Pasco MPO Picks Connections (Spoiler: It’s Not Kinnan-Mansfield)

As far as Pasco County is concerned, the long-debated connection of Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe — a 30-foot or so patch of grass, dirt, weed and garbage — is dead.

The Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) was presented with the results from its recent online Connections Survey Tuesday morning, and voted unanimously to forward the second-most popular option, Option 3, which would connect both the Meadow Pointe Blvd. and Wyndfields Blvd. extensions to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. in New Tampa’s K-Bar Ranch community — to the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BCC) for a final vote.

The MPO did agree to connect Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd., but only for emergencies. A traffic arm will be installed for emergency service vehicles, and there will be a path for bikers and pedestrians.

The final vote to settle the connections conundrum will likely be held on Tuesday, July 9, in Dade City. Considering that all five members of the BOC are on the MPO, and they voted unanimously in favor of Option 3, it is almost certain to pass.

County residents were given four options, and despite claims that connecting Kinnan-Mansfield was widely unpopular, 54 percent of the 1,180 respondents actually voted for Option 1, which would connect Kinnan-Mansfield as well as the Meadow Pointe Blvd. extension to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.

There was no option to just connect Kinnan-Mansfield, nor was it an option that was studied in the year-long Roadways Connections Study commissioned by the county.

The most popular option (No. 2) among those who filled out the online survey was connecting just Meadow Pointe Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch, with 67 percent of respondents voting yes.

The least popular option was No. 4, which would have made all the connections — Kinnan-Mansfield and Meadow Pointe Blvd. and Wyndfields Blvd. extensions to New Tampa.

Even so, a majority of those responding, 52 percent, voted in favor of Option 4.

For more information, check out the upcoming June 28 edition of the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News.

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