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Jason Amerson

MPO keeps elevated road on county transportation plan

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A group that spent months successfully fighting a privately built elevated toll road through the heart of Pasco County got a bit of a setback last week. But its members seem to be OK with it … for now.

Jason Amerson, second from left, will fight any elevated road planned to run near his home off State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes, but won’t challenge the county’s current long-range transportation plan as long as elevated roads don’t come up as a viable option. He was one of the leaders of a local protest group, Pasco Fiasco, that included, from left, Patrick Knight, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum. (File Photo)
Jason Amerson, second from left, will fight any elevated road planned to run near his home off State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes, but won’t challenge the county’s current long-range transportation plan as long as elevated roads don’t come up as a viable option. He was one of the leaders of a local protest group, Pasco Fiasco, that included, from left, Patrick Knight, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum. (File Photo)

Pasco County’s 2040 Long-Range Transportation Plan is on its way to both federal and state authorities, highlighting the county’s plan for roads, transit and sidewalks over the next 25 years. And among the various needs the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization included in that transportation plan are elevated roads along the State Road 54/56 corridor.

“We knew the (transportation plan) would still contain the elevated toll road,” said Jason Amerson, a Land O’ Lakes resident who was one of the key players in the elevated toll road protest group, Pasco Fiasco. “It’s not something we are worried about unless they start actively discussing it again at MPO meetings.”

Pasco Fiasco came together last year after some homeowners who live just off State Road 54 learned about a proposal by a private company, International Infrastructure Partners LLC, to build a 33-mile elevated toll road, stretching from U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills to U.S. 19 in New Port Richey. The company had said initially it would fund the estimated $2.2 billion project on its own, but then lost its negotiating power with the Florida Department of Transportation after it requested the state help finance it.

That killed the private project, but an elevated road option remained in the county’s transportation plan. While then Pasco County commissioner Henry Wilson Jr., vowed to help Pasco Fiasco and others against an elevated road down State Road 54 remove such projects from the plan, Wilson was defeated in an open primary election last October by Mike Wells Jr.

“It’s not a simple task getting it removed,” Amerson said. “Probably even a harder task now that Wilson is gone.”

The elevated road remains an option for the county between 2020 and 2040 along the State Road 54/56 corridor as an “alternative improvement.” That could include “premium transit improvements” like toll lanes, overpasses like those used on U.S. 19 in Pinellas County, and elevated lanes.

The elevated road stayed in the plan, but the MPO did make more than 30 other changes to the documents after two months of public hearings. The MPO conducted a 30-day comment period through Nov. 23, as well as public workshops throughout November. It concluded with a public hearing on Dec. 11 where the new transportation plan was adopted unanimously.

Many adjustments to the plan were minor, like name changes of some roads at Bexley Ranch near the Suncoast Parkway, and Mitchell Boulevard near the Little Road area.

But there also were some larger changes as well. They included:

  • Moving up the six-lane expansion of State Road 52 from Interstate 75 to Pasco Road from 2040 to 2019.
  • Delaying another 10 years to 2040 projects like Livingston Avenue from State Road 54 to Collier Parkway, Eiland Boulevard from Handcart to Dean Dairy roads, Curley Road from Wells Road to Clinton Avenue, and Lake Patience Road from Sunlake Boulevard to U.S. 41.
  • Keeping the State Road 56 expansion from Meadow Pointe to U.S. 301 two lanes instead of four by 2019, but possibly expanding it to four lanes by 2030.

That last proposal angered city leaders in Zephyrhills, who wanted four lanes leading into one of its key commercial areas, the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. Lawmakers like new state representative and former Zephyrhills mayor Danny Burgess said they would work with the city to try and restore funding for a four-lane segment.

The MPO also made a number of changes to Tower Road, which runs primarily east to west in Pasco, just north of State Road 54. They include developer-funded improvements like a two-lane stretch from Bexley Ranch to Ballantrae Boulevard, and an expansion to a two-lane road from U.S. 41 to Ehren Cutoff by 2040, paid for by the county.

The Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Florida Department of Transportation will now review the plan, and work with the county to help implement it.

To read the complete plan, visit Mobility2040Pasco.com.

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Plans for elevated toll road collapse, but battle not over

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Jason Amerson was caught flat-footed when he first learned that a private company planned to build an estimated $2.2 billion elevated toll road in front of his Stonegate home.

Carlos Saenz and Michele Sakalian plant signs for a planned Pasco Fiasco rally that was supposed to take place next week at Sunlake High School. The rally, however, was indefinitely postponed after the Florida Department of Transportation killed the private elevated toll road proposal for the State Road 54/56 corridor. (Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)
Carlos Saenz and Michele Sakalian plant signs for a planned Pasco Fiasco rally that was supposed to take place next week at Sunlake High School. The rally, however, was indefinitely postponed after the Florida Department of Transportation killed the private elevated toll road proposal for the State Road 54/56 corridor.
(Michael Hinman/Staff Photo)

He vowed to stop the road before the first surveys could even be done. And over the weekend, Amerson finally had a chance to celebrate when Florida Department of Transportation secretary Ananth Prasad officially killed the project.

But as vocal as Amerson’s group, Pasco Fiasco, had become to protest the project, it was actually International Infrastructure Partners who hastened its own demise when it shifted gears and started to ask FDOT for taxpayer assistance to fund the project. That was just too much for Prasad to hear, especially with public sentiment against the road growing.

“He came to the conclusion that the project does not look very promising,” FDOT spokesman Dick Kane said last week. “The reason, he said, was that when they looked into the financials of the unsolicited proposal, it was not what we were initially led to believe.”

When Kane shared Prasad’s thoughts, the toll road project was not dead, but it was dying. Pasco Fiasco moved forward with a planned rally at Sunlake High School for next Monday. The door had been left open for more negotiations, but all of it came to an abrupt end last Friday.

“The department was unable to reach an agreement with International Infrastructure Partners LLC on a framework of financing and various design concepts for the corridor that would be acceptable to all parties and address the concerns of the local community,” Prasad said in a release Friday. “In absence of this framework, advancing this project would not make any sense.”

That decision forced Pasco Fiasco to make one of its own, indefinitely postponing the planned rally, which was being funded from the pockets of its members. Even if the rally had gone forward, it would’ve been money well spent, Amerson said.

“We all are finding that with every dollar we spend, we’re going to get a return of 10 times that in home value savings,” Amerson said. “I’d rather spend $200 now than $40,000 to $50,000 in home value losses later.”

International Infrastructure Partners, or IIP, first expressed an interest in building what would’ve been Florida’s first private toll road in June 2013. It submitted a proposal to FDOT, which controls the rights of way along the State Road 54/56 corridor between Zephyrhills and New Port Richey, where it would build a 33-mile expressway similar to the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Tampa. Using private money, IIP would collect tolls from travelers to help pay for the cost. All they needed was FDOT to give up the rights of way along the corridor to make it happen.

Yet, throughout the process, FDOT made it clear they would not move forward without the blessing of Pasco County, although it didn’t officially need it. County commissioners gave a blessing late last year to study the proposal more, but in February, Commissioner Henry Wilson came out against the project. He was joined in April by commission chair Jack Mariano.

However, this might not be the end for Pasco Fiasco.

“We’re not high-fiving each other or doing our end zone victory dances just yet,” Amerson said.

County administrator Michele Baker said even with the elevated toll road gone, something is going to have to be done with the corridor as more and more cars look to go east and west through southern Pasco.

“Pasco County will continue to engage the public and move forward with its analyses and studies in order to determine how to manage future congestion on the State Road 54/56 corridor,” Baker said in a statement last week.

That means taking a close look at the long-range transportation plan, which is set for adoption in December.

Richard Connors, one of the founders of Pasco Fiasco, says that means there’s more work ahead of them.

“It’s a victory,” he said. “But we still have a long way to go.”

Published May 14, 2014

Elevated road brings community together … to protest

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Author Margaret Mead once cautioned to “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world” because “indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

If a private company wants to build an elevated toll road above State Road 54, it will have to convince homeowners like Patrick Knight, Jason Amerson, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum, to do it. The four say communities like Stonegate, where they live, will be subject to noise and heavy traffic outside their quiet community. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
If a private company wants to build an elevated toll road above State Road 54, it will have to convince homeowners like Patrick Knight, Jason Amerson, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum, to do it. The four say communities like Stonegate, where they live, will be subject to noise and heavy traffic outside their quiet community. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Jason Amerson isn’t exactly looking to change the world. But he is building support to stop change along State Road 54 that could bring an elevated toll road in the future.

“I never imagined something like this was going to land right on my doorstep,” said Amerson, who moved into the Stonegate community west of Land O’ Lakes Boulevard five years ago. “That is why I am taking this so seriously.”

Amerson is one of a growing group of residents living just off State Road 54 opposed to International Infrastructure Partners’ plan to build a 33-mile elevated road between Zephyrhills and New Port Richey. Such a project could be visible from his neighborhood, currently shielded by trees and other homes, Amerson said, and the highway noise could destroy his property value.

So Amerson has joined a new community activist group known as Pasco Fiasco that has just one goal: Stop the elevated road.

“I am tired of seeing businesses go out of business around here,” Amerson said. “A road like this would force businesses and families to move, and it would be impossible for any of us to ever sell our homes here. We’re going to be kind of locked in here.”

Pasco County officials, however, disagree on that kind of impact. County planning and development administrator Richard Gehring insists the expressway portion of the road would be used by travelers who likely wouldn’t have stopped at businesses along the State Road 54/56 corridor anyway. By moving them up, local traffic will move easier on the lower roads, and actually help businesses rather than hurt them.

Some members of the newly formed Pasco Fiasco group made their first public appearance during a Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting last week in New Port Richey. They included Land O’ Lakes native Sharon Ogborn, who feels the elevated road is more about accommodating commuters from other areas than it is her Odessa community.

“We moved to our present home in Odessa for the country feeling and the rural setting,” Ogborn said. “It’s going to help Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.”

Pasco Fiasco has already received some support from the Pasco County Commission. Henry Wilson has already made his opposition to the project clear, and at last week’s MPO meeting, fellow commissioner Jack Mariano started to question the project as well.

Yet, the final decision lies not with county officials, but with the Florida Department of Transportation. And while officials there have said they’d want county support before moving forward with the elevated road project, they don’t require it since State Road 54 is just that, a state road.

“Ultimately, the FDOT probably does have the final say, but I think they are going to basically honor what the county commission wants,” Amerson said. “But if Tallahassee thinks it’s a great idea, and the FDOT thinks it’s a great idea, I’m not sure if they’ll listen to the county commissioners in the end.”

Amerson admits that growth in Pasco County is going to eventually require something be done with State Road 54. But he feels county officials have not exhausted all other options quite yet.

Gehring, however, said the county explored 18 alternatives to move traffic east and west in Pasco County. And even if State Road 52 is expanded into multiple lanes, and the expansion of Ridge Road is completed, the best plan to move the large volume of traffic projected along the State Road 54/56 corridor in the next decades is an elevated toll road.

The project most likely wouldn’t have been necessary if homeowners in Hillsborough County didn’t successfully protest road expansions there — like the proposed Lutz Expressway blocked by area residents — that could’ve helped move traffic to the south. And Amerson is interested in taking a little from that playbook.

“Each time they have tried to do this somewhere, it gets beaten back by the people,” he said. “I don’t feel what we have here is any different. I think we really can stop this.”

In the meantime, Amerson has teamed up with Richard Connors, and they are recruiting more people to challenge the elevated road. They are finding people through neighboring communities thanks to a social network site called NextDoor.com that connects people online based on their geographic proximity. Brian Narcum, a Stonegate resident opposed to the road, said it’s helped bring in hundreds of people in just a couple weeks.

And the focus, for now, will remain in lobbying county commissioners against the project, hoping that will be enough to discourage both the FDOT and the private builder IIP from moving forward.

“If you want to bring our area up to the next level, you have to be attractive to businesses and keep that interest in our urban development,” Amerson said. “You can’t put something like this elevated road down the heart of our county that is going to scar the road, and still expect people will want to move here and be next to that.”

To learn more about the local efforts to oppose the road, visit PascoFiasco.com.

Published Feb. 19, 2014