I received this email tonight:
Dear Neighbors,
On Monday, May 14, 6:00 pm, Hillsborough County Rezoning Committee will hold a public hearing for a special land use permit for Gates Charter Middle and High School. This 1000 student public high school is being built in your backyard! No matter where your home is located your family will experience the impact.
Students of the school will be from all of Hillsborough County (20-25% will be Lutz’s children). Charter schools do not provide bus transportation; therefore, the parents will drop off or the students will drive their own vehicles. That means 1000 student or parent vehicles, school staff vehicles, plus service vehicles will be using Livingston, Sunset, Hanna, and US Hwy 41 every morning and afternoon. Good luck getting out of Walgreens or the Winn Dixie Plaza.
The main entrance will be off US Hwy 41 just north of Walgreen’s parking lot and the 2ndentrance (student and staff parking) will use the ranger’s road next to Nye Park. We already have traffic due to Lutz Elementary. This school will only intensify the traffic on US Hwy 41, Sunset, Hanna, and Livingston causing more backups and accidents. I wish you luck getting out of Walgreens and Winn Dixie Plaza.
The school will take up woodlands and wetlands that extend from Hwy 41 to Yokum (next to Nye Park). The north-south boundaries would involve land from Sunset Lane to Lake Commiston and Lutz Elementary School. The main access from US Hwy 41 will require a dirt bridge to be built through existing pristine marshlands destroying trees and wildlife.
This property has exceptional ecological value and was nominated and accepted as a future ELAP property on Hillsborough County’s conservation lands list and added as an addition to Nye Park. The negotiations fell through between the county and the owner because the county could not reach the asking price the owner was demanding ($2 million). More that the appraised value! The property is a combination of freshwater marshes, open lakes, and forested uplands. When the county did an environmental assessment of the parcel, they determined that it has diverse wildlife: owls, birds, tortoises, Sherman fox squirrel, red shouldered hawks, fox, and deer.
The land is a valuable asset to Nye Park in that it has the potential to be part of Lutz’s greenway vision that connects Nye Park to US Hwy 41 via paved trails that take you through downtown Lutz, Old Lutz School House, and up to Oscar Cooler Park. The land is a valuable asset to Nye Park in that it can be used for various natural trail activities, picnic events, lakefront activities.
Three public high schools already serve Lutz: Steinbrenner High School, Gaither High School, and Freedom High School. Why do we need another high school?
As a long term resident of Lutz, I am aware of how important it is to protect our quality of living. We have been very lucky to enjoy the natural beauty and wildlife surrounding our neighborhood for so long. If this project is approved, it will spoil the natural freshwater marshes, open lakes and forested uplands destroying the beautiful wild life we have all enjoyed and disrupting the natural flow of water. What a terrible loss for all of us!
Public Hearing App. # SU-12-0429 GEN
Monday, May 14, 2012, 6:00 pm
County Center, 2nd Floor
601 E. Kennedy Blvd.
813-276-2006
hearings@hillsboroughcounty.org
Write or call:
David Croft
PGM- ZONING HEARING SECTION
PO BOX 1110
Tampa, Fl 33601
App No. SU-12-0429 GEN
813-276-8680 – 8am-4pm Mon-Fri.
croftd@hillsboroughcounty.org
Isabelle A. Albert
Senior Planner
Planning and Zoning Services Division
Planning and Growth Management Department
Hillsborough County BOCC
813.276.8396 f: 813.272.6068
alberti@hillsboroughcounty.org
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org
Thank you,
From your neighbor at Sunset Manor
Gil and Betty McGee
5 comments:
I have been a resident of Lutz my whole life. As friends and family have come and gone they always are reminded of the tranquility that Lutz has broiught them and always seem to want to come back. The construction of this school, although "Green" will impact our wildlife and residential life tremendously. This will make Lutz into another New Tampa. For those of you who have traveled that area recently understand what I mean. It is overpopulated. The saying "If it isn't broken why fix it" is exactly why we do not need to build this school so close to our homes. There are many other great locations to build this school other than in our backyards. Please think about this before building. Thank you.
Like Betty and Gil, I am a long time resident of Lutz. While we are not opposed to the school itself, the site that has been chosen to build upon goes against everything that the Lutz community has fought to preserve all these years. Learning Gate would like for you to believe that this is a "community" school, however that is not exactly the truth. Your children would have to apply and go into the lottery system that Hills County has set up for all Charter and Magnet Schools. Just because you live here, doesn't mean you will be accepted. The impact on Sunset, Livingston and 41would be more than significant. I don't know if you are aware, but understand that they are proposing a 270 space parking lot next to NYE Park, most of these for students that are driving to school. The people who have chosen to live in Lutz, build their homes, raise their children and establish life long friendships here have done so for a reason. If we wanted to live in a New Tampa environment, that's where we would be. Please consider your neighborhood, your property values and your way of life in Lutz and show your support on Wednesday, 05/09 at Learning Gate and again at the County Meeting on Monday, 05/14. Don't wait until it's too late.
Thank You for your time and consideration
Lisa Schueller
I am a student of Gate Jr/ Senior High as of right now. I am also a local resident of Lutz, living off of Sunset. I just want people to know that students of Gates are very mature and wee take care of the environment around us. We are going a lot to keep the land the same because we see the biodiversity and beauty of the land we want to use. Yes it will cause some back up in traffic but not in Sunset Plaza or in the Walgreens parking lots because that isn't where the entrance to the school will be. As for the concern of students driving and parking at the school, I want to let you know that students will have to keep up good grades in order to drive and park at the school. Right now the students of Gates are stuck in a small office building with no room to see biodiversity within the wildlife or even exercise the studying of the environment.
Yours truly,
An 8th grader from Gates Jr/ Senior High
Now you will have a several hundred unit townhouse comples, or maybe a giant strip mall. ALL the trees will be gone, and the entire property will be blacktopped. You should have been grateful for a green, eco friendly high school.
This is to reply to the 7/10/13 post:
Wrong...again! That property is currently zoned for NONE of those types of projects that you listed. Each would require the property to be re-zoned, and ...that's not going to happen.
One positive result from this whole mess, is that the people on Sunset Lane are now MUCH more aware of how NOT to be ambushed by projects, such as the Gates HS, in the future.
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