Environmentalists Urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to Veto Florida Toll Roads Bill

The Sierra Club calls the 330 miles of proposed public toll roads, the largest road project in the Sunshine State since the construction of the nearly 500-mile Florida's Turnpike, the “roads to ruin." 

The legislation authorizing their construction, Senate Bill 7068 by Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, refers to them as "Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance," and supporters assert that they "will spur economic development, provide new hurricane evacuation routes and ease congestion on Interstate 4 and Interstate 75, main thoroughfares tourists use to get to Walt Disney World," reports Skyler Swisher for the Sun Sentinel.

SB 7068 passed the legislature on May 1 and was presented to Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, May 13. He has until May 28 to act.

DeSantis’ veto pen is perhaps [environmentalists'] last chance to halt the road-building plan. The new Republican governor has styled himself as a Teddy Roosevelt-style conservationist. In a move that surprised some, DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have prohibited cities from banning plastic straws.

"The proposed routes pass through what are now cattle pastures, citrus groves, and pine forests," wrote Daniel Herriges for Strong Towns (posted here May 2).

The largest city on the longest of the three routes—Perry—has fewer than 10,000 inhabitants...There is absolutely no present, looming problem that these toll roads would solve. None

Thomas Hawkins [AICP] of 1000 Friends of Florida makes a collection of arguments against these roads concisely and eloquently in this Gainesville Sun op-ed. I won't reinvent Hawkins's wheel in this post—I recommend reading his op-ed.

On the other side, "[b]usiness groups are urging the governor to sign the bill, saying the highway expansion is needed with 3 million new drivers projected to hit roadways by 2030," adds Swisher.

We need to plan smart and work fast to keep up with Florida’s growth or risk becoming like California,” Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in a prepared statement. [Editorial note from a Californian: California's problem is a lack of homes, not asphalt.]

The April 15 legislative analysis [pdf] makes it clear that the bill is meant to improve, if not redirect, infrastructure funding from the urban to the rural areas of the state that haven't seen the economic growth that more developed areas of the state have experienced.

“With a lack of diversity in the economy, you’re ending up with areas where there is a death of new population growth," states Galvano in an extensive article by Jacob Ogles in Florida Politics on the bill and Sierra Club protests urging a gubernatorial veto. Galvano stresses how these "corridors of regional economic significance" will "enhance surrounding communities" in the infrastructure section of his May 4 press release on the conclusion of the 2019 legislative session.

Three new public toll roads

See the Sun Sentinel's image [jpg] for the three routes, but note that "the exact routes have not yet been detailed." From north to south, with the help of Don McLoud's piece in Equipment World:

• The Suncoast Connector, the longest of the three, would extend the Suncoast Parkway from Citrus County in the Tampa Bay Area to Jefferson County at the Georgia state line.  [See Planetizen: "Toll Road Cautionary Tale: Florida's Suncoast Parkway,"]
• The Northern Turnpike Connector, the shortest, would extend the northern terminus of Florida's Turnpike at Interstate 75, northwest to the Suncoast Parkway.
• The Southwest-Central Florida Connector would be a new expressway running from Collier County in southwest Florida to Lakeland in Polk County, midway between Tampa and Orlando on Interstate 4.

The last road proposal is not new. Known as the Heartland Parkway, "[f]ormer Gov. Charlie Crist [now congressman] killed it in 2007," reported Craig Pittman for the Tampa Bay Times in an extensive article on Feb. 18.

The Florida Department of Transportation killed it in 2011 and again in 2015. Then Crist’s successor, Rick Scott [now U.S. Senator], nixed it one more time in 2016. It is supposed to be kaput.

Galvano, in an interview, said he wasn't specifically thinking of the Heartland Parkway, but something following that same route that would also bring in water and sewer lines to rural areas now using wells and septic tanks. He wants $125 million to get the planning started.

• How Not to Do Growth, May 2, 2019
• Miami-Dade Wants to Add 13 Miles to the Dolphin Expressway, October 2, 2018
• Traffic Projections Missing from $6 Billion Tampa Bay Express Toll Road Plans, June 21, 2016
• Toll Road Cautionary Tale: Florida's Suncoast Parkway, February 9, 2016
• [Sen. Bill Galvano's] Bill to Revise Developments of Regional Impact Process Stalls in Florida, April 25, 2014

Hat tip to David Daniels, Planetizen reader.