Bradenton's Bill Galvano ascended to the President of the Florida Senate via a play-it-safe, don't-rock-the-boat strategy that saw him reach the top spot in the legislature without having cemented a reputation, so far as a signature issue. That changed in January when Galvano named a massive toll-road expansion of the Florida highway system as his top priority. A bill launching the project into action passed the Senate this week and looks poised to pass the House. If it does, Galvano's legacy might be one of historic environmental consequences.
Senate Bill 7068 passed this week and is expected to pass the House before the session closes on Friday. The massive project would be the largest expansion of Florida’s highway system in six decades, paving its way mostly through rural, interior parts of the state. The Suncoast Parkway, which currently extends less than 60 miles from Hillsborough to Citrus County and has not attracted enough drivers to pay for itself, would be expanded through the middle of the state, all the way to the Georgia state line. The Florida Turnpike would be extended west from its connection at I-75 to connect to the Suncoast Parkway, and a new toll road would travel from Lakeland all the way to the Naples area. Florida already has more miles of toll roads than any other state in the U.S.
The bill is sponsored by state Senator Tom Lee (R-Brandon), a developer who is part owner of his family's Tampa-area company, Sabal Homes. Galvano and Lee say that the project will alleviate congestion on existing roadways while bringing economic development and prosperity to the rural areas the toll roads would cut through, though most of those areas have been vocally opposed. Not surprisingly, the plan has the support of groups like the Florida Transportation Builders Association, Florida Trucking Association, state’s Ports Council, Asphalt Contractors Association and Florida Chamber of Commerce.
The long list of environmental groups opposing the project, however, note that an FDOT I-75 Relief Task Force recommended in 2016 that expanding the vehicle capacity of the interstates and their connecting highways would be a better approach to alleviating congestion than building new roads. The groups claim that the roads will increase sprawl while damaging critical environmental resources and further contributing to Florida's notorious water-quality crisis by destroying wetlands, mangroves and salt marshes in its path.
In fact, the plan was launched without even consulting FDOT, circumventing the normal process in which the transportation department studies such needs and makes requests for needed roadway projects. It's clearly an industry-driven project, rather than an expert-driven one. The project also caught Georgia off-guard, as officials at the Georgia Department of Transportation said a request for comment from the Tampa Bay Times was the first they'd even heard of the idea of linking the Suncoast Parkway to their state.
There's also the massive cost, which would start with $45 million next year just in studies. Study and planning would jump to $90 million in FY 2020-21, about $135 million the following year, and about $140 million in FY 2022-23. After that, billions more would be bonded to actually build the toll roads from 2023 until their scheduled completion by the end of 2030. Opponents say that money would be much better spent on things like education and dealing with the many water quality/supply issues the state faces in both the short and long term.
In essence, the project represents the long-term transformation of what remains of rural Florida into an image that would mirror the overdeveloped, asphalt-laden, strip-mall riddled perimeter that already traces tens of miles inland along the entirety of our peninsula. Indeed, one has to wonder whether the growth that is sure to follow would not be the straw to break the proverbial camel's back in terms of our maximum capacity and maintaining anything even remotely resembling a sustainable ecological balance.
It's hard not to wonder whether this represents one big, giant final land grab, a last wring of the rag so to speak, meant to squeeze the state dry while there's still some juice remaining. It gets harder not to wonder when you take a look at who else would benefit, aside from developers like Lee and the associated industries pushing the bill. One name that keeps coming up is billionaire Republican donor Thomas Peterffy, who served on Gov. DeSantis' campaign finance team and is listed by Forbes as Florida's richest man. Peterffy, who owns a brokerage firm that operates the largest electronic trading platform in the U.S., has created a half-million-acre real estate portfolio in north Florida in recent years that would be in a prime location to benefit from the project.
In fact, Peterffy's holdings in Taylor County alone make up over half of the county's total land area, part of a tract that Florida Trend called "the largest continuous piece of undeveloped property in private hands east of the Mississippi River." The Palm Beach Billionaire's Row resident and Mar-a-Lago member has said that he was unaware of the project, calling the location of his holdings a mere "coincidence."
It's hard to imagine something that is more business-as-usual Florida than this project, which has an air of nostalgia, calling to mind some of the state's most audacious boondoggles. In fact, it feels almost like a tribute to the Florida legislatures of yore, when almost any scheme could get through with the right people pushing, no matter how bad of an idea common sense arguments showed it to be. In fact, it might even be on par with the draining of the Everglades, given the infinitely more dire state of Florida's present environment.
As Joni Mitchell sang,Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Dennis Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University, where he earned a degree in Government. He later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. Dennis's latest novel, Sacred Hearts, is availablehere.
