Ronald J. Caldi, senior project director for Atkins North America, Inc. and Ryan Asmus, M-Cores Production lead answer questions about two turnpike projects that may impact Levy County.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Florida Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday the state won’t study specific routes for the Suncoast Parkway extension until the fall of 2020 but could identify broad corridors for the highway as early as next summer.

            Officials made their first appearance at the Levy County Commission meeting to offer insight into the planning process that will lead to a final decision on where to build the road or not to build it.

            They said they would return once a month to meet with commissioners.

            DOT has proposed building three Florida Turnpike toll roads, two of them in this region.  The proposed turnpike highways are known as Florida Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Impact (M-Cores).

             The state has assigned task force groups to pre-plan the Suncoast Connector, which could potentially pass through Levy County, the Northern Turnpike Connector that could add south Florida traffic to the Suncoast Connector, and Southwest-Central Florida Connector.

            The Suncoast Connector Task Force is studying the proposed Suncoast Parkway extension. Suncoast Parkway currently dead-ends at State Road 44 in Citrus County. The state is proposing a 150-mile extension stretching from SR 44 to Jefferson County in North Florida.

            DOT officials said the Suncoast Parkway extension is in the pre-planning stage. The planning stage starts next year.

            The state’s original plan many years ago was to extend the parkway from SR 44 to U.S. 19 at Red Level in Citrus County. The plan was for toll road traffic to flow north on U.S. 19.

            Ryan Asmus, an engineer DOT and the production lead on the Suncoast Connector study said the Project Development and Engineering study was completed for the Suncoast Parkway connection to Red Level back in the day.

            But the current study hasn’t determined whether connecting the Suncoast Parkway to U.S. 19 at Red Level is a good option.

            He said he was also aware DOT studied a potential bypass route for U.S. 19 around Chiefland many years ago, but study was never completed as a result of politics.

            Commissioners complained to the FDOT officials Tuesday that the current pre-planning process hasn’t given them any information to pass on to constituents about where the road might be built or if it could go through Levy County.

            “It makes a difference for people in our position to tell people what’s going on,” said Commission Chairman John Meeks.

            Commissioner Matt Brooks, who sits on the Suncoast Connector Task Force, said the county commission has no information at this point on where the road is going.

            “The question remains; if it is going to come, how does our county benefit from it and how do we prepare?” Brooks said.

            Commissioner Mike Joyner, a farmer and retired law enforcement officer, asked if the state plans to build a corridor under the toll road for his herd to pass through or would it force him to carry his cattle to Belleview in Marion County.

            “I ain’t just gonna to lie down and let you do it,” Joyner said.

            Commissioner Rock Meeks, a member of the North Florida Connector Task Force asked why 30 of the 41 members on the task force aren’t from counties potentially impacted by the toll road.

            “Why isn’t it made of people affected by it?” Meeks said.

            Officials said he made a good point. Meeks said he understands the Florida Legislature dumped this toll road project on DOT and the agency is making the best of it, but at the same time, he said residents aren’t being given much information.

            “At the end of the day people not knowing, that’s the biggest thing we get here is not knowing,” Meeks said.

            Commissioner Lilly Rooks expressed similar feelings and put her question bluntly to the FDOT officials.

            “Where is the map, where this is supposed to be going?” she said.

            They responded that the study is in the preplanning stages.

            “They are not there yet in defining where the alignment will be,” said Ronald J. Caldi, senior project director for Atkins North America, Inc.

            Robbie Blake, a Bronson realtor and staunch opponent of building a toll road through environmentally sensitive lands in Levy County or through farm country, asked why the state doesn’t take advantage of U.S. 19, a four-lane highway that runs through the center of the county and doesn’t have heavy traffic. She said it makes sense to run the toll road extension north on an existing highway.

            Blake questioned whether the state would actually use the Suncoast Parkway extension to provide broadband internet to the people of Levy County or increase jobs as state officials have claimed.

            “They’re not going to bring any jobs here,” she said.

            Blake said the lack of information coming from the state about the future route of the toll road reminds her of days when a natural gas company refused to disclose where it would build its pipeline in the Levy County. When the bulldozers arrived, residents told of the pipeline route. She said many people are living within 50 feet of the big pipeline, which is in the incineration zone.

            She said Chunky Pond, where she lives, is a treasury of rare wildlife that should never be disturbed or destroyed by construction of a four-lane toll road through priceless wetlands and water bodies.

            “We don’t want to be like New York City. We don’t want to be like Miami. We want to be Levy County,” she said.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting December 3, 2019; Posted December 3, 2019