Plans for an improved Pasco County transportation network rolled ahead this week with county commissioners picking a new route through central Pasco the same day the state water management district approved permits for the Ridge Road Extension.
Both are welcome developments as the county attempts to modernize its road system in all directions.
After initial hesitation, commissioners, meeting Tuesday afternoon in Dade City, unanimously approved routing a $10.1-million extension of Collier Parkway from Parkway Boulevard to Ehren Cutoff. The north-south road currently ends at Hale Road, but an extension to Parkway is in the design stages.
Commissioner Ted Schrader wondered who would use the road through what is now mostly undeveloped land. He incorrectly presumed future demand could be addressed by motorists using State Road 52 to the Suncoast Parkway or by driving west on Hale Road to U.S. 41.
It would be a difficult trip. Hale Road ends at the northwestern edge of the Lake Padgett Estates East subdivision, and motorists, including scores of buses from the school district's central Pasco garage, now flood Shining Star Drive as their connection between Hale and Parkway. The commission previously deferred picking a connector route between the two roads, and it shouldn't exacerbate the residential street traffic by failing to offer an alternative to U.S. 41.
Perhaps most convincing, however, was the argument from County Administrator John Gallagher, who cautioned that failing to extend Collier Parkway meant duplicating the mistakes of west Pasco. Without the alternative route, Gallagher warned, U.S. 41 will turn into another U.S. 19. The commission correctly agreed, 5-0.
While the commission debated north-south traffic, the Southwest Florida Water Management District's governing board agreed to give the county the environmental permits needed to build the $27-million, 8.6-mile extension of Ridge Road from west Pasco to the Suncoast Parkway and U.S. 41. The long-delayed road had been the subject of an unsuccessful appeal from environmental activist Clay Colson. The county still needs permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before it can proceed.
Ridge Road is a vital piece of a better east-west road system through the county. A widened State Road 54 from Seven Springs to Gunn Highway was delayed because of exorbitant right-of-way costs. Ditto construction of the widened State Road 52 east of Moon Lake. It has been pushed back until 2006 and the state plans now call for a reduced speed limit on the highway because of a design change to make up for buying less right of way.
Planning for the Ridge Road Extension began in the 1980s but escalated as an alternative to the abandoned idea of building the Bi-County Thruway connecting Trinity to San Antonio. It met with little resistance until 1998, when residents objecting to the county's amended comprehensive land-use plan seized on killing the Ridge Road Extension as a way to stymie future development. The fight over the comp plan settled, but objections to the Ridge Road Extension continued.
In finalizing the Ridge Road Extension, however, commissioners should heed the warning from their administrator. If they don't want to duplicate the crowding and stop-and-go traffic of U.S. 19 in central Pasco, they should consider development limits and other measures to ensure it doesn't occur along Ridge Road.
