A $6 billion boondoggle. That's what neighbors in Tampa Heights, Ybor City, V.M. Ybor and Seminole Heights are calling a huge I-275 expansion that could bring bulldozers straight to their doorsteps.
This weekend, hundreds of people will march through Tampa Heights to fight for their historic communities. They plan to walk the "swath of destruction" along a one-mile stretch through Tampa Heights along Franklin Street.
The march will start at Cafe Hey on Saturday at 11 a.m. where a mural was painted to symbolize neighbors' fight against the I-275 express toll lanes and is meant to send a message to FDOT that their project to add a tolled express lane to the interstate will ruin an important piece of Tampa History.
About 100 homes and businesses will have to be bought by the state, demolished and turned into expressway from just east of State Road 60 to the Hillsborough River downtown, cutting through several communities, businesses, a community center, parks and homes.
Michelle Cookson from the Stop TBX Coalition argues you can't put a price tag on the homes people love, "These are a part of the fabric of the community."
Kris Carson of FDOT says they're still working out the details of the project including funding, but argues the express lanes are the best way to relieve traffic congestion.
"275 is already congested. Just imagine what it will look like in 5-10 years if we don't do something to alleviate traffic. This plan has been in the works for the past 20 years."
FDOT says express toll lanes are proven to help with traffic and will make a huge difference in your commute, adding that even in the worst traffic, drivers that pay for the express toll lanes soar by at 60 miles per hour. Carson adds since drivers choose to get on the express lanes, that takes cars out of the general use lanes.
FDOT is so confident in these lanes that they also want to add them to I-75, I-275 and I-4.
Saturday's protest march is the first of several monthly marches the "Stop TBX" group plans to host around the impacted communities in Tampa.
If the project moves forward, home and business owners along the I-275 extension may have little hope. Although property owners can negotiate the price of their home and the size of the land they're willing to sell, in eminent domain, as long as the government can prove the project is beneficial to the public, the homeowner loses.
That's why these homeowners tell 10News WTSP they are doing all they can to fight now before this project is a done deal.
