| Neighbors and advocates continue to work opposing the planned expansion of I-275 through Old Seminole Heights. From the Tampa Bay Times
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Shirley Smith knew the pros and cons when she bought a house in Old Seminole Heights in 2017, less than a couple hundred feet from Interstate 275.
She got used to the hum of traffic at night, the occasional blaring music and truck horns. And she held out hope for a noise-reducing wall, completed this year, to eventually make her life easier.
But she learned last month that her slice of the highway might get wider, allowing more cars to pile onto the thoroughfare that cuts through Tampa’s urban core — a con she can’t accept. Smith was moved to speak out at a public meeting for the first time.
“The highways decimated communities and neighborhoods,” said Smith, who directs the office of community engagement for the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine. “We know better, so why aren’t we doing better?”
Dayna Lazarus, an urban planner and co-founder of the Facebook group Transit Now Tampa Bay, said the lack of local funding stems from inconsistent political will. Transit projects get floated, then underfunded, then forgotten, she said.
“We have political amnesia here, where if someone isn’t yelling, our elected officials forget about it,” Lazarus said.
Lazarus posed funding Hillsborough County buses to council member Lynn Hurtak in June, right after she learned I-275 could get wider.
“I was fed up. I was pissed,” Lazarus said. “I started organizing and said we need to move stuff forward.”
The planning organization, which prioritizes federal and state transportation funds, had previously ditched the proposed widening project in 2021 amid resident opposition. But County Commissioner Joshua Wostal, in an 8-7 vote, led the charge to bring widening back as a funding priority.
Wostal said he’s a fan of faster bus service, too — but he’s trying to plan on behalf of an entire county, where residents from Temple Terrace and Wesley Chapel use I-275 as the main artery between work and home.
Elizabeth Grimes drives I-275 between Hillsborough and Bearss avenues most days to pick up her daughter from her daycare in New Tampa. On a Friday during afternoon rush hour, she inched her car forward along the interstate, dodging hastily merging SUVs. Her arrival time ticked up 10, 20, then 30 minutes beyond the initial estimate on her GPS.
Grimes opposes widening the segment of I-275 she drives near-daily.
“I don’t think it’s going to help. I think it’s going to be more s--t like this,” she said, eyeing the wall-to-wall traffic.
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