EAST TAMPA - Everyone agrees the five-year wait was too long, but Fair Oaks Community Lake is getting rave reviews.

The fountain, gazebo, walking trail and greenery turned an ugly duckling retention pond into a beautiful swan.

"We love this," said Shirley Porter, whose yard for months was the staging area for construction materials. "We can see our money coming right back to us."

She and her children and grandchildren are regulars on the walking trail. "I take a little backpack with me with water for the children," she said.

Porter was among about 30 people, including Mayor Pam Iorio and city Councilwoman Gwen Miller, who attended the Aug. 5 official opening. Walkers began showing up in June as construction was completed on the pond at 34th and Caracas streets, across from Fair Oaks Playground.

The next step is pushing forward a second retention pond makeover at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between 17th and 19th streets. A third pond project at 22nd and Chelsea streets also is planned.

The city council last week approved about $285,000 in additional funds for the second pond, bringing the total cost to about $1.1 million. The contracting firm Gibbs & Register initially was hired to redesign three retention ponds for about $1.5 million.

The idea for the three-pond makeover grew from community meetings and lobbying from Fair Oaks neighbors and members of the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership. The partnership works with the city to redevelop a more than 7-square-mile area bordered by Hillsborough Avenue, interstates 275 and 4, and the city limits.

A portion of property taxes collected within those borders must be reinvested into community projects such as the pond makeovers.

At nearly $900,000, the Fair Oaks project proved much more expensive than anticipated. It was a pilot project without precedent, and much of the waiting was in matching design with cost and finding a contractor. "Now that we've done it, we'll do it better and faster," Iorio said.

Work on the Martin Luther King pond, with a boardwalk and pavilion, is expected to begin by the fall.

East Tampa has more retention ponds than any other community in the city. Iorio said that's partly because federal money was available in the 1970s to buy land for stormwater systems.

"You need it, but the problem is they are not always the most attractive parcels of land ... just water and weeds," she said.

Gregory Taylor, who grew up a few blocks from Fair Oaks, took a turn around the trail. He no longer lives quite so close.

"But I'll come back," he said.

Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 259-7652 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.