Last week the Hillsborough County Commission heard a proposal from a developer who wants to build 300 apartments on land next to the Upper Tampa Bay Trail. Alliance Realty Partners wants to build over part of trail and trade land nearby on which to divert the popular walking and biking trail.
Our guest on MidPoint was the only commissioner who voted against a plan to negotiate with the developer for the land swap. Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp used to host a talk show on WMNF, Last Call. She described the Upper Tampa Bay Trail and the outcry from the public to protect it from development.
Kemp voted against Commissioner Ken Hagan’s suggestion to leave the door open to negotiate with the developer about moving the trail.
Listen to the full show here:
Red tide update
Tons of dead fish have been collected from the Gulf of Mexico off Pinellas County. FOX13 posted photos online of a line of dead fish with discolored water behind it just offshore of Madeira Beach. A couple of weeks ago we posted on Facebook photos of small numbers of dead fish on south Pinellas Beaches.
The FWC posted this on Friday: “A bloom of the Florida red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida and extends from Pinellas to northern Collier counties along ~120 miles of coastline. Observations of >1,000,000 K. brevis cells per liter (“high” concentrations) occurred in samples collected in or offshore of Sarasota, Charlotte, and Lee counties only. Relative to last week, multiple locations in Sarasota and Collier counties showed decreased cell concentrations.”
Video:
