The New Tampa area is made up of the Tampa Palms, Hunter's Green, Cross Creek, Pebble Creek, and Meadow Pointe residential communities, as well as the Hidden River Corporate Park and USAA. New Tampa is centered on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard which is named after the late traffic engineer and Assistant Hillsborough County Administrator (d. 1983) responsible for more than 18 major road projects in the University and New Tampa areas.

The name "New Tampa" comes from the now defunct New Tampa, Inc., a proposed extension of the Tampa Palms community to be located east of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and north of I-75. "New Tampa" gained wider use after it was adopted by the local civic and business leaders association, the New Tampa Community Council, in 1992. The name was chosen over such contenders as "Northeast Regional" Community Council, and is meant to be reminiscent of the distinction between "old town" and "new town" Chicago - the former the historic heart of the city's activities and the latter to reflect a growing economic and residential area.

The NTCC originally defined New Tampa as the land to the north of Fletcher Avenue and south of the Hillsborough-Pasco County line; to the west of Morris Bridge Road and east of I-275 - an area which makes up most of the service population of the New Tampa Regional Library. In fact, the New Tampa Regional Library is the first governmental agency to use the "New Tampa" in its official name.

New Tampa Regional Library was built in response to the growth of the New Tampa area in northern Hillsborough County. The effort to get a library in New Tampa began in 1990 with the founding of the Friends of the New Tampa Library organization. The Friends, along with the Tampa Palms Ladies Club and The New Tampa Community Council were instrumental in securing a library for the region.

The New Tampa Regional Library was the first to be built with money from the 4 year, .10 mill property tax levy for library construction that was brought about by County Commisioner Jan Platt. After several false starts to find land on which to build the library, the current 3.6 acre location was donated by Markborough Florida, the developers of Hunter's Green.

Ground breaking for the 4.4 million dollar facility was on Friday, March 30, 1996. The dedication and opening of the library was on Sunday May 4, 1997. The 25,000 square foot facility, the largest single-story library in the THPL System, is located between Hunters Green Elementary School (opened 1992) and Lewis Benito Middle School (opened 1997). The library is surrounded by a wide walkway, much of which overlooks a small lake. This walkway features "Alphawalk," Claire Satin's public art project celebrating the written word.

The library has several community meeting rooms, accomodating up to 100 people, for community use and for library programs. The library hosts a wide variety of educational and recreational programs including lectures, adult book discussions and computer training sessions. Children's programs are also available, such as Toddler Time, Story Time, puppet shows and other activities. Quiet study rooms are available for individual or group study.

The library's collection features a reference collection, both juvenile and adult books, videos, CDs & DVDs, newspapers & magazines. Computers are available in the library for accessing THOR, the library's online catalog; Information Gateway, for magazine articles and information and the Internet.

If you have further questions, please feel free to comment on the New Tampa Regional Library.