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Road not taken can be costly

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: October 31, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - With months to go before construction starts, the widening of State Road 54 is already shaping up to be one of the most expensive road projects Pasco County has undertaken.

As of Monday, county officials had spent about $65 million buying land and paying business damages to property owners along S.R. 54 between Interstate 75 and Curley Road, County Administrator John Gallagher said.

County officials will accept bids next month for widening the chronically congested highway, the main artery linking commuters in Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills to I-75. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year and take about 24 months.

The county now owns outright about half the 110 parcels it needs to widen the road to six lanes.

The owners of the remaining parcels - which could potentially cost millions more in business damages and relocation costs - have received offers that remain subject to negotiations, said Marcie McDonie, the county attorney handling the negotiations.

Right of way costs for the project already have exceeded the $60 million the county budgeted. The state Department of Transportation contributed nearly $14 million to that total. As pending lawsuits get resolved, those additional costs will fall on the county, said Deborah Bolduc, who oversees the county's road projects.

The county says several factors have kept right of way costs along S.R. 54 running high despite the past two years' precipitous drop in real estate values.

For one thing, a nearly stagnant real estate market during the past year has forced appraisers to go farther afield looking for comparable sales upon which to base their estimates. That has resulted in wide differences between the county's estimate of a property's value and that provided by the owner.

For another, the nature of the land the county is taking - such as parts of four gas stations - means the county must pay a lot to restore the properties. That can mean moving underground fuel tanks or reconfiguring buildings.

Lastly, all but 15 of the 110 landowners affected by the project have chosen to fight the county's condemnation effort, racking up lawyers' bills, competing appraisals, surveys and other costs for both sides - all of which the county covers. One landowner alone billed the county for nearly $170,000 in lawyers' fees, according to county records.

The county also covers tenants' relocation cost if their landlord is forced to sell.

"You take a lot of blood-pressure pills when you negotiate this stuff," Gallagher joked recently.

The county has paid Nebraska-based engineering firm HDR more than $1.8 million to oversee the right-of-way acquisition process.

In some cases, the county is taking narrow strips along the highway. In other cases, it's claiming most or all of a few sites.

Some who are being bought out have become very wealthy. Others say the county has to been slow to compensate them.

Roger Cimbora of Land O' Lakes lost five of the just more than six acres he bought in 1998. Much of the land was dedicated to storing the equipment used in his pipe-cleaning business. Cimbora will continue to operate his company on the land he has left.

Cimbora said he bought the land as an investment, never thinking the county would take most of it for the road-widening. The bulk of the property will go toward drainage.

The county paid Cimbora nearly $2.2 million for his property and for lost business. At 70, he's more worried about passing the money onto his heirs than spending it.

"Honestly, the money was nice, but I'd much rather have the property," Cimbora said.

The buyouts have begun to transform stretches of S.R. 54 into ghost towns as business owners pack up ahead of the bulldozers.

Veterinarian John Lucado was forced from his office of eight years at S.R. 54 and Curley Road when his landlords sold the property to the county in July 2008.

Lucado spent $60,000 moving his business to the Red Fern Business Park in Seven Oaks. The move exhausted his company's finances, much of which he might not recover.

Lucado said county officials promised him at least $20,000 in compensation.

"They said they would try to get me more," he said.

So far, he's gotten about $13,000 - the cost of tiling the floor in his leased space. He had to loan the company money this week to make payroll.

"Our bank account is totally gone - completely," Lucado said. "If we hadn't had that reserve we'd be out of business."

Mary Arend, the county's relocation expert, said Lucado could be entitled to more than $20,000 in repayment.

"He has more money coming, but we're waiting for his receipts," Arend said.

The process of documenting his expenses has been laborious, Lucado said. It has become more so as Lucado cut his staff in part to compensate for the higher costs of his new site.

"I'm on my feet," he said. "But it's more iffy than it was where I was before."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 731-8168.

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