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NTCC June Newsletter

Dear Members and Friends,

Now that the Taste has come and gone, we can focus on our new fall event, the first ever, New Tampa Art Show on November 18 and 19 under the oaks at the Palm Lake Office Center in Tampa Palms. With the help of the Hillsborough Arts Council and The North Tampa Arts Council, our committee will contact artists who routinely participate in Arts Shows all over Florida and the southeast. This is a juried show with $9500 in prize money put up by our sponsors with $5,000 going to the Best in Show. There will be a Children’s Art Expo and we are hoping that the area schools will assist in sending us the works of their best art students. There will also be live music and concessions to compliment the show. If you are interested in a sponsorship or participation please contact me at frank@newtampafirst.com and I will forward your information into the right hands. There soon will be a website to view the details and the schedule.
The Board recently voted to have me draft a letter to all the County Commissioners and County Administrator, Pat Bean. This letter expressed concerns on preliminary approvals given to a proposed condominium development of 1488 units. This development borders Tampa Palms, North Oaks and Forest Oaks with units built over parking garages and buildings towering 100 feet in the air. This development is expected to produce over 10,000 more trips on already over crowded Bruce B. Downs. Now saying all that, the letter stated that we are not opposed to development and have worked well with developers in the past. We only ask that the Commissioners take a hard look and approve a “sensible plan” that will fit current infrastructure, schools and services. Like all developers before them, they should be required to provide concurrency when it comes to roads and schools who will certainly be impacted. There is a public hearing in August and we hope to host an information townhall meeting on this subject prior to the hearing. In the meantime, let our County Commissioner’s how you feel and again with election coming up this fall and spring register and vote and tell your neighbors to do the same. Many thanks to Maggie Wilson of Tampa Palms for sharing her in depth research on this development with me and the Board.
By the time you receive this, the groundbreaking for the Cross Creek Expansion will have occurred on May 30th at 10AM. It is bittersweet though when yet another New Tampa road project gets put on the back burner for a lack of funds. The bridge over I-75 has been bundled into the East-West Connector Project and hopefully will be back on track soon. This is another good reason to vote. Let someone know how you feel and e-mail Mayor Iorio at the City’s website.
That’s enough for now, watch out for our kids now that they are out of school and have a great summer.

Beat the Heat,
Frank J. Margarella