Two environmental groups have dropped their legal challenges to the county's Ridge Road extension project, removing the chief obstacle to the long-awaited shortcut to the Suncoast Parkway.
Citizens for Sanity and Floridians for Environmental Accountability and Reform, or FEAR, both represented by slow-growth activist Clay Colson, withdrew their challenges last week after Colson apparently stopped pursuing the case.
Both groups had objected to the Southwest Florida Water Management District's plans to grant a permit for the 8.6-mile highway from Moon Lake Road to U.S. 41. A hearing date before an administrative law judge had been set for today. After Colson filed the challenges, however, he failed to provide a list of his witnesses or exhibits to Swiftmud. He was a no-show at both a June 9 meeting with Swiftmud and a June 11 telephone conference with the judge, according to case documents.
The judge, Richard Hixson, gave Colson until June 18 to make an argument for keeping the case open. Colson did not respond.
In a June 19 recommendation to close the case, Hixson cites "Clay Colson's apparent abandonment of proceeding in this matter, as well as his repeated failure to respond to orders" from the Division of Administrative Hearings, the agency handling the challenges.
Colson signed paperwork the next day withdrawing the environmental groups' challenges.
He did not return calls to his home Tuesday.
Now the ball is in Swiftmud's court. At the governing board's July 29-30 meeting, the agency will decide whether to dismiss the challenges and grant the permit for the Ridge Road extension.
In the meantime, the county is awaiting approval of another crucial permit, this one from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Colson and his allies have attacked the highway as a potential killer of wildlife and polluter of water. Equally damaging in their view, the extension would open up thousands of acres of farmland in central Pasco to suburban development.
But county officials have said the $30-million road is vital as a hurricane evacuation route and as an east-west corridor to complement state roads 52 and 54.
If the county receives both permits for the project this year, construction could start as early as January, said Greg Riski, the county's assistant engineering services director.
The environmental groups could still challenge the project, either by appealing the Swiftmud permit or by objecting to the corps' permit. But they could find themselves on the defensive first.
Swiftmud has spent more than $20,000 preparing to defend itself against the previous challenges. It plans to ask the administrative law judge, Hixson, to order the environmental groups to pick up the tab.
Pasco County, which has spent more than $100,000 on outside counsel on the same case, could make a similar request.
"There was a petition filed and then there was no follow-through, so we spent taxpayer dollars to prepare for an administrative hearing which then went away," said Swiftmud spokesman Michael Molligan. "Was there a real challenge there or not?"
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com
