FINAL Citizen victory vs. Inland Port developer
Faced with massive community opposition, Inland Port Systems has withdrawn their application for a huge trucking hub near Cockroach Bay — again. But this time it sounds like a FINAL victory for all of us who worked hard to defend our community, our environment and our wallets from their destructive plan. In an e-mail their President says,
“We do not anticipate any re-submittals of these applications in the future.”
And in an interview with the St. Pete Times, their Vice President burns his bridges behind him saying,
“If Hillsborough is going to continue to act like a Third World county, we’re going to take our business elsewhere.”
Good bye, and good riddance!
This out-of-town developer tried to change our Comprehensive Plan to build a huge industrial trucking hub (6.6 million square feet!) that would wreak havoc on Cockroach Bay’s sensitive coastal ecosystem and surrounding preserves, clog our roads with truck traffic (45,765 daily trips!), and stick taxpayers with an exorbitant bill for infrastructure & sprawl — yet this guy has the nerve to blame his failure on us.
Many thanks to all who helped win this community victory: the Tampa Bay Sierra Club, the South Shore Democratic Club, the Sundance Homeowners Association, United Citizen Action Network (U-CAN), many citizens & community leaders from all over this county who sent e-mails and attended the hearing. Thanks also to our Planning Commission and county planning staff who steadfastly opposed this project, for all the right reasons.
No thanks to the Ruskin Chamber of Commerce who fought against the rest of us on this. I wish they would, in the future, at least listen to both sides of issues affecting our community before allowing an out-of-town developer to persuade them to take a position against so many of their neighbors and customers.
More info:
- Here’s the whole St. Pete Times article, printed Christmas day — a wonderful present under our mangrove trees.
- See all the reasons we opposed this project in this previous action alert.
- Inland Port Systems’ e-mail withdrawing their application.