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JUSTIN GEORGEOpponents of the Suncoast Parkway extension savor a victory after a judge rules that interagency meetings must be open to the public.
Bobby Roscow and Teddi Bierly, two Citrus County property owners, said they always knew state transportation officials were violating the state's Sunshine Law when they convened representatives from 10 government agencies to discuss extending the Suncoast Parkway through Citrus.
Turns out they were right.
Late last week, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Janet E. Ferris ruled in their favor, stating that the Environmental Resource and Regulatory Agency Group meetings are subject to Florida's open-meeting law.
The judge ordered the Florida Department of Transportation to open its meetings to the public, while the court retained jurisdiction to determine what type of actions might be necessary to redress any decisions taken at five agency group meetings that already have taken place.
Roscow and Bierly have asked that those meetings be ruled void.
The decision was a huge victory for the opponents of the possible $200-million parkway extension.
"Everybody, through the Board of County Commissioners, through state representatives, etc., essentially had said this is a done deal," Roscow said. "And, quite frankly, we're not out of the woods yet, but we have shown that it's not a done deal."
Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, a division of DOT, is in the midst of a multiyear study to determine whether the parkway, a toll road that stretches between Tampa and U.S. 98 near the Hernando-Citrus county line, should be extended north connecting to U.S. 19 near the northwest Levy-Citrus county border.
State transportation officials haven't committed to building the $200-million road, but they are seeking $160-million from the federal government for the project.
Two groups meet to discuss the project: The Suncoast Parkway Advisory Group, or SPAG, includes state and county officials and meets periodically. Its meetings are open to the public.
But the agency group, which includes members such as the the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, bars the public under the premise that the group does not make any decisions. If the meetings were open, the state contended, government representatives would not be free to express their candid opinions about matters before them, according to the judge.
Roscow, a Connecticut architect who grew up in Citrus and owns 180 acres along Turner Camp Road near Inverness, and Bierly, a Sugarmill Woods resident, argued that decisions were made and that notes the state gave the public from the meetings were censored.
After several months of arguments and delays, Judge Ferris said that the agency group is bound to discuss private property acquisition, environmentally sensitive land issues and property values during its meetings while selecting a possible route for the parkway extension.
And that, she said, means the public has a right to listen.
"The need for such views to be expressed publicly is essential, and fundamental to the purpose of the Sunshine Law," Ferris said in the ruling, which also reserves the right to charge the state for Roscow and Bierly's attorney fees.
Turnpike Enterprise's Suncoast Parkway 2 project manager Nathan Silva declined to comment on the ruling.
For Roscow, the ruling is a small victory over the parkway, which he said would destroy Citrus' most important assets.
"It destroys everything, really, Citrus County is about - the natural resources it has," he said.
He said the project has always been pushed by the home-building industry, the sole beneficiary. Proof, he said, is that the existing Suncoast Parkway was drawn up in the 1970s to connect roads to soon-to-be developed Pasco County ranch land, according to sections from the 1998 bond prospectus for the toll road.
"The roadway was envisioned to connect (State Road 52 and State Road 54) and was to run through large tracts of land owned by the Pottberg and Starkey families," a section said.
The state's insistence on secrecy at the meetings, he said, only stirs suspicion. He said the closed meetings showed an arrogance toward the public.
"You saw the list of state agencies and federal agencies," Roscow said. "We're the people of the United States, and all they want is $160-million of our tax dollars."
For Bierly, who is Roscow's friend, the ruling was like a get-well card. She is undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Her opposition to the parkway stems from environmental concerns including the possible destruction of sandhills with closed depressions that catch rainwater that is returned to springs, she said.
"It just says the little people can stand up for what they believe in," Bierly said. "So many people think they can't make a difference with someone like Turnpike/DOT, but we stood up against them, and we made a difference."
Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com