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Hernando County officials say County Line Road, which will cost more than $120-million to widen, should be part of the state's highway system.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2001
Commissioners are the first to admit Hernando County cannot afford the $120-million -- and growing -- price tag to widen County Line Road.
Yet they are also among the first to acknowledge the project must get done. Traffic promises only to get heavier, they contend, as more development takes place on the east-west corridor between Pasco and Hernando counties.
The answer, the Hernando commission has decided, lies with the state of Florida. Commissioners are asking lawmakers to add County Line Road to the state highway system during the 2002 legislative session, relieving Hernando and Pasco of the road's financial burden.
"Technically, it's as close to a state road as you can get," commission Chairman Chris Kingsley said.
Hernando County Administrator Paul McIntosh explains that the road serves as a "major" connector from U.S. 19 to Interstate 75, and it completes a loop for the entire Tampa Bay region. If the state handles the road, he added, project coordination difficulties between Pasco and Hernando counties would disappear.
Kingsley agreed. "It's a tough road with its multijurisdictional issues," he said.
The handoff also is a tough sell to the state, which is about $22-billion behind in road programs.
State statutes allow the transfer of roads between jurisdictions, but only by mutual agreement of the affected government entities. The Florida Department of Transportation shows no inclination to agree to take over County Line.
"County Line Road is not a regional road," said Marion Pscion, spokeswoman for FDOT District 7, which includes Pasco and Hernando counties. "We have regional roads. We don't take intraregional roads."
State Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said he had not received such a request from Hernando or Pasco county officials, although he had heard Hernando commissioners speak about it.
"It would be extremely difficult to amend the (25-year) work program to accommodate a project of that magnitude," Russell said.
He placed more hope on other ways to get the expansion to four lanes accomplished.
"I've been working on various potential funding possibilities, primarily focusing on right-of-way acquisition," Russell said. "That is where half the costs lie. They have been escalating 15 to 20 percent a year."
Russell would not get more specific. He tried last year to put some money into the state budget for the project, but the planning lagged and the money fell out of appropriations bills.
If the counties want to push for the transfer, he said, the first step would be a commission resolution. The Hernando Metropolitan Planning Organization voted unanimously in July to send a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush and the local legislative delegation urging a speedy designation of County Line Road as a state highway.
The Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization has not taken similar action.
Kingsley admitted the push might be a long shot, primarily because of the expected costs.
"We've asked our legislators multiple times to do that. They keep saying, 'Nope, we can't do that,' " he said.
But time might soften lawmakers some day, McIntosh said.
"I'm not sure it's a strong possibility (today)," he said. "But you start with an idea, and you keep working with it."