Citrus Chronicle
By: Jim Hunter (jhunter@chronicleonline.com)
Published: 1-Apr-2005

If Citrus Countians expect any relief for traffic on U.S. 19. during the next few years from an extension of the Suncoast Parkway, they have a disappointment coming.

A DOT official told representatives from the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce last week in Tallahassee that it appears now that it will be into the next decade — possibly well into the next decade — before the extension will be built.

Kevin Thibault, the Department of Transportation's assistant secretary for engineering and operations, told Citrus residents visiting the legislature that this would be the case even if the state went forward with the project immediately, assuming it had the funding, which it does not.

That reality was unsettling for the Citrus residents and business interests who said the peak-hour traffic in Homosassa Springs and Crystal River already is approaching alarming stages and who were lobbying for a speed-up of the project.

It's not uncommon, said Jack Reynolds of Brannen Banks in Homosassa Springs, to wait five cycles to get through the traffic lights in Homosassa Springs on a Thursday or Friday afternoon. Realtor/consultant John Barnes, a longtime Homosassa Springs businessman and former county commissioner who also went to Tallahassee, said it is indeed becoming a serious problem.

Both men believe the traffic exiting off the Suncoast Parkway is contributing to the problem. The original plan had been to continue the next phase of the parkway, from where it now ends at State Road 98 at the county's southern border, 26 miles northward through Citrus. It would merge with U.S. 19 near the barge canal

As for U.S. 19, the state has scheduled a widening project from West Green Acres Street to Crystal River. So far, the project has $7.4 million for right-of-way acquisition and $4.3 million for design funded in the state's five-year road construction program through 2008, but no money for construction.

County Commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips, who was also in Tallahassee last week, said she has seen traffic back up south on U.S. 19 to Howard's Flea Market on a Saturday morning, even last summer when the snowbirds weren't present.

Gary Maidhof, county Development Services director, acknowledged the growing congestion on U.S. 19 at the Homosassa Springs bottleneck, and said the widening of U.S. 19 in Homosassa Springs and near Crystal River would help, but the problem is a serious one that is only going to get worse. He said the fact that peak hour traffic is so heavy is really indicative of the county's fast growth, though he agreed that the parkway traffic likely exacerbates it.

He said the county commission will look at its transportation master plan in April, as well as a re-evaluation of the current levels of service on county highways.

The Citrus phase of the parkway was opposed by some local citizen groups and the Sierra Club, which had unsuccessfully fought the previous phase of the parkway. Eventually, however, the state finished its initial environmental impact studies and came up with three alignments.

Thibault told the chamber members the state then had to turn to the federal government for help funding the project, but in doing so had to go along with federal highway project requirements, which resulted in seven more alternative routes, all of which had to be studied. That and a legal challenge to some meetings that weren't held in the sunshine have slowed any action on the project.

Reynolds said he figured that with the sharp increase in land values in Citrus in just the past two years that the price of acquisition of right-of-way for the parkway has at least doubled since the process began. He and others, believing the parkway would give local roads some relief and fearing what future traffic dumping onto U.S. 19 from the existing parkway will do, are urging the state to ask for the alternatives to be reduced to the original three to expedite the process. Thibault said the federal government is unlikely to do that, and will proceed at its own pace.

Thibault said the state is considering its options, but, for the moment, is waiting to see what happens regarding the requirements imposed because of the closed meetings and how that impacts the federal process. A hearing is scheduled for mid-April on that issue.

He said one option to streamline the process would be for the state to go it alone, dust off the state's original studies and begin, but the funding needed, exceeding $200 million for construction alone, isn't presently there. The state planned to get 50 to 60 percent of construction costs from the federal government. Various funding sources are being investigated, he said.

"It's frustrating on our behalf, too," he said. Thibault said Gov. Jeb Bush is working to try to get the project moving.

"It's scary to think what could happen to Citrus County," Phillips said. "It's scary because there's not much we can do about it, aside from putting pressure on the elected officials and the governor."