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River Bend neighborhood paying stormwater tab for hot new Heights market

 
A street has been closed since January in Tampa's River Bend neighborhood while a detention pond is excavated to keep polluted stormwater runoff from reaching the Hillsborough River. The pond was made necessary by development to the south, in the new Heights project. [SKIP O'ROURKE   |   Times ]
A street has been closed since January in Tampa's River Bend neighborhood while a detention pond is excavated to keep polluted stormwater runoff from reaching the Hillsborough River. The pond was made necessary by development to the south, in the new Heights project. [SKIP O'ROURKE | Times ]
Published March 14, 2018

TAMPA —River Bend, a modest residential neighborhood on the west bank of the Hillsborough River, has a beef with a trendy 43-acre Heights redevelopment project on the opposite bank a few miles downriver.

As visitors flock to the Heights Public Market, few of them are likely to realize a crucial part of the development is located off site — a 1.5 acre stormwater detention pond being dug in River Bend to make up for runoff entering the river from the Heights project.

But it's been part of the plan for years.

Developers Adam Harden and Chas Bruck of Soho Capital, a Tampa private equity firm, purchased a vacant lot bordering the river on Rome Avenue in 2013 to build the pond.

Only in late January when work on the pond forced a closure of a portion of Rome Avenue did many River Bend residents become aware that their neighborhood was helping the Heights project meet its environmental obligations.

The road closure has been irritating for residents who drive Rome on their daily commute. The prospect of a large retention pond attracting bugs and other pests in the middle of a residential neighborhood is worrisome, said Frank Greco, president of the River Bend Civic Association.

But not being alerted to the project before it started has irked some residents.

"That's where the biggest concern is, all this was done in secrecy," Greco said. "The city should be telling developers, 'You need to notify the neighborhoods.'"

City officials say the project is on private property and meets zoning requirements. So they had no obligation to notify residents as they would if it were on city land.

Harden, the developer, told the Tampa Bay Times in a series of emails that the pond and its purpose were never a secret.

The River Bend Civic Association was listed as inactive on the city's website so he reached out to a few nearby neighbors, two of whom returned his calls. His company bought the parcel in 2013 with the intention to build the pond to offset the runoff at the Heights development, which was approved in 2015. And when contacted later by a River Bend resident, Heny Cramer, he offered to come to a meeting and talk to residents.

Officials at the Southwest Florida Water Management District confirmed the pond had been part of the plan from the beginning. And it location upriver doesn't matter, they said.

"The two locations discharge to the same water body (Lower Hillsborough River) therefore the benefit of the water quality treatment is the same and meets requirements," Swiftmud spokeswoman Susanna Martinez Tarokh told the Times in an email.

Detention ponds help keep pollutants like motor oil, pesticides and fertilizers out of rivers. When it rains, these pollutants flow into the ponds and filter into the soil at the bottom instead of running directly into a river, where they can harm fish and wildlife and foul water quality. The Hillsborough River is Tampa's main source of drinking water.

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If River Bend residents have a problem with the upkeep or safety of the pond, they should alert Swiftmud's environmental resource compliance section, Martinez Tarokh said.

The three-foot deep pond is designed as a dry pond and should not normally hold water for very long, she said.

Greco insists his civic group is active, although small, averaging about a dozen residents who meet several times a year. They plan to invite Harden and Swiftmud to a meeting as soon as they line up a meeting space at a local church.

River Bend shouldn't pay the price for meeting the Heights projects' stormwater needs, Cramer said.

"Was it for the benefit of River Bend in any manner," he said, "or the sole benefit of the developer?"

Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727)893-8459. Follow@CharlieFrago.