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It's Time To Roll Up Ridge Road Extension

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2007

For at least 20 years Pasco County officials have envisioned extending Ridge Road in the Moon Lake area near New Port Richey to U.S. 41, enabling residents to travel directly from U.S. 19 to Land O' Lakes.

Nearly 10 years after the county's application to federal regulators was filed, the project remains just that, a vision, despite the expenditure of more than $3 million on design, legal fees and other costs.

It's time to put a lid on this money pit. Commissioners need to kill the project and use the more than $80 million in impact fees committed for construction on more feasible and sensible road improvements, such as expediting widening State Roads 54 and 52 and U.S. 41.

Pasco has more pressing transportation needs than continuing to throw money at a project that, by most appearances, has a very slim chance of passing federal muster. That federal regulators have taken such a long time reviewing the application, and its updates, should tell county officials that the extension more than likely isn't going to fly.

For starters, the extension would cut through the Serenova Preserve, a 6,500-acre oasis of wildlife and fragile ecosystems that the state purchased as mitigation for environmental destruction caused by the construction of the Suncoast Parkway. Putting a road through it would be outrageous.

Although the Ridge Road extension was tied to the preservation of the Serenova through agreements between the state, county and water management district, it still was bad public policy to agree to allow a road through such a highly sensitive environmental area set aside as mitigation for another project's damage.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Environmental Protection Agency clearly recognize the importance of the Serenova and have concerns about the project.

Why isn't that recognition shared by the county, which for the last few years has taken steps to protect the environment?

As Tribune staff writer Julia Ferrante reported recently, the EPA designated the preserve as an aquatic resource of national importance, and Fish and Wildlife is troubled about the potential effects to federally protected scrub jays and wood storks.

These are valid concerns that should sway the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has the final regulatory say, to deny the county's application.

Is another east-west route needed in the county? Probably. But it shouldn't go through the Serenova, and commissioners and county staff should not use the money they've already spent as an excuse to continue throwing away more at a project that appears at a dead end.

The county's original cost estimate of the project was $25 million. Now it has soared past $80 million, and a citizens' group has calculated it will cost nearly $400 million. Taxpayers should not be exposed any longer.

Commissioners, especially Michael Cox, a certified financial planner, should put a stop to this waste of money, erase the Ridge Road extension from the county's maps and look elsewhere to address road deficiencies.

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