491 plan still looks a little fuzzy

Warning: We’re going full government geek today. Try to temper your excitement.

Good news! The county has a major road widening project in the works that will benefit thousands of Citrus Countians.

Except…

There is no project. Yet.

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We’re talking about County Road 491, of course. The County Commission decided not to ask the state for money (I’ll get to that in a minute) and instead discussed pumping its entire transportation impact fee fund into getting the project to the point where it’s ready for construction.

That won’t be cheap: About $13 million was the number I heard for planning, design, and buying right of way for widening C.R. 491 between Pine Ridge and Hampshire boulevards, 1.3 miles.

The idea being the county will have the project ready to go, then ask the state for construction money to get it built.

Some thoughts:

— The County Commission could do a lot better job explaining what the heck is going on with 491. Widening 491 has never been ordinary. It’s a subject for another day, but if ever there was a county project that required significant scrutiny and public engagement, this is it.

— Here’s what I mean: Commissioner Rebecca Bays asked why the project doesn’t go beyond Hampshire to Deltona. She rightly noted that the Hampshire intersection, already a mess, will become a bottleneck even with a traffic signal if the lanes converge there.

The staff’s answer: It’s more expensive. Well, duh. If 1.3 miles cost $12 million to prepare the road for construction, then going another mile will double the figure. We get it.

That seemed enough for Bays. She wholeheartedly threw her support behind the Pine Ridge to Hampshire route. That’s it? No more conversation? 

— Now, this next thing is just plain weird. Commissioner Jeff Kinnard’s idea was to ask for a legislative appropriation of about $2 million toward the design. That covers about two-thirds the design costs, with the county paying the rest.

OK, normal so far.

Then came the most convoluted explanation I’d ever heard. According to the county’s transportation engineer, if the state approves design money, it takes over the project – potentially tripling the cost with a mountain of state regulations.

That means if the state were to approve $2 million for the design of 491, it would then have oversight of a county road project.

However, if the county pays up-front costs, it controls the project even if the state gives construction funding.

I had never heard of such a thing, and it appears the commissioners hadn’t either. Which frankly, is a little odd. How could they not realize that asking for a state appropriation would have such a dramatic impact on the project?

— And here’s what else: That places the 491 mess in greater light. Had that clandestine $1.5 million appropriation last year made it to the governor’s signature, the state would be overseeing 491 widening at triple the estimated cost.

The county’s history with 491 widening is less than stellar. It’s not all on this board; several other county boards in the last 20 years completely flubbed 491-related transportation tasks. I’ll get into all that in the coming weeks.

— Someone should be asking about the impact fees, right? I haven’t peeked at the budget recently, but the board was ready to toss aside whatever is in the works now for those fees and funnel them to 491. Again, with no discussion. Is that revenue set for something else right now? Is it planned for a future project? Is it in a coffee can?

Thankfully, the county attorney told commissioners they needed to set a specific agenda item before shifting millions of dollars from one bucket to another. This will come back in a few weeks.

Look. I doubt there’s a reasonable soul in the county who doesn’t see the priority on widening 491. The details, though, are still fuzzy. Not taking this project to Deltona, a key entry point to Citrus Springs, makes zero sense without some discussion. Same for moving large sums of impact fee money without a plan.

Shooting from the hip is not a strong transportation planning approach. Yet, when it comes to 491, that’s exactly what we do.

It shouldn’t be this mysterious. It really shouldn’t.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, friends.

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