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As Hernando County continues to change, so do its priorities. Perhaps the most constant, visible and necessary changes have been in the county's transportation network. Planners have been hard-pressed to keep pace with the added traffic that development and population increases are causing.
To that end, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is made up of the county commissioners and one Brooksville City Council member, is poised to rearrange its priorities for road improvements at a meeting Thursday. In doing so, it appears that widening State Road 50 between the Suncoast Parkway and Mariner Boulevard will move to the top of the five-year road plan.
It's a sound proposal. That stretch of four-lane highway, already at about 95 percent of its capacity, is rife with commercial development and more is on the way. Widening it, in addition to upgrading the frontage road system, will go a long way toward alleviating the persistent traffic tieups that often result in automobile accidents.
However, in order to move up the State Road 50 project on the priority list, another important and much-needed undertaking must be delayed for a few years.
Improvements to Cobb Road in Brooksville have been eagerly anticipated for several years. The project could have a dramatic impact on the city because it will absorb truck traffic from the downtown historic and business district.
Trucks carrying rocks to and from mines north of the city have been an unremitting impediment to hopes of breathing new life into Brooksville's downtown. The trucks are noisy and smelly, but they also are dangerous, routinely speeding up and down the gentle slopes of Jefferson Street and Ponce de Leon Boulevard, posing a threat to walkers and motorists.
The city cannot ban the trucks from traveling state-maintained roads. The plans for improving Cobb Road, however, would allow the city to designate Cobb Road as U.S. 98, and the City Council would assume responsibility for the downtown roads.
Completing the Cobb Road project should have a significant positive impact on downtown Brooksville's economy, opening the door for it to become a pedestrian friendly destination for shoppers and tourists. In addition, Cobb Road improvements will help handle traffic from the myriad housing developments rising around the city.
The MPO would be wise to move ahead with the State Road 50 widening. The need for it will be urgent very soon.
But as it takes that step, the MPO also should make a commitment not to allow another road project to leap-frog plans for Cobb Road.