Hillsborough County has a recreational trail expansion plan to give people more places to walk and ride. The new paved trails would include leveraging powerline corridors, as they are areas that can't be developed into buildings. They can, however, be developed into linear parks and trail systems, increasing the walkability and bikeability of an area.
Unfortunately, Tampa Electric does not want to allow additional trails near their powerline easements. This will set Hillsborough County's progress on this initiative back to the drawing board, from the original 1995 plan as they will have to determine where new routes could be built that will accomplish the same thing. Not only does this delay progress significantly but it will increase the costs to taxpayers to pay for more county meetings, engineering and planning services.
Please voice your opinion with Monica Otero at Teco, at 813-228-4153 and if you want to send an email in support of more trails please reach out to Christopher Fellerhoff and Sarah Caper FellerhoffC@hillsboroughcounty.org and CaperS@hillsboroughcounty.org, with Hillsborough County. Your input is most appreciated!