TAMPA, Fla. — A fight over North River Blvd, near Epps Park, is heating up between neighbors.
A developer who also lives in the neighborhood owns the land next to his house. He’s planning to build there. The land faces the Hillsborough River and the dead-end road. He wants to open the road so traffic can come out on Fern St. The project has been approved, but neighbors are not backing down.
“We are completely baffled as to why it’s been approved,” said Matt Radeck.
According to Radeck, flooding is already a major problem. He said the project will make it worse. On the other hand, neighbors said the city didn’t give them a chance to speak out against it before giving it approval.
“Come down here after a real heavy rain and this park will be covered with water.”
Radeck and several others spoke at City Council’s March 6 meeting. They want the city to get the developers to pause the project.
“Based on experience eyes on this project, it seems that this doesn’t meet the standards that the city of Tampa would want to insure is complied with,” said lawyer and neighbor Anna Kirkpatrick.
“We had our own independent storm water engineer look into this,” she said. “Despite the concerns voiced by the neighborhood. Despite the concerns voiced by the engineer, the permit was approved.”
She said they would like to compromise with the developer, but he refuses to talk to them.
Radeck said that at this point, they are going to exhaust all options to try to stop the project, even if it involves a lawsuit.
“We want to save our neighborhood, our park, the wildlife here,” he said. “This is bigger than a dead end road."
We reached out to the developer, but he declined our request for an interview.
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