The Florida Department of Transportation gives a commitment to
city officials that the toll road will not impact Monticello directly
Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
A resolution that the Monticello City Council had on its agenda for discussion earlier this week never got taken up once the officials heard a presentation on the latest developments on the Suncoast Connector – the 150-mile toll road that is slated to extend from its present terminus in Citrus County to Jefferson County.
Particularly meaningful to city officials on Tuesday evening, March 3, was an assertion of the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) commitment not to impact Monticello directly or put a bypass around the town, as well as that the toll road will terminate at I-10.
JoAnna Hand, an FDOT project manager, and Greg Garrett, a consultant project manager with Atkins North America Inc., passed out maps depicting the avoidance features or general areas that the proposed road will either avoid or minimally impact because of archaeological, cultural, environmental or historical considerations, as determined by the guiding principles set up by the Suncoast Connector Task Force.
Hand noted that Monticello was colored magenta on the map, which she said meant that the town wouldn't be directly impacted by the road because of its cultural, historical and other significant assets.
The FDOT, she said, had committed that “the footprint of the road will not impact the city.”
Hand, however, couldn't speak to the question of what indirect impacts the road might have on the city, were it to stop at I-10.
The FDOT, she said, had furthermore committed to work individually with each affected city along whatever the selected route and address each's concerns as to whether it wanted the road to come through the town or around it; and if around, where the bypass should go.
“You've already said that you don't want a bypass,” Hand told the council, suggesting that the FDOT had heard the message.
Finally, Hand and Garrett assured the council that a press release stating the FDOT's commitment to terminate the road at I-10 was forthcoming imminently.
“It (FDOT) has identified I-10 as the northern terminus,” Hand said. “It will not extend beyond I-10.”
Hand and Garrett more than once assured the council that the press release designating I-10 as the terminus would soon be forthcoming. If fact, the two said, they had expected to have the release in hand for their presentation before the council. As of Thursday morning, however, the FDOT has yet to release the statement, per City Clerk Emily Anderson, who had requested that a copy be sent to her immediately upon its release.
Hand and Garrett added that a determination as to the road's exact termination point – whether it would be at either the Aucilla, Monticello or Lloyd interchange, one in Madison County, or a new one yet to be identified – had not been decided.
Councilwoman Julie Conley asked what would happen to the northbound corridor traffic once it reached I-10? Would it be diverted east and west to continue north eventually, or would it go onto US 19? Likewise for the southbound traffic wanting to access the new corridor at I-10?
Hand and Garrett couldn't answer the question, but they assured the council that the corridor would not proceed beyond Jefferson County.
“Nowhere in the legislative bill does it say that the corridor will go into Georgia or beyond,” Hand said.
As to when the definitive line for the road will be drawn, Hand and Garrett said that would come only after the three task forces (one for each of three proposed connector roads) completed their guiding principles and submitted their reports to the Florida Legislature by the Oct. 1 deadline of this year.
Normally, the two explained, the FDOT designated a road's path and narrowed it to a line based on studies that it conducted. In this instance, however, because of the legislative mandate, the FDOT studies had to await the completion of the task forces' reports. Which reports, Hand said, would set the framework for the three roads' general swaths by defining those areas where the corridors shouldn't go, as defined by the areas of avoidance.
“We can't get ahead of the task forces because they have to identify the areas of opportunities,” Hand said. “The task forces are not charged with identifying the lines. They set the guidelines and the FDOT will identify the lines. Normally, the process doesn't allow for upfront input before the study.”
Conley asked if the council was going to take up the resolution that was a listed as an agenda item and that she had prepared in response to Councilman Troy Avera's expressed concerns about the toll road at a workshop the week before.
Avera, however, was quick to note that his concerns had been addressed with the news that the road would stop at I-10 and that the FDOT would work with the city on the question of a bypass.
“I feel better,” Avera said.
Which sentiment was in sharp contrast to Avera's observations on the FDOT and the task force at the council workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 25, when he suggested there was good cause for the council to adopt a resolution on the toll road.
“I'm disappointed that we're already this far in the process and we still don't know where the road is going,” Avera said at the workshop, speaking of his attendance at the fourth meeting of the Suncoast Connector Task Force in Madison County on Tuesday, Feb. 11, and the lack of information coming out of the event. “I'm afraid that they are going to wait until the very end when it gets near the deadline and then they're going to shove the road down our throats.”
“We're still getting only generalities and platitudes,” Avera went on to say. “It's scary to me that they won't come up with the information. They know where the road is going, but they don't want to say anything until it's too late to oppose it.”
It was then he suggested wouldn't be adversed to the council passing a resolution registering the city's concerns, which Conley said her resolution attempted to address.
Judging from the council's lack of response to Conley's question of taking up the resolution, however, it was evident the measure lacked general support.
Councilman George Evans, for one, made a point of observing that if citizens or others had concerns about the road they should address them to the task force or go online to the FDOT website at floridamcores.com and register them there.
Too often, he said, the same group of individuals came out in opposition to any new developments, whether it was the bike trail, the amateur sports youth facility in Lloyd or whatever.
“We can't live in a cloud; or like with the school system, we'll get bypassed,” Evans said.
The only public input on the issue came from Mike Willis, a citizen, businessman and vocal critic of the proposed road.
Willis noted of Hand and Garrett that it was their job to sell the project.
“Sometimes you have to put a little sugar on the cake to make people eat it,” Willis said of the new information. “The road may not come here, but you will be still be tasked with what to do with the traffic that will come; that's the issue.”
He urged the council to take up the resolution and take a stand.
“It's not about what we do here now, it's about what we leave behind us,” Willis said. “This isn't a sprint, this is a marathon. We need to plan for the future. And you as a council need to get ahead of this thing.”
He also didn't leave unanswered Evan's remark about the few who opposed new projects.
“We come out when we feel we have to come out,” Willis said. “But we're also here everyday busting our butts to make this community a better place.”