Perhaps there are no better examples of old meeting new here than Sherman and Oda Emerick. These Lutz Cemetery residents, born in the late 1880s, were buried more than 50 feet from U.S. 41 when they passed on.

Decades went by. We sent men to the moon, a Hollywood actor became president, the Cold War ended. And the Florida Department of Transportation decided U.S. 41 needed widening.

The Emericks' headstone now lies just feet from the new roadbed, the completed sections of which dwarf the existing one.

""That little business district we had there was on both sides of the highway, but it is basically gone now,'' said Alvin Wolfe, a University of South Florida urban anthropologist who lives in Lutz. ""This highway doesn't serve Lutz at all. It serves the wider community, which includes Pasco County.''

Yet beyond the examples of the cemetery and the business district, the long-term effects of this six-lane, multi-million-dollar roadway project are widely debated. How different will Lutz and nearby Land O'Lakes be after the bulldozers go away? The answer lies somewhere between ""not much'' and ""who knows?''

""While there was a small rural community 20 years ago, (it has) changed so much we can't really see it anymore as a rural community,'' Wolfe said. ""Although many will want to keep talking that way.''

Old views, young views

The immediate impact of the road widening has fallen on the businesses fronting U.S. 41. Many owners were forced to relocate or remodel their buildings to get out of the way. A few closed down altogether.

""We had to completely build a new building because we were left with no parking,'' said Juanita Dennis, owner of ERA Dennis Realty and Investment Co.

Still, she said, ""it's been very good for us because not only have we beautified the highway by removing old structures, but we've built a larger building then we had.''

Dennis said the road widening had even more benefits for her; real estate values should rise now that Lutz is becoming a quick and straight shot to northern Tampa.

""All in all, it's a change,'' she said. ""But it's going to be better for everyone in the long run.''

Casualties were numerous: a Barnett Bank branch, a Burger King, a collectibles shop, a few restaurants. In Land O'Lakes, the Pasco Food Bank and thrift shop have had to move south; Christian Social Services also will have to relocate.

Others simply adapted by remodeling what was left after DOT took what it needed.

Rio Max's Deli in Lutz is a place where you can buy everything from pigs feet or cheeseburgers to produce.

""This needed to be done a long time ago. Too many people have been killed,'' said Sarah Rio, owner of the shop with her husband, Silvio. Accident statistics show that U.S. 41 in Lutz sees nearly 50 crashes a year and averages about one fatality.

""The older people don't like it,'' Rio said of the project. ""The young people say it is the best thing that could happen to all of us.''

The Rios suspect that whether one commutes to work has much to do with the division of opinions. They surmise that older people stay home more while younger daily commuters welcome a new roadway - even one that could resemble Carrollwood's Dale Mabry Highway - with open arms.

The deli, there for 16 years, lost most of its parking to the new U.S. 41. The Rios are still deciding whether to stay or move.

Andrew Brigham represents many business owners along U.S. 41. Brigham is a partner with Brigham, Moore, Gaylord, Schushter, Merlin and Tobin, a Tampa firm specializing in property owner disputes and eminent domain claims.

The firm has handled nearly two dozen claims on behalf of Lutz business owners in the last two years, the biggest of which was a 40-acre parcel.

Brigham, too, lives in Lutz.

He said he advised his clients to go into negotiations with this attitude: ""Hey, I have an individual liberty here and I want to be paid fairly so I can continue to do what I've invested my life into.''

When the system works correctly, compensation is fair.

""Winners before the taking were winners after the taking,'' he said. ""If they were losers before the taking they are still losers after the taking. This (settlement process) is an attempt to keep the status quo.''

All in all, the DOT says it paid $33-million on right-of-way acquisition for the road.

""(My clients have) transitioned with the road,'' Brigham said. ""I think the business community will continue to thrive.''

No more mom-and-pop

Before the highway's construction, environmentalists and preservationists sounded alarms.

""It's going to change the community's identity for sure,'' said Barbara Fite, a Lutz environmentalist. ""More traffic will destroy the rural nature, and I'm sure you'll see more of the chain stores rather than the mom-and-pops you've had in the past.''

As with all speculation: maybe and maybe not.

""It has the potential for some change but doesn't guarantee any change at all,'' said Wolfe at USF.

The six-lane, high-speed roadway cannot be easily crossed by pedestrians. And with such a development, ""the neighborhoods change,'' Wolfe said.

The road has the potential of creating an East Lutz and a West Lutz.

Wolfe expects some changes to be positive: Accident rates should fall, and society as a whole will be better off being able to get from here to there quicker and with less stress.

On the other hand, such transportation corridors encourage people to drive cars, reducing the demand for more sensible public transportation. And that hurts the environment.

Also unclear is how much commercial development will spring up along the roadsides.

""We don't see Lutz changing much from what it is now,'' said Gene Boles, director of Planning and Growth Management for Hillsborough County. ""The opportunity for some change is created but there are a number of obstacles against it, especially the will of the community to not have that happen.''

Boles said logistics will make it hard for a big subdivision or large retail outfit to come to town. The fragmented, one-acre lots and lack of infrastructure, such as water pipes, make such development difficult and expensive.

County Commissioner Jim Norman represents much of Lutz and has been heavily involved in issues involving the road project. ""What we are trying to do is preserve the quaintness of the community,'' he said. ""For those people away from 41, it should keep its rural nature.''

Norman said long-range planning and zoning restrictions already in place limit building, as will the area's role as home to some of Hillsborough's wellfields. ""We are going to want open space,'' he said. ""We can't have any massive development out there.''

During his campaign two years ago, the commissioner said he walked door-to-door in Lutz and kept hearing the same remark from residents: ""We want to be left alone.''

The new U.S. 41 is sometimes described as Pasco's road; a device that will make it easier for newcomers in the growing Land O'Lakes area to commute south.

But Land O'Lakes residents are also watching the project somewhat warily. Already, the DOT is clearing buildings for th Pasco section of the project, which will begin next summer.

""The widening of U.S. 41 is going to change the face of Land O'Lakes as in Lutz,'' said Marjorie Walsh, executive director of the Land O'Lakes Chamber of Commerce. Some business owners are upset about having to move from property they have occupied for decades, she said.

But those people are far outnumbered by those who are happy with the prospect of improved access and ease of travel.

""When you make it easier to go from one place to another you make people very happy,'' Walsh said.

Agency they love to hate

Every place you turn in Lutz, people talk about FDOT, the state transportation agency that has turned their community upside-down. Some love the agency for it; others consider its abbreviation the newest four-letter word.

The agency, with its local headquarters near USF, has an armed guard in the lobby and all doors in the facilities remain locked to outsiders.

""We take people's property in order to widen roads,'' spokeswoman Leo Folsom said. ""And some people don't like that.''

While you can easily find many people to praise the agency's decision to widen U.S. 41, the loudest voices are those of dissent, belonging to the area's environmentalists and preservationists.

Once again, Barbara Fite: ""Trees are being cut down and not replaced. In our instance it was a (one) acre forest.''

Fite lobbied to save gopher tortoises from entombment as the new roadbed was laid. She says she had to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to get records and when she went to the district office to look at them, the information was buried in two waist-high stacks of folders.

""I spent eight hours looking through (the material) and there was nothing earlier than 1990,'' she said. ""We even needed an escort to use the bathroom. It was bizarre.''

Bill McDaniel, head of the Tampa-area DOT, said Fite and her colleagues were treated as any member of the public wanting information. ""We don't just allow people to go through the building unescorted,'' he said. He also thinks there's nothing wrong with requiring people to do their own research. ""We try to be very liberal,'' he said. ""While we may not agree with the concerns of some citizens, we try to give them the information they ask for.''

Fite also complains about turnover among agency staff, to which Folsom replies: ""The department is not going to stand in the way of our employees bettering themselves. And due to the lengthy nature of our projects, sometimes personnel does change.''

Lutz preservationist Gaye Townsend, meanwhile, complains that the agency went back on promises to protect trees, and built ""a high-speed superhighway'' with limited access instead of the ""livable, enhanced road'' that would have been more desireable.

Further, she wonders why monthly meetings DOT held with residents and other agencies involved in the project stopped abruptly in July.

""If there was a need to continue the meetings we'd be having the meetings,'' McDaniel said. ""There are no significant problems to address and so we would not be doing the taxpayers any good by having a meeting where nothing is accomplished.''

Overall, he said, ""we've tried to be good neighbors out there. When all is said and done, you'll see a much better Lutz community.''

And many others are quite happy with the DOT's efforts and its employees' conduct.

Some businesses owners report the agency went out of its way to keep access open. Others were paid handsomely for land they did not use anyway. Many feel the finished roadway will be a boon for their businesses.

""They (DOT) paid us dearly for some property they took,'' said John Switzer of All Around Equipment, a machinery moving business. ""The road will be a whole lot better when it's done.''

A U.S. 41 TIMELINE

May 1989: Florida Department of Transportation holds the first of two public hearings on widening U.S. 41. Some residents complain the planners tried to mislead them about which road was to be discussed.; they felt planners had made up their minds about the specifics of the project and weren't really listening to citizen input.

March 1992: State transportation officials confirm U.S. 41 is going to be a six-lane roadway, not four as some had requested.

May 1992: The City-County Planning Commission assembles a group of residents to serve as the U.S. 41 Scenic Corridor Task Force. The groups meets several times and comes up with five objectives for the corridor: 1) FDOT to provide landscaping; 2) design the roadway with bike paths, pedestrian walkways and enhanced bus shelters; 3) buffer nearby sites from noise and other impact of the roadway; 4) define rural aspect of community and develop a standard for future development that will keep it that way; and 5) keep visual access to ponds and pasture land. Critics say nothing ever came from this study.

Jan. 1992: Citizens Committee On Lutz Road Projects, a group of residents organized by the county, asks the state to purchase enough land for six lanes but use the two outside ones for bike lanes and pedestrian walkways. The report also requests, among other things, that the corridor retain its current scenic nature and that frontage roads along U.S. 41 be prohibited.

Nov. 1995: The Northwest Linkage Study begins. The Southwest Florida Water Management District teams up with the Hillsborough Planning and Growth Management Departments to study the best way to link water management and land use issues. While not specifically a result of the U.S. 41 project, the report brings together residents in the Lutz and Land O'Lakes areas and identifies three strategic goals: maintaining a rural lifestyle, improving lake-level management and heightening agency concern for the environment.

Dec. 1995: Planners admit U.S. 41 only needs to be widened to four lanes, but DOT proceeds with the six-lane option anyway.

Dec. 1995: Forces on both sides of the old Lutz schoolhouse issue go to battle. Eventually, members of Citizens for the Old Lutz School Building give up 21 feet of the school's front yard to allow for left-turn lanes into the new school, citing safety concerns.

Jan. 1996: The first leg of the project from just south of the apex of Florida and Nebraska avenues to Sunset Lane begins. The $7.8-million section is scheduled for completion late next summer.

May 1996: The second leg of the project from Sunset Lane to the Pasco line begins. The $5.9-million section will be finished in the summer of 1998.

May 1996: Controversy erupts over endangered gopher tortoises. Environmentalists say the tortoises are being buried alive by construction. Transportation officials instruct their project engineers to walk the construction sites looking for gopher tortoises, and relocate any they find.

Sept. 1996: The Old Lutz School is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Summer 1997: Third section of the project, from the county line to Bell Lake Road north of S.R. 54, is scheduled to begin. The $13 million section will take two years to complete.

Sources: Times files, Citizens Committee on Lutz Road Projects, Hillsborough County Planning Department, Hillsborough County Department of Planning and Growth Management and the Florida Department of Transportation.