TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council members were briefed Thursday morning on the proposed South Howard flood relief project ahead of a vote.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
City officials say the South Howard flood relief project involves designing and building a major stormwater conveyance system to improve drainage and reduce flooding
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The council is scheduled to vote on reallocating more than $21 million in grant funding from the Stormwater Bond Series Fund to support the project
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The project carries an estimated total price tag of $98 million
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The SoHo Business Alliance has filed a legal challenge related to Thursday\u2019s meeting, claiming it violated Florida\u2019s Sunshine Law because of insufficient public notice. The City Attorney\u2019s Office disputes that claim<\/p>\n
The council is scheduled to vote on reallocating more than $21 million in grant funding from the Stormwater Bond Series Fund to support the project. City officials say the vote is necessary to keep the project alive, while some residents and business owners say they still have significant concerns.<\/p>\n
The project carries an estimated total price tag of $98 million.<\/p>\n
City officials say the project involves designing and building a major stormwater conveyance system to improve drainage and reduce flooding.<\/p>\n
What Thursday\u2019s vote does<\/p>\n
City officials say the project would involve designing and building a major stormwater conveyance system aimed at improving drainage and reducing chronic flooding in the South Howard area.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s workshop, council members emphasized the vote does not authorize construction. Instead, it would shift existing stormwater funds from one project to another to allow planning and design work to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome members of the community were told today was the most important vote,\u201d said Councilman Bill Carlson. \u201cTonight, we\u2019re only moving $21 million from one account to another \u2014 which could easily be moved again.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials argue that the funding shift is critical to prevent the project from stalling.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Thursday, the City of Tampa said the future of the South Howard flood relief project hinges on the vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project would effectively be dead if council members vote against moving unspent stormwater funds from another successful project into the SoHo project,\u201d said city spokesperson Adam Smith. \u201cThere\u2019s no point continuing to devote resources and energy to this if it lacks support from council members.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joanie Corneil, owner of Bella\u2019s Caf\u00e9, attended the workshop and said she remains unconvinced that the project\u2019s benefits justify its cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no guarantee \u2014 and spending $100 million, I don\u2019t agree,\u201d Corneil said.<\/p>\n
She also raised concerns about potential economic affects on local businesses and questioned whether surrounding neighborhoods such as Parkland Estates and Palma Ceia Pines would see meaningful flood relief.<\/p>\n
Housing advocate Stephanie Poynor questioned whether the project focuses too narrowly on one area while other flood-prone neighborhoods across Tampa remain vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see there are tons of areas that are low-lying and going to flood too,\u201d Poynor said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to spend all our money in one area and then not have anything left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents say they are seeking stronger assurances that long-delayed flood mitigation efforts will finally move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we are, 10 years later, still discussing this,\u201d Poynor added. \u201cInaction is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunshine Law challenge filed<\/p>\n
The SoHo Business Alliance has filed a legal challenge related to Thursday\u2019s meeting, claiming it violated Florida\u2019s Sunshine Law because of insufficient public notice.<\/p>\n
The City Attorney\u2019s Office disputes that claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tampa City Attorney\u2019s Office says the meeting was properly noticed,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIn addition, we promoted it on social media, informed area neighborhood associations, and emailed hundreds of people who signed up for updates about this project. Very few Tampa City Council meetings are promoted as much as this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council members are expected to continue discussing funding and potential changes to the project during their meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. Any final decision on the South Howard Flood Relief Project would take place at a future meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council members were briefed Thursday morning on the proposed South Howard flood relief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3140,274,2375,276,115,99,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-136963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-fadia-patterson","11":"tag-hillsborough-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}