Opposition outweighs support for Westchase crosswalk at county meeting

Yahoo

21-05-2025

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — There's a divide in the Westchase community over a project to put a crosswalk in a school zone near Westchase Elementary School.
The project is meant to improve pedestrian safety, but many argue the area is already safe and that the money could be better spent on other projects in the community.
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Hillsborough County conducted a study showing people and students would have to walk 2,300 feet to the nearest crosswalk to get across the four lane West Linebaugh Avenue. If a crosswalk is added, it would be 120 feet to get across.
During the study, they also saw students from the elementary school illegally crossing the street and standing in the median, waiting on cars to go by to get across.
Some people argued that those students and pedestrians can just take the walk, as opposed to adding another crosswalk they feel would increase traffic in an already congested area.
'I think it's going to be more dangerous. I think the crosswalk we have with three manned crossing guards is very safe,' said Jessica Siddle, a Westchase resident.
During an open house event at the school Tuesday, a majority of the attendants seemed to be against the project, including the Westchase Community Association HOA.
'The WCA board and the voting members board all voted unanimously in opposition,' said Eric Goldstein, the VP of Government Affairs for WCA.
The county said the project cost estimate is $1,050,000.
$800,000 would go toward construction, and $250,000 toward the design. Goldstein and others said the money could be better spent on sidewalk repairs and installations around the neighborhood.
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'We have citizens that are tripping over sidewalks every day injuring themselves. And it seems to me it's a waste of money to do a crosswalk. Money could be better spent in fixing sidewalks,' said Terry Boyd, who is against the new crosswalk.
Of the 74 people who signed in at the open house, 8 On Your Side found four people who were there in support of the project.
'I think it's crazy that the community is opposed to it,' said Lauren Palm. 'I just think that the most important thing is to keep kids safe and that's all we're trying to do.'
Lauren Frazier, who saw the need for the crosswalk in 2023, was there as well. She said based on conversations with her neighbors and seeing kids run across the street to the median, she wanted to get something done.
'I've not ever seen a school that doesn't have a cross walk direct to the school,' Fraizer said.
She took her concerns to the county, and said after being very persistent with them, funding for the project was approved in December. She referred to the county's study where they found the location meets the criteria for a mid-block crosswalk. It also said the location meets the Florida Statutes definition of a hazardous walking condition for students.
'Really, we're going to go against what the professionals who (have) many years of school are pointing to, all because people just don't like it or understand it? That's, yeah, very disappointing,' Frazier said.
The study was made available to everyone.
The WCA said they found holes in the study, and others against the project argued that they don't see accidents happen in this stretch, so they don't think the crosswalk is needed.
County Commissioner Joshua Wostal was at the open house. He said the project immediately received opposition and said the questions he's hearing are why is this all of sudden a priority in this safe community.
'Westchase is kind of the envy of Hillsborough County, being the most walkable, pedestrian-safe community,' Wostal said.
He said the proposed crosswalk is an eyeshot away from an existing crosswalk and said it doesn't make sense to him nor to the community to do this when there are other needs. He also mentioned how he doesn't want this to be a repeat of the Sun City Center issue where Wostal said the commissioners paid for a project the community didn't want, and now the county is trying to undo what they paid.
'The community is clearly against it. It's a well-maintained sidewalk within an eyeshot and we should just promote no illegal jaywalking across the street here,' Wostal said. 'I will bring an item to kill this project.'
Wostal said they can go back to making repairs the community actually wants. But Frazier said she has about 50 emails of people who support this crosswalk and said if this is blocked at the county level, she will take it to the state.
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