Ridge extension debate kicks into high gear

After nearly 12 years of debate, supporters and opponents of the long-delayed Ridge Road extension project are racing to the finish line with comments.

Jan. 27 is the final day the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is accepting letters about the proposal before deciding whether to issue a wetlands permit for the Ridge Road extension. The Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction comes from the federal Clean Water Act.

Pasco County is seeking to build the eight-mile roadway east from Ridge Road's current eastern end at Moon Lake Road-Decubellis Road to the Suncoast Parkway and later to U.S. 41.

Even before the public comment deadline, county officials are scheduled to sit down with Corps of Engineers staff Jan. 23 to begin a review that should take several months.

Opponents view the proposed road as an intrusion into a delicate area for wildlife through the 6,000-acre Serenova Preserve and a vehicle for more overdevelopment in Pasco.

Clay Colson of Citizens for Sanity says the environmental-preservation group has counted at least 150 letters in opposition sent to the Corps of Engineers. Audubon Florida is marshaling its members, too.

Backers view the project as a boon for the economy, relief from traffic congestion and an evacuation route if the event of a hurricane or other disaster. They believe the county has minimized any potential impact on wildlife. Realtor Donna Cardellino has rallied supporters of the project and has predicted thousands of letters in favor of the extension.

Comments should be submitted in writing and mailed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, District Engineer, 10117 Princess Palm Ave., Suite 120, Tampa, FL 33610.

For copies of the Corps of Engineers' Ridge Road extension background files, telephone Tracy Hurst, project manager, at (813) 769-7063, email her at tracy.e.hurst@usace.army.mil, or go online to www.saj.usace.army.mil/Divisions/Regulatory/interest.htm.

For

The county has reduced the road's footprint through Serenova Preserve, according to Chief Assistant County Administrator Michele Baker.

The route for the Ridge Road extension actually came first. The concept first surfaced in November 1998. The Serenova Preserve came later. It was purchased as part of the mitigation for the Suncoast Parkway construction project.

Even so, engineers revised the Ridge Road extension plan to provide nine wildlife crossings. Most are large box culverts with gratings to let in light. Vegetation would be planted in a pattern to help guide creatures to the crossing. A 120-foot bridge for maintenance crews also could convey wildlife.

Fences would line the route, much like Alligator Alley in South Florida, to prevent wildlife from roaming into traffic, Baker said. Within Serenova, the fence stands 10 feet tall so even birds would have to fly over it. A mesh will line the bottom of the fence to prevent burrowing creatures from getting into traffic.

Engineers reduced the shoulders of the road, placed a multiuse path only on one side of the road and steepened slopes on the grading. Guardrails and barricades would be installed.

The county estimates the project could impact only about 47.6 acres of wetlands.

"We have been pursuing this for 11 years," Baker said of the Ridge Road extension. "We need this additional road. We're not like a private developer."

Pasco County has "very few options, almost no options" for creating another east-west road and evacuation route, Baker said.

Cardellino says opponents are using hot-button words such as "sever" or "destroy" to describe the road's potential impact on the preserve. Yet the road passes through only two miles of the Serenova area, she said.

At one time Serenova had been approved for up to 6,500 homes, Cardellino said. "We're environmentally friendly here" and Pasco has protections in place to mitigate against damage from the Ridge Road extension, she said.

Against

Citizens for Sanity's Colson said the former Serenova developers only announced plans to build 6,500 homes as a way to boost the value of the property. "They had no intention of going on with the Serenova development," Colson said. "They were happy to sell the land for preservation."

Colson also challenges the assertion the Ridge Road extension is needed as an evacuation rout. It "would only further exasperate bottlenecks" at S.R. 52, S.R. 54 and the Suncoast Parkway, he said. In addition, the majority of Pasco evacuation shelters are west of Moon Lake Road, he said.

The road could hamper controlled burns as part of land management of the preserve, Colson stressed.

In a Dec. 13 letter to the Corps of Engineers, Richard W. Hayes, resident of the Rosewood section of River Ridge and a small-business owner, urged rejection of the county's permit application.

"The impact to our neighborhood will be extremely negative," Hayes wrote. "The traffic noise, pollution, unsafe conditions due to foot traffic and vehicles will also harm our community. The Ridge Road extension will devalue an already depressed housing market.

"The animals, river systems, wetlands and diverse woodlands that occupy that area will be radically altered and negatively impact forever.

"No one would choose an ugly road over beautiful nature."

After the 2012 Audubon Christmas bird count in Serenova Preserve, Lorraine Margeson is urging opponents to speak out against "this horrid plan" for the Ridge extension.

She said she and husband Don counted 69 species of birds in the tract in late December, along with John and Becky Thornton.

Photos during the bird count show "bird nesting and habitat either directly in the path of destruction or within a few thousand yards or less – UNLESS WE STOP IT. It will just make you ill when you see," Margeson wrote in a Dec. 31 email.