Please Attend Wednesday's 9 AM Hillsborough County Comission Meeting

Urgent Reminder: Please attend Wednesday's 9 a.m. Hillsborough County Commission meeting to protest the county's proposed derailing of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail's 7-mile extension to connect with the Suncoast Trail.

Sign up at 8:45 am to speak to the commission.

The county commission is scheduled to deal with this trail issue at 10:45 am

I have looked at the county parks staff report and it appears the staff are advising the commissioners that are already plenty of trails in the county.

Make your voice heard Wednesday and tell the county commissioners to link the Upper Tampa Bay Trail with the Sunncoast Trail along the planned alignment that has been in the works for years. This would create the longest continuous paved trail in the state of Florida, a superhighway trail.

Here are the points you can make:

-- County spent $400,000 to investigate and confirm the best alignment
-- BOCC previously approved the alignment and acquired property through eminent domain
-- County purchased 16 acres south of Van Dyke for the trail
-- Notices sent to affected property owners to the north in this final phase anticipating this alignment
-- Negotiations underway to utility easement anticipating this alignment
-- Voted the region's #1 multi-use trail priority
-- BOCC's commitment building this trail leaves residents and visitors with expectations
-- Creating almost 60 miles of trail by connecting to Suncoast is an opportunity our community should not take lightly
-- Network of on-road bike lanes extensive in NW Hillsborough (Sheldon, Linebaugh, Ehrlich) that a real transportation network mixing on and off road facilities is allowing folks to access the trail without driving
-- IF justification for rescinding is that construction $ not lined up yet, we set aside alignments for ROADS
-- IF rescinded, how will this affect other properties acquired through eminent domain?
-- Can property owners in Phase IV notified that the county wants to purchase their property for the trail sue for attorney fees if county backs out of project?