 100 residents attended a workshop on Jan.15 to check out the proposed road project. County transportation planners and representatives of Kisinger Campo & Associates were on hand at Veterans Elementary School to answer questions and listen to input on the road design.
The goal is to build a six-lane divided roadway from north of State Road 56 to north of Magnolia Boulevard. The project will provide three 12-foot traffic lanes on both sides of a median. There also will be bicycle lanes, a five-foot-wide sidewalk on the west side of the road, and an eight-foot sidewalk on the east side.
On the county’s part, completion of the roadway’s design is expected in 2016. Construction to start where the mall’s expanded roadwork ends won’t happen until right-of-way acquisition is completed. That process will begin in 2016. Funding for the project is included in Pasco County’s five-year capital improvement budget.
Sierra Properties, the mall developer, is responsible for that portion of the road that runs past the mall, located north of State Road 56 at the intersection with Wesley Chapel Boulevard.
A traffic signal is planned at the mall’s entrance.
Most of the residents at the workshop expressed frustrations about increasing traffic congestion, long waits to turn onto Wesley Chapel Boulevard as they exit their subdivisions and concerns about right-of-way acquisition.
Currently, the road has six lanes where Wesley Chapel Boulevard and State Road 56 meet, but it quickly tapers to two lanes beyond the mall’s property.
“The main issue is being able to get in and out of Grand Oaks,” said Jim Clark, who moved to Grand Oaks in 1997. “It’s a tremendous problem especially going east.”
A wait of 10 minutes or more to exit the subdivision is not unusual, he said.
“We really do need a stop light,” said his wife, Trisha Clark.
The couple will get their wish.
County planners said new traffic signals would be installed at Grand Oaks and at Stagecoach, in addition to the light at the mall.
New growth, both residential and commercial, gets the blame for the increasing traffic woes.
“Because of the expansion of new car dealerships, it’s growing greatly, which is a good thing,” said Ed Rogers, who lives in Grand Oaks. “But, now we have trucks at all hours of the night. The noise will be even more.”
Rogers and his neighbor, Kay Kleinhample, also had concerns that the county would buy up right-of-way that would take down Grand Oaks’ entrance wall, and even all or part of their homes.
That won’t be the case, according to county planners.
Instead, the right-of-way still needed for the project will come from the east side of Wesley Chapel Boulevard. That could affect some businesses, but no homes will be lost, they said.
Concerns still remain about the timing and how the redesign will work.
“What are they going to do to make our living a little easier?” Kleinhample said.
Published January 20, 2016
