Light rail portends dim future for home

TAMPA - From the Governor of Florida to the President of the United States, high speed rail is on the fast-track, thanks to billions of Federal stimulus dollars.

But along the corridor where the train is supposed to run, there is uncertainty, especially along 12th Avenue, where a Zephyrhills couple are building their dream.

Chris Koury made his money building high-end homes in Georgia, but now he and wife Victoria Brittain want to build them in Ybor -- but with a twist, she says.

"Buy the land, build the shell, and finish it out as you grow, as your family grows, as your business grows," she described.

They're called Expansion Mansions, where you live downstairs until building out the rest.

"It's 3300 square feet," Koury says. "It's got four bedrooms and three baths."

They bought the lot next to Interstate 4 for unpaid taxes, and construction began last March, after they say they got an all-clear from the state.

"They had plans for an expansion (of an I-275 on ramp)", Koury says, "that apparently evaporated with the economy and other considerations."

He says no one said a word about high-speed rail until the President came to town. So now they're finishing their half million dollar prototype house that the taxpayers may have to buy in the future for the railroad.

Koury said his dream was becoming a bit of a nightmare.

"It's close to it," he says. "If we had more answers, it might help, but even with those answers I think that the whole end game is we're going to lose this house."

Officials with the Florida Department of Transportation say it's too early to know what houses along 12th Avenue would be needed for the rail line.

"We're going to start our right of way acquisition process probably within the year," Scorza said.
"So we don't even have any right of way maps right now to show anybody where we're going to buy for high speed rail, we don't have it."

Which leaves Brittain shaking her head.

"They say it's coming, it's coming, and it's coming right through here."

So what to do?

"Finish the house", she says, adding, "what happens after that, we don't know."