Federal agency keeps 10 parkway options open
The decision means the northern extension could go through Sugarmill Woods or Homosassa.
By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published July 21, 2004
The Federal Highway Administration has rejected the state's request to whittle from 10 to three the number of routes being considered for an extension of the Suncoast Parkway.
The rejection of the request by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise was not good news for the almost 3,900 Homosassa homeowners and several thousand property owners in Sugarmill Woods who thought the route that would have the most impact on them had been eliminated.
"Obviously, if the Turnpike people put all 10 alternatives back in the study hopper, Sugarmill Woods will once again be in possible peril," Skip Christensen, president of the Sugarmill Woods Civic Association, said in a neighborhood bulletin.
A northern extension of the parkway, which runs from Tampa north to the Hernando-Citrus county line, is being studied by state transportation officials. To build the $200-million project through Citrus, officials are seeking federal funding and approval.
The 10 routes considered for an extension stretch from U.S. 98 north into Citrus and then snake anywhere between the Withlacoochee State Forest on the east and, on the west, to power lines that run north-south near Sugarmill Woods. A route would then head northwest near State Road 44 outside Lecanto.
Turnpike officials, seeking to calm some neighborhood concerns and move forward with more specific planning, sought to eliminate seven of the 10 proposed routes that were being studied, including one that would run through Sugarmill Woods.
But federal officials said recently that they do not want to rule out any routes yet.
"They would like to see more information on all of the alternatives," Turnpike Enterprise spokeswoman Joanne Hurley said, citing a letter the federal government sent state officials about 10 days ago.
Now, Hurley said, state planners will take a month to determine how to proceed.
Janet Masaoy, a Pine Ridge resident and head of Citizens Opposed to the Suncoast Tollway, said she sympathizes with Sugarmill residents. But she said she is upset that state officials even considered reducing the number of routes in order to find the path of least political resistance for the project by alleviating concerns in one neighborhood, but not others.
"Let's not pit one neighborhood against another," Masaoy said. "That's what they did."
-Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com