Bronson area resident Robbie Blake demands to know the proposed locations for two toll road extensions that likely will impact Levy County.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

State Sen. Rob Bradley and State Rep. Charlie Stone were hosting the annual Levy County Legislative Delegation when they fielded the question on the proposed roads.

Bradley said he didn’t know the proposed routes, but there would be appropriate public hearings for residents to offer input.

            Robbie Blake, who has lived along Chunky Pond near Bronson for four decades said the state has published two study area maps for the Suncoast Connector and Northern Turnpike Connector extensions but neither map shows proposed routes.

She said she ran into a similar problem a number of years ago when Bronson residents weren’t told where a natural gas pipeline would be constructed. They soon found out it was being built along the edge of Chunky Pond close to their homes.

  Many of those homes are worthless, Blake said, because they are close to the “incineration zone” next to the pipeline. Natural gas is explosive. Pipelines do explode.

            “We want maps. We want to know where these (toll roads) are going to go. We demand it. We demand that we know where these roads are going to go,” Blake said.

            Blake wasn’t alone in demanding to know more about where the state would build the toll roads.

            Bradley took a more positive view of the toll road extensions. He said they weren’t  just about moving cars and people. He said they were multi-use corridors that would bring broadband internet and water and central sewer to under-served rural communities.

            “These corridors are not just roads. You are going to see a lot of talk this session about rural broadband and the digital divide because that’s a great concern to many of us in the legislature,” Bradley said. “We’re looking to utilize these corridors, to put that on hyper drive and bring that to bear.”

            Bradley said Florida, when seen from the air at night, shows coastal areas are the most heavily populated. Interior counties have the least population. He said it’s a good thing that the interior counties are less populated because that’s the character of Florida.

            “But the fact of the matter is 800 people a day are coming to our state and there’s not any room on the coast anymore,” he said. Bradley said when an extra layer of population is added to what is already here in Florida the resiliency factor comes into the play.  He didn’t say what he meant by resiliency but the dictionary said it is the capacity to recovery quickly from difficulties.

            “So we can deal with it now or deal with it later. We can deal with it through an intelligent process where we can take into consideration all the environmental impacts that may or may not be there and all the things that may affect our communities and do this as part of a deliberate way,” he said.

            Bradley said it makes him sick sometimes when he sees rural communities left behind in terms of growth of wages, growth of jobs and growth in economic opportunities.

            “There is a forgotten Florida. Part of that forgotten Florida is here and so at some point in time we have to retain our rural character and return to all the things we love about this area, but also make sure we have opportunities for our kids and grandkids. That’s the bottom line,” Bradley said. “I know there are people against this and that is fine. I encourage them to show up when we talk about where the roads go, where the corridors go, but we have to plan for the future. We have to plan for the fact that we have 800 people coming here (daily).”

            Responding to Bradley’s comments, Blake said the Nature Coast, of which Levy County is a part, is a place of tourists, bird watching, springs and the Suwannee River. She said the natural treasures of the Nature Coast attract tourists to this area.

             Blake said the influx of people into the state can be restricted through zoning laws and incentives and disincentives. She said requiring lots to be a minimum of 10 acres in size can reduce the impact of people moving to Florida. She said land use requirements can influence the impacts of development.

            She said the west side of the county has an especially sensitive environment. She said Goethe State Forest and nearly all of the county’s conservation lands are located on the west side of the county.

            “Up from that (Goethe Forest) you have ponds all the way to Chunky Pond that represent millions of acres of water that are being held in storage so when our water systems go down we have something to draw from,” she said.

            She said many of the people in the legislative hearing love the land.

            “So no maps; just like the pipeline. You can understand why we are so nervous because they went right across the side of Chunky Pond with the pipeline, right through gopher tortoise nests, right up to people’s homes. People wondered what happened. How did this happen. It happened because they did a pretty good snuff campaign on people finding out what was actually going to take place,” she said.

            Blake said U.S. 19/98 highway from Inglis to Perry is barely used. She suggested the state extend the Suncoast Parkway from Citrus County to U.S. 19/98.

            She concluded her presentation by giving the two lawmakers a mental picture of what she sees near her home.

            “I want to tell you what I see every day on Chunky Pond. I see sandhill cranes, I see river otter, I see blue wing teal, I see bobcats, gopher tortoises, scissor tail kites, I see honey bees and some of us have occasionally seen a panther,” she said. “I find Indian artifacts at the edge of Chunky Pond – spear heads and arrow heads. They took care of the environment so it’s still here for us.”

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Levy County Legislative Delegation September 23, 2019; Posted September 23, 2019