Everglades Headwaters Toll Road Idea Back In Play

After being shelved in 2018, the Southport Connector is being actively considered again.
Officials from the Central Florida Expressway Authority briefed the Polk County Commission on one aspect of the project, which involves a way to reduce traffic congestion in Poinciana by building a second highway down the median of Cypress Parkway as an extension of the Poinciana Parkway.
The map of the other aspect of the project also showed a proposed new road that would loop through largely undeveloped agricultural land south of Lake Tohopekaliga to reach the Florida Turnpike and Canoe Creek Road.
A second road project is being considered that would loop northward to the eastern edge of St. Cloud to reach U.S. 192.


Even if these projects get the go ahead, they are probably at least 10 years out from the beginning of construction and the subsequent urban sprawl they will cause.
There are some public meetings coming later this year if you want to comment on any of these proposals.
Go to https://www.movepoinciana.com/

Poinciana High School Farther From State Park Advances

Earlier this week the Polk County School Board voted unanimously to authorize the district’s staff to proceed with negotiations for a site on a private ranch adjacent to Poinciana for a new high school.
The school siting issue, which has been under discussion for some time, is needed to relieve overcrowding in fast-growing northeast Polk area.
If negotiations are successful, this will put an end to years of controversy over the site selection process.
Two other proposed sites drew criticism for being too close to Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park and other conservation lands and being located along a key link in a portion of the Florida wildlife corridor.
The proposed site contains some wetlands, which board members were told will be used to mount an environmental studies program at the new school.

The Limits Of Growth Arrives In Polk County (Maybe)

County commissioners seemed finally willing to acknowledge Tuesday that every last acre in unincorporated Polk County’s countryside is not ripe for more intense development.
The discussion occurred in connection with the periodic update of the county’s growth plan that is looking at what the county could look like by 2050.
At one time growth could not occur unless schools, roads and other public facilities were adequate to serve the growing population. This is something called concurrency.
It was once a requirement in the state’s growth-management law, but such provisions were gradually phased out beginning during the administration of former Gov. Rick Scott and a more pro-growth Legislature.
Nevertheless. Polk officials seem inclined to push new development closer to urban areas instead of allowing it to sprawl deeper into rural areas that have no capacity to handle it that could eventually turn Polk County into a megalopolis such as New York City or Los Angeles without some restraint.
That idea has public support. based on feedback (see graphic) at a series of public meetings that have occurred in the past several months as part of the growth plan update process.
People want more land conservation, commissioners were told.
Additionally, there seemed to be some push back to expanding urban road networks and utilities deeper into rural areas because of the expense and the fact that it is impossible to ever catch up in fast-growing areas such as Polk County.
There was also some discussion about how to prevent approving subdivisions that would suffer the kind of flooding that occurred this year in places like Lake Seward and Lake Bonny.
Suggested solutions included deeper analyses of development applications rather than relying on water management districts or the Florida Department of Environenttal Regulation to flag potential problems.
In addition, it might be a good idea to document flooding that occurred on undeveloped tracts following wet periods such as this year’s back-to-back hurricanes to guide reviewers if someone applies for a development permit there.
However, the real test will come when county planners actually draft an updated growth plan and hold public hearings, which will occur in the next year or so.
That’s because there remain differences between the development lobby and the environmental lobby and perhaps other interest groups and the general public about how much growth is too much in some locations.
That tension was evident in recent hearings over how much and how quickly to increase impact fees to pay for some of impacts of new development. Commissioners sided with the development lobby.
It ain’t over yet.

Takeaways From Turnpike Meeting

Wednesday’s meeting in Davenport on a proposed toll road to allegedly relieve future congestion on U.S.27 drew quite a crowd.
Any meeting when the public outnumbers the consultants and staff shows this is a hot-button issue.
Here are some takeaways
–The process is rigged in a way that until one of the alternative routes on the map is chosen there is no opportunity to push for the no-build alternative.

–That means that there will no information on the location and number of interchanges that would give us the full impact of the sprawl the road would create.

–The Transit-Supported Development Area designation along US 27 that Polk County planners used to push very dense development may turn out in the end to make transit attractive after the gridlock it helped to create occurs.

–No one could really answer the question of why lots of motorists would detour from one gridlocked section of highway to another gridlocked highway or to another section of the same gridlocked highway they fled and pay for the privilege.

–No one is sure the money will ever be available–the project has already been shelved once because of financial uncertainty–to pay for this multi-billion-dollar project and whether the money could better spent elsewhere in the turnpike universe.

Some More Thoughts On East Polk Sprawlway

As noted in a previous post and recognized by transportation planners, the options for a route for a toll road through eastern Polk County are increasingly challenging because of all of the development that has been competed in recent years or has been approved but not developed yet.
This appears to be pushing most of the proposed alignments dangerously close to the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Although there are no plans to encroach on public conservation lands directly, the proposed routes do raise a familiar question that has arisen in some of the other proposed road projects in the Kissimmee River Basin.
That is how the presence of a new high-speed road so close to the boundary will affect the ability of land managers to use prescribed fire because that involves avoiding situations in which smoke from the fires could produce unsafe conditions on these highways.
Add to that the effects of noise pollution on the visitor experience in these areas.
I recall a paddling trip on the Suwanee River many years ago that took us under Interstate 75.
It was a day’s paddle before we could no longer hear the thrum of traffic noise.
Add to that the effect on the peace and quiet rural homesteads near the highway’s possible path enjoy today and how that will surely end if any of those routes are chosen.
One proposed route runs so close to the existing road network that one could wonder whether it would be more cost-effective to simply improve those roads if the standard boilerplate goals of the project about freight mobility evacuation routes etc. etc. are what this project is really about.
Anyway, the public meeting is Wednesday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Tom Fellows Center on North Boulevard in Davenport. It should be interesting.


Eastern Leg Of Central Polk Parkway Sprawl Proposal Is Back; Public Meeting Next Week

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.

New Boat Ramp on Lake Buffum To Open Saturday

Boaters will have a better place to boat and fish on Lake Buffum beginning Saturday.
Work has been completed on a new boat ramp that replaces a former boat ramp that was plagued with difficult launching conditions.
The new ramp is located at 2808 Dog Lindsey Road, Fort Meade. which is north of the current ramp. It will have better parking and improved access.
It is the latest in a series of projects to improve public access to Polk’s major lakes.
Lake Buffum, at 1,543 acres, is Polk County’s 11th largest lake.
Polk officials voted to purchase the five-acre site in 2017. Construction began last year.