Stores First, Then Road Work

SPRING HILL - Springwood Estates residents will have to wait until the Kohl's and Target department stores are nearing completion or are open before seeing any significant improvements to their main roadway.

Kohl's is scheduled to open by October, with Target to follow in the summer of 2009. Other stores are planned.

When it's open, the 397,000-square-foot shopping center at the southeast corner of Spring Hill Drive and the Suncoast Parkway is expected to draw shoppers from as far away as Citrus and Pasco counties.

Nobody is more aware of that than residents of Springwood Estates, whose community sits practically on the doorstep of the new shopping center.

That's why dozens of residents last year showed up at a county land use hearing to ask commissioners for traffic relief. They weren't so much against the debut of the Suncoast Crossing Shopping Center.

It's the motorists cutting through their main drag that bothered them.

Spring Park Way connects Powell Road and Spring Hill Drive and is already a shortcut for people wanting to access the parkway.

Once the retail stores open, shoppers will likely use their road as the shortest distance between two points to get to Target and Kohl's, residents fear. In fact, Spring Park Way will take you right into the shopping center.

To help alleviate traffic, County Engineer Charles Mixson said several traffic calming devices will be used along Spring Park Way, a two-lane road with a 30-mph speed limit.

Mixson said he plans to erect a "No Through Traffic" sign on both ends. He also plans to restrict left turns into Springwood from Powell Road.

Probably the biggest improvement will be the installation of two traffic circles, which will require drivers to slow down and negotiate a wide swivel turn. Estimated cost of the circles along with a treed buffer along Spring Hill Drive is $350,000.

The circles have cut down speeders and the volume of traffic along Linden Drive, and it is hoped those along Spring Park Way will do the same, Mixson said.

Mixson said he predicts more people will use the soon-to-be-widened Barclay Road to reach Spring Hill Drive and the new shopping center.