'No Bloomingale Big Box' Event Set for Rush-Hour Traffic Today (May 7)

Residents opposed to big-box retail development and apartments next to the Bloomingale Regional Library have been asked to voice their concerns May 7 in person, holding signs at and near the corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Lithia-Pinecrest Road from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Jereme Monette, president of the Bloomingdale Ridge Homeowners Association, said he will be there as a member of the steering committee organized to spearhead community awareness and activism in response to development on land zoned for a 158,800-square-foot big-box store, other commercial space and 260 apartments.

"The goal is to inform the people around here what's happening," he said. "A lot of people don't know that [the development] is going in there. The ones who do know it's going in don't know how massive it will be."

• Update Coverage: Neighbors Rally Against Big-Box Development (posted May 8)

• Update Coverage: Video Views From Big-Box Development Protest (posted May 8)

The group known as Coordinated Active Neighborhoods Development Organization (CANDO) — and loosely known as "No Bloomingdale Big Box" — has been meeting frequently. The group is active on Facebook and on change.org, with a petition against the development that as of May 6 had realized 769 supporters.

According to an informational flyer, activists are most concerned about:

• Increased traffic on already overcrowded roads,
• Safety hazards for our children at the schools, library and YMCA,
• Overcrowding in our schools,
• Lowered property values, and
• Unknown environmental hazards.

Monette noted that 13,000 new cars a day woud result from the development, which he said he gleaned from the deverloper's site plan submitted to the county.

Concerns have prompted the call for what has been described as "a good old sign-waving protest."

Even then, said activist Mark Nash, the effort will be meaningless unless the Bloomingdale community takes legal action to stop the proposed development, an issue likely to be raised at a public meeting scheduled for May 14 at a nearby church (see below).

"Unless the Bloomingdale community sues the county commissioners, unless they take legal action to stop this land from being developed, the project is too far down the road to be changed," said Nash, who in 2012 lost his bid to replace Al Higginbotham on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. "There's only one way this project can be challenged and stopped and that is by the Bloomingdale community challenging the legality of this project."

Monette, who has plans to run for the Hillsborough County School Board, added that he is not giving up "until the construction plan is done and they've broken ground."

"I don't know whether we can stop it or not," he said. "This organization isn't vying for a political position. We're just neighbors in a collection of communities concerned that this development is going to rip apart the fabric of this community."

Activist George Nieman is of like mind.

"This proposed development will destroy the neighborhood as we know it," he said, "and it's too bad that the county does everything in its power to help commercial developers without giving any consideration to what happens after the development is completed."

He added that there might not be many options at this point.

"But whatever options we have, we've got to let the county know that they can't continue to do business this way," Nieman said. "Regardless of what happens here, in 2014 five commissioners' seats will be open and these decisionmakers will pay the price for what's happened here."

_____________

But surely not everyone is opposed to more shopping, more apartments, in the Bloomingdale area. Calls for jobs, for commerce, are often loudest as neighborhoods boom, and as economic times falter. Then again, as noted, there are many residents who have voiced very real, very impassioned, concerns about this particular development. Let us know where you stand. Post your thoughts in the comment box below.

______________

Earlier:

The May 7 protest, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., aims to raise awareness and to demonstrate to elected representatives the degree of opposition to the 43.5-acre development, which has been building in recent months.

• See Opposition Preps for Big-Box Development Protest

• See Bloomingdale Residents Continue To Fight Big-Box Development (includes link to a petition that has garnered more than 680 signatures)
  

• See Higginbotham Fields Big-Box Development Question (video and reader comments posted at Brandon Patch)

• See Commissioner Answers Big-Box Development Question (video and comments posted at Bloomingdale-Riverview Patch)

Protestors are being asked to make and wave signs that say: "NO BIG BOX." Also available will be fliers to handout, "esp[ecially] [be]cause traffic [will be] at a standstill, we can hand them out easily."

The announcement notes as well that commissioners will be invited to a public meeting on the issue, scheduled for May 14 at the The Palms Community Church, just west of Bloomingdale High School, at 1310 East Bloomingdale Avenue.

As of Friday morning, May 3, 769 people had posted their support for an online petition at change.org to "stop plans to build a supercenter in Valrico, Florida."

According to an April 23 Patch report, property owner, Redstone Properties LLC, was conducting a traffic study required by the county that would allow the company to begin development of the property, which is already zoned for a 158,800-square-foot big-box store, along with other commercial space and 260 apartments.

According to county planner Matt Lewis, the developer has not confirmed what big-box store it wants to build but has mentioned the possibility of a Super Target or Sam's Club. However, residents say they've seen plans designating it as a Super Walmart.

"The bottom line is that the community was horribly misled on the rezoning of this land," Nash contends. "The county commissioners in 2011 effectively created a brand new land-use category. The irony is that it was a countywide land-use change but it only affected one parcel of land and that is the parcel on Bloomingdale Avenue."

Opposition includes the contention that the development would bring more traffic to an already congested road in a less-than-satisfactory transit corridor, running from Bloomingdale Avenue to Lithia-Pinecrest Road.

Also, that the project would adversely impact wetlands, hundred-year-old oak trees and nests of gopher turtles.

Safety, too, has been raised as a concern, noting the student-centered development in the area, including the library, Bloomingdale High School, Burns Middle School, Alafia and Cimino elementary schools, the Campo Family YMCA and the Bloomingdale Little League fields.