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Pasco Fiasco

More details sought in State Road 54/56 design debate

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Task force members want more information before reaching conclusions on future road designs aimed at easing traffic congestion along the State Road 54 and State Road 56 corridor.

The task force met Aug. 24 in a public meeting to review 11 road alternatives, and a no build option.

Task force members are expected to whittle their road list to three or four plus the no build option.

A task force is studying solutions to traffic congestion on State Road 54 and State Road 56, including the busy intersection at U.S. 41.
(File)

Just one more meeting, in October, had been planned, but task force members asked for a workshop in addition to the final meeting to get more details on the road selections. That workshop will be an open session, but no public comment will be taken.

That workshop likely will be scheduled in October.

The entire study is being done in phases, with additional meetings planned for 2018.

The task force is studying the corridor from Bruce B. Downs Boulevard on the east to U.S. 19 on the west.

The current focus is on two intersections: Little Road and State Road 54 in New Port Richey, and U.S. 41 and State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes.

The Aug. 24 meeting laid out the complexity of the issue.

Task force members are studying five elevated toll lanes, five at-grade level road designs, and a no build option.

Opinions are divided.

“I have been an absolute no build,” said Christie Zimmer, who is a member of the citizens’ advisory board for the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization. But, looking at the possibilities, she added, “Something needs to happen. We have to come up with an alternative.”

Chris Saenz said the task force lacked the diversity to reflect the larger Pasco County community. He suggested a referendum could help settle the matter.

Maintenance and operating costs also will drive up already burgeoning costs of construction and right-of-way purchases, Saenz said.

One at-grade level option, with express bus lanes, could potentially cost nearly $1 billion to build.

“The cost of ownership is going to take ya’ll to the poor house,” he said. “Let’s not lose sight of that,” Saenz said.

Saenz represents Pasco Fiasco, a grassroots group that fought against a 2014 proposal to build a privately funded 33-mile express toll road over the top of State Road 56 and State Road 54. That project was scrapped.

Residents also have strongly opposed a more recent proposal from Florida Department of Transportation to build a fly-over, with toll lanes —  to ease traffic at the intersection of State Road 54 and U.S. 41.

That proposal is among the alternatives on task force members’ list, but state transportation officials put the project on hold.

That decision is part of the reason why two task forces were formed in 2015 to come up with a future transportation vision for the corridor.

The current task force, with some members from the previous two groups, began meeting in early 2016.

Bill Ball, a principal at Tindale Oliver, acknowledged that there is some suspicion in the community that an elevated toll road is being pushed.

But, he noted that every type of design, including elevated toll lanes, at ground level and no build, is represented in the list of options.

The task force’s purpose is to gather public input, and consider the range of choices, said David Goldstein, Pasco’s chief assistant county attorney.

“If it’s not going to be elevated toll road, what do ya’ll want?” he said.

As an aid in the decision-making, task force members received individual estimates on construction costs, right–of-way purchases and maintenance costs. They also received guidance on other issues, including environmental impacts, wait times at traffic signals, and numbers of businesses that could be relocated.

Still, members wanted more.

For instance, questions were raised about who would collect tolls, and for how long, if an elevated option was selected.

“That can be part of the recommendations,” Zimmer said.

Concerns also were raised about whether any alternatives would improve the level of service along the corridor.

The answer appeared to be that not much would change, based on the growth anticipated in Pasco. Roads and intersections that are ranked now at F, for failed, could still have failing grades.

“F does not solve the problem,” said Rich Dutter, who is one of three at-large citizens on the task force.

For information on the task force and its work, visit Vision54-56.com.

Published September 6, 2017

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 toll road no more: FDOT rejects project

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It was on life support as early as last week, but now the Florida Department of Transportation says an unsolicited proposal from a private group of companies wanting to build an elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor is now officially dead.

“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,” FDOT secretary Ananth Prasad, said in a release. “In absence of this framework, advancing this project would not make any sense.”

Pasco Fiasco, a group of home and business owners along that 33-mile corridor who opposed the project, celebrated the decision, and said they are postponing a planned rally at Sunlake High School next week that was intended to build even more opposition to the project. Organizers told The Laker/Lutz News last week that they could still hold the rally either way, because a similar public project could be pushed forward as part of the county’s long-range transportation plan.

While FDOT and Pasco County officials have said future growth will require some sort of expansion of the corridor that connects Zephyrhills at U.S. 301 and New Port Richey at U.S. 19, the plan to build the elevated toll road came unsolicited last year by a construction group known for similar projects around the world.

The project itself had been chipped away over the last few months, as public sentiment against it grew — including from Pasco commissioners Henry Wilson and Jack Mariano. However, it went into a tailspin last week when Prasad admitted that discussions on how the project would be built started to fall apart when the developers, who at this point said they would raise the estimated $2.2 billion construction cost privately, started asking for public money to help fund it.

FDOT continues to work on other projects in the area as part of its five-year plan, Prasad said, including the widening of State Road 54 from the Suncoast Parkway to U.S. 41, as well as from Curley Road to Morris Bridge Road. It also will continue work toward starting the new State Road 56 leg from Meadow Point Boulevard to U.S. 301.

Elevated toll road down, almost out

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The private elevated toll road proposed for the State Road 54/56 corridor isn’t so private anymore. And that might be enough to cancel the project altogether.

Florida Department of Transportation secretary Ananth Prasad said he has some serious concerns about the controversial 33-mile project, especially after the developers behind the project — International Infrastructure Partners — signaled they would need some taxpayer investment in the project.

“He came to the conclusion that the project does not look very promising,” FDOT spokesman Dick Kane told The Laker/Lutz News. “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.”

Prasad, who was traveling Wednesday, did not have the exact amount IIP expected the state to contribute. However, even a single dollar would be more than what officials were told would be required, as the estimated $2.2 billion project was going to be funded completely by private equity.

Prasad, hearing that there would have to be some public dollars, then suggested in a meeting with the developer last week that it might be time to “hit the reset button,” Kane said.

That does not mean the project is dead, but it certainly is on life support. Prasad plans to meet with the developers again in the next couple of weeks to see if they can hammer out some of the questions that have been raised around the project.

A request for comment from the developers of the proposed project is pending return.

Pasco County administrator Michele Baker, however, said it’s not completely over.

“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.

The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization will continue to consider options as it gets ready to adopt its long-range transportation plan in December, Baker said.

Members of a local opposition group Pasco Fiasco say they believe the project has been scrapped, based on what they’ve been told by Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano, who also opposes the project. However, the group is still planning a rally May 19 at 7 p.m. at Sunlake High School promoting their position.

FDOT leader goes point-by-point on elevated toll road

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Patrick Knight has been an active voice against the proposed elevated toll road in the State Road 54/56 corridor, and tried to pull the big guns into his fight by writing Gov. Rick Scott.

Instead, Knight’s letter was answered by Florida Department of Transportation District Seven secretary Paul Steinman, who responded to Knight point-by-point on the potential 33-mile project that would stretch from Zephyrhills to New Port Richey.

“This type of project has already been built, and is operating successfully around the country, so we are getting a good idea of what people are able or willing to pay to use them,” Steinman wrote in a letter to Knight, which was shared with members of elevated road opposition group Pasco Fiasco. “Like any good business, the company that runs this venture will study its potential customers and set reasonable prices. If they were to charge too much, they would lose money in the end.”

In his letter to Scott, Knight touched on not only the potential high cost of tolls, but other factors he and members of his opposition group fear, like sinkholes, traffic congestion, extra noise from the road, and even allowing a foreign company to participate in a road project. One of the key partners working with developer International Infrastructure Partners LLP is OHL Group of Spain.

“There will never be public support for this project,” Knight wrote. “An elevated toll road owned and operated by a foreign corporation and used only by those who can afford a very high toll is not needed.”

However, where a proposing road construction company is based is not necessarily something the FDOT considers when partnering with projects, Steinman said.

“Nothing prohibits foreign companies form competing for this type of project,” Steinman said. “Allowing more companies to compete benefits Florida by increasing competition and lowering costs for the taxpayer.”

Also, any company, foreign or domestic, would have to hire local subcontractors and engineers to build, Steinman added. And both that work and the attraction to develop in the area because of the “presence of the roadway” would create more jobs in the state.

Steinman also downplayed any potential problems with sinkholes in the county, citing recent work on Interstate 75, which he said created no sinkhole problems either on the project site, or in surrounding private property.

There was a little bit of hope for opponents of the road, however.

“We have received many similar comments from other citizens, and have asked the company proposing the project to provide other options to the original elevated concept,” Steinman said.

International Infrastructure Partners submitted its unsolicited proposal to FDOT last summer, and the decision to give the company the necessary right-of-way along the State Road 54/56 corridor to build the potential $2.2 billion project lies with the state agency.

However, FDOT officials have said in the past they would not move forward without the blessing of the Pasco County government. Two members of the commission, Henry Wilson and commission chair Jack Mariano, have publicly come out against the project.

Public meetings about the proposed project are set to begin in June and July.

Mariano joins Wilson in opposing elevated toll road

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In a brief email to organizers of an opposition group to a proposed elevated toll road across along the State Road 54/56 corridor, Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano has joined in the dissent.

“I want you to share this with everyone you can,” Mariano said in an email from his personal account Wednesday morning. “This toll road is bad for residents, businesses and Pasco County commuters. I support using the available north-south connections, the rail connection to Channelside, and Ridge Road extension all the way to” Interstate 75.

Mariano, who is the current chair of the commission, sent the email to Pasco Fiasco organizer Richard Connors. Pasco Fiasco is a group of residents who live along the proposed path of a 33-mile elevated expressway that would connect Zephyrhills and New Port Richey. The final decision on whether to move forward on the project lies with the Florida Department of Transportation, which maintains the corridor. However, officials there have said they won’t approve it without the blessing of Pasco County government leaders.

The road was first proposed last year by a group known as International Infrastructure Partners LLC, and said they would privately fund the estimated $2.2 billion project, earning money back through collected tolls.

Mariano’s opposition to the project joins fellow commissioner Henry Wilson, who has spoken out against the elevated toll road for the last few months. Wilson, who is now facing a primary battle for his seat with Mike Wells Jr., recently reached out to Pasco Fiasco himself, hoping to get help with his campaign based on his elevated road position.

In sharing Mariano’s email with the rest of his group, Connors said he wanted to “thank Commissioner Mariano for his continued opposition to the Pasco elevated toll road and alignment with our group.”

Pasco County commissioners are planning to hold three public meetings in cooperation with FDOT in all parts of the county some time this summer.