Since the announcement of the Suncoast Toll Road, the ugly in a lot of people has certainly reared its head. Neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. Certainly not a Christian attitude in such a God-centric area! Setting attitudes aside, most of the commentary I’ve encountered is filled with blind hate and an unwillingness to even listen to the possible benefits of the project. And people that are willing to speak up for the project – or even on a neutral position – are finding themselves the targets of retribution. The recent loss of a farming lease agreement by County Commissioner Stephen Fulford is a perfect example of unreasonable retribution.
The fact is, since our elected leaders in the State Legislation have decided to take action on this project, it’s going to happen whether we like it or not.
The difference is that we have 3 options of looking at it: 1) We scream and cry and throw lawsuits, like a 3 year old throwing a tantrum; 2) We bury our heads in the sand and let the State do whatever they want; 3) We take action NOW to make sure that this project benefits everyone in the county while minimizing the downsides.
Personally, I’ll take option 3. Because I’ve seen what options 1 & 2 do, and it ain’t pretty. I have the good fortune to have previously lived in an area that was affected by the Suncoast Toll Road and have seen the great, the good, the bad and the ugly. I completely get the argument for the property owners – “it’s my property and no one can tell me what to do with it.” I’m not saying you’re wrong and since I’m a property owner that has had their rights infringed upon many times, I get it.
Jefferson County is an incredibly beautiful place and I’m incredibly grateful to have found my dream home here. So yes, I do have a vested interest in keeping our county as beautiful as we can, while wanting it to grow SOME to give us some benefits that the larger cities have.
We can control the growth and the Toll Road is the perfect opportunity to make that growth happen. How? Pretty simple.
We, as citizens, need to be involved in the multitude of steps to bring this road to fruition ON OUR TERMS. We cannot simply let the State of Florida put the road wherever they want – if we want it to benefit us, then we need to show the Toll Road coalition the best way to do just that.
We need the toll road to NOT connect to I-10. We need to force some of that traffic through our towns, by having exits at Lamont and Hwy 90, and NO EXIT at I-10. Having a 3-5 mile detour for travelers to get onto I-10 is a minor inconvenience but can benefit us locals tremendously.
We also need to make sure that those exits are within 1 mile of each town, so that motorists have to come INTO town to buy gas, get food and see our shops. Too many customers? Oh the horror!
And those exits? We need to be sure that we not only have a 100-ft buffer of trees and bushes to dampen the sound all along the road, but we also need to be darn sure that our county zoning remains the way we want it – so big box stores don’t pop up just around the exits, taking that needed traffic away from our local businesses. We need to amend the land code so that land remains agricultural (or whatever it is now) – forever, preferably.
We also need to decide how many box stores we’re going to allow in the county. We need to have a comprehensive review process to be sure that any opening box stores doesn’t affect local businesses that already exist. That also includes amending the building code to address signage, ingress and egress, and traffic flow issues. If that means we have to create another planning committee to review this, then let’s do it.
Our county can handle additional traffic, and the Suncoast Toll Road isn’t going to bring us an influx of thousands of cars overnight. A lot of people don’t like paying tolls, so they’re still going to take I-75 instead. So the argument that there will be too much traffic is nullified, especially if we take steps to address it now instead of when it becomes a problem.
What it will bring us, though, is some additional stores that will provide new jobs, and also provide for the expansion of current stores extending their hours and needing more employees. Not all of these new jobs will be low-wage either, but the point is that it’s still bringing jobs. That also means that there will be some more people moving here, which creates a ripple effect. More businesses opening, more jobs; more kids in the school, so more teachers are hired; more people paying property taxes, so our millage rate can go down because it’s easier to share the burden.
I’ve seen how the toll road has made certain areas better when the towns got involved and helped plan. I’ve also seen how the toll road affected other areas that buried their heads in the sand or tried to fight it. They didn’t plan for the future and they got steamrolled over.
So I’m urging you to help our County Commissioners and City Council work on preparing us for the future by taking action NOW instead of trying to catch up later. That’s only going to bite us in the butt if we wait.
Because if we don’t start adapting now, we will go the way of Blockbuster and our town will die a slow death instead of flourishing.
And I for one, don’t want to see that happen.
Sara Kirsch
Formerly of Tampa Bay
(This letter to the editor is the author’s opinion
and does not reflect the position of the newspaper.)