Opposition Preps for Big-Box Development Protest

Residents opposed to big-box retail development and apartments next to the Bloomingale Regional Library are asked to voice their concern May 7 in person, holding signs along the south side of Bloomingdale Avenue in time for rush-hour evening traffic.

"Time for a good old sign-waving protest," reads the protest invitation forwarded by the Coordinated Active Neighborhoods Development Organization (CANDO). "Forty or 50 people won't do it. We need 1,000! All of you need to be there along with your family members, friends and neighbors."

Even then, said protestor 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."

Whatever is decided in this regard, 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 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, 683 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.