TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The City of Tampa is planning a 65-million-dollar flood relief project for the South Howard Avenue area, but some South Tampa residents are concerned it won't help.
Business owners along South Howard said the planned project will cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue and will cost many of their employees their jobs.
City officials said a flooding event in 2015 in the Parkland Estates neighborhood prompted them to propose the project.
Greta Brooks lives on Bristol Avenue, just off of Howard Avenue, and is worried the solution that is planned won't help.
"I just feel like this is a 65-million-dollar Band-Aid that is going to hurt a lot of people, help some people, but not even fix the problem," Brooks said.
Trees form shade over the street and a median runs down the middle of the avenue.
The planned project would bury a large concrete box culvert under the median of Bristol Avenue to move storm water.
The city's plan calls for the median to be restored, but it will not include trees since they cannot be planted above the underground culvert.
"That's why people move to South Tampa, for this tree canopy, but they are going to take all of them out," Brooks said.
Brooks is worried she won't be able to drive to her home for months and that vibrations from the digging will damage her home.
She said that was a problem for residents in Seminole Heights when a similar project took place there.
"It's not really going to alleviant that for the people who are most impacted," Brooks said. "So, everybody who (was) flooded because of the hurricane water, is still going to have that impact out in front of their homes."
Business owners along South Howard Avenue said traffic will be disrupted in front of their businesses for at least three years.
"Well, you're talking about millions and millions of dollars in lost revenue, thousands of jobs lost, inability to even operate," said Steve Michelini who represents business owners. "You are looking at closures to a number of these places."
He said an engineering report that the city put out in regard to the planned project shows it won't accomplish what people are hoping for.
"I don't think people understand they are only designing this for the three-to-five-year storm, not the catastrophic storms that we had in the last month," Michelini said.
The City of Tampa issued a statement on the project saying, "Highly qualified engineers and experts have spent years studying the problem, including nearly 20 different options — each with their own challenges — to reduce flooding around Parkland Estates."
"The preferred alternative, which would mitigate structural flooding during most storms, and includes a box culvert system designed for 100-year events, is the most feasible option on the table — both from a construction and cost perspective," the statement continued.
A public meeting on the issue is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18 at Bayshore Baptist Church, located at 3111 W. Morrison Ave.