County commissioners heard several concerns Oct. 21 from Ridgemoor and Tarpon Woods residents who said replacement of the Brooker Creek Bridge will create life safety issues for two years.
Residents noted a design considered by the Florida Department of Transportation will reduce the two-lane bridge to one lane in each direction with automated signals directing traffic, leaving Tarpon Woods Boulevard as the only way out of the subdivisions for up to 1,200 residents.
Randy Burr, a Ridgemoor resident speaking on his own behalf and not as an East Lake Fire District commissioner, said he is one of 1,000 homeowners opposed to FDOT plans to replace the Brooker Creek Bridge along Ridgemoor Boulevard in Palm Harbor.
“We believe the current replacement plan for that bridge fails to sufficiently mitigate public safety and potential life-threatening circumstances,” Burr told commissioners. “Although we have raised these concerns over the past two years on many occasions, it does not appear any measures have been taken to mitigate the public safety risk we fear.”
Burr said residents raised their concerns at two previous town meetings held by the county and FDOT.
He asked for the county’s help to scrutinize replacement of “this small 170-foot, two-lane bridge. We believe the current plan will not only create an unmanageable bottleneck of traffic for two years, but it will also create potential risks and endanger our families.”
The plan calls for a contractor to demolish one of the two current lanes, use the remaining lane to allow traffic to flow in both directions and rely on Tarpon Woods Boulevard as the only other road servicing the community, he said.
The project is slated to start during hurricane season in 2026 and be under construction for two hurricane seasons, he said.
“It is not out of the question that demolishing one lane of the existing bridge could undermine the stability of the entire structure and could lead to a full closure of Ridgemoor Boulevard. That would create catastrophic risk for us,” Burr told commissioners.
Edward Gerulat, a retired civil engineer, said FDOT estimates average daily traffic flow over the bridge at 7,900 vehicles in 2024, including school buses, fire trucks, dump trucks, garbage trucks and other heavy equipment, as well as commuters.
“Safety — mainly timely access by first responders — is our greatest concern,” Gerulat told commissioners. “Significant time delays would likely occur for the first responders to pass over the single-lane bridge, controlled by unmanned, automated signals, with possibility of facing oncoming traffic during rush hours.”
Resident Mary Strickland told commissioners between 800 and 1,200 residents live in developments served by Ridgemoor Boulevard, a roadway that extends more than 3 miles.
Strickland suggested a northern route could be created by extending the northern end of Ridgemoor to Keystone Road. “This is a sensible idea for many reasons,” she said.
According to the FDOT website, the project is currently in the design phase. Plans depict closing off one lane to install a new travel lane.
An FDOT survey in 2013 determined the bridge, built in 1985, was “scour critical” and needed to be replaced at an estimated cost of $6.7 million. A scour critical bridge is one vulnerable to failure from bridge scour, which is the erosion of riverbed or bank material around its foundations by flowing water.
County reverses land use to permit housing rather than assisted living facility
At their Oct. 21 meeting, county commissioners were asked to reverse a developer’s plans and change the land use on 4 acres of property at the southwest corner of Keystone Road and Woodfield Boulevard back from institutional to residential rural to allow for homes to be constructed.
In 2015, commissioners approved a zoning change and developer’s agreement on the property from agricultural estate residential to institutional limited to allow for construction of an 80-bed assisted living facility that never materialized.
A staff report said the development agreement approved in 2015 was extended for five years in 2020 and is set to expire in August 2025. The agreement approved in 2020 had a land-use and zoning revision clause written into it that would require the property to revert to the original land-use and zoning designations it had in 2015 if the development agreement expired.
According to county staff, the property owner indicated he is not interested in extending the development agreement and requested to have the property reverted to its previous zoning of residential agriculture.
In a staff report, county commissioners were told the property owner indicated a desire to eventually build one or two single-family homes on the property.
In a letter to the county, property owner Eric Moore said, “Looking ahead, my goal is to build a home for my family on the site — an agricultural estate-style residence along with a couple of ancillary buildings, an in-law suite and some storage space.”
County commissioners passed the request unanimously without comment. Staff noted there were no objections.