The road-building and development lobbies are relentless.
Just when you think a project has been shelved, it comes bounding back for another shot.
We’re talking about the eastern leg of the Central Polk Parkway, a proposed toll road that would run from State Road 60 between Lake Wales and Winter Haven and curve northeasterly along the outskirts of Lake Wales, Dundee, Lake Hamilton, Haines City and Davenport before eventually connecting to another toll road to connect to Interstate 4 near the Polk-Osceola county line via US 17-92.
The official justification for the road is to relieve congestion on US 27, though in reality it has always been about opening land on the edge of these cities to more development, a fact some of its early backers were more up-front about than the people behind other local toll roads.
Anyway, the public will have a chance to chime in on this project at an open house beginning at 5:30 pm. Wednesday at the Tom Fellows Center, 207 North Boulevard, Davenport. There is also a virtual option on Tuesday.
Sierra has long opposed this project for a number of reasons.
Primarily we are not sure it is necessary.
US 27 is certainly congested at peak hours, but that’s because county and city officials have permitted wall-to-wall residential and commercial development along the section in Polk County, especially the section north of Haines City.
People are traveling to and from their homes and shopping destinations and are unlikely to be interested in a lengthy detour route. The same goes for through traffic.
Second, there are more common-sense road projects such as the widening of US 17-92. This is the only two-lane section of US 17 between Punta Gorda and somewhere the other side of DeLand. Fixing this bottleneck would go a long way toward relieving local traffic congestion.
Finally, since this project was first proposed about 15 years ago there has been substantial development in the road’s path. That raises the question about how financially feasible it is today. The only alternatives would seemingly be to plow through public conservation lands, bulldoze homes in the road’s path or build flyovers.
If you live in the area, own property there or use the conservation lands, now is the time to speak up.