TPO adds Branch Forbes, McIntosh and Veterans Expressway updates to 2050 LRTP; board unanimous

The Tampa Bay Transportation Planning Organization on Feb. 12 approved amendments to the Access 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) that add two Plant City corridors to the cost‑feasible plan and record adjustments to projects on the Veterans Expressway. The board approved the LRTP amendments by roll-call vote, 14-0.

Adam Purcell of AECOM, the TPO consultant, reviewed two request sources: District 7, which asked to add Branch Forbes Road from south of U.S. 92 to north of I‑4 and McIntosh Road from south of U.S. 92 to north of I‑4 to the cost‑feasible plan; and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE), which requested multiple projects be recorded in the plan's unfunded needs list and an updated right‑of‑way cost for a Veterans Expressway widening. Purcell said FTE projects are self‑funding and therefore do not require the TPO to identify new local funding to include them. He said staff is proposing to fund preliminary engineering (PE) for Branch Forbes and McIntosh in the 2041–2050 time band to maintain planning consistency with FDOT and to allow the projects to advance to design and construction. "We're looking to support the PE, so we wanna maintain planning consistency, with our plan for the FDOT so they can advance these projects to to design and construction," Purcell told the board.

Purcell said adding the two Plant City corridors required removing one previously planned widening — State Road 574 (MLK) — from the cost‑feasible plan and placing it in the unfunded needs list to avoid secondary impacts on adjacent downtown redevelopment plans in Plant City. He also said updating the Veterans Expressway right‑of‑way estimate increased that allocation by approximately $700,000, and that, after escalation, the planning‑band allocation for the Plant City projects approaches $15,000,000.

Mayor Kilton, representing Plant City interests, thanked staff and consultants for replacing the initially proposed removal of a segment of U.S. 92 with the SR 574 shift, calling the change important for downtown redevelopment: "That was important to us, and I think we get to the same place here. So, we're very much in support of this moving forward," he said.

Public comment at the LRTP hearing included a statement from Rick Fernandez, a Tampa Heights resident and chair of the CAC, who urged the board to remove a separate LRTP project — an expansion of I‑275 north of Hillsborough Avenue — from the long‑range plan. Fernandez said the I‑275 expansion, scheduled for much later decades in the LRTP and estimated at more than $400 million in year‑of‑expenditure dollars, does not reflect the region's multimodal priorities. "Please strike that item from the LRTP," Fernandez said. Staff and consultants noted that the February amendments addressed the specific corridors and FTE items presented to the board and that written comments were not received during the 30‑day public comment period on these amendments.

Board action and next steps: Mayor Kilton moved to approve the LRTP amendments; Council Member Clendenin seconded. The board approved the amendments by roll call, 14-0. Staff said projects added to the plan will proceed through project‑development phases with additional opportunities for public input on design and environmental issues.