Road work that isn't kind to roads

A pair of Tuesday topics from perusing County Commission emails:

— If you haven’t driven along Maylen Avenue to see the Suncoast Parkway construction I suggest you do. Maylen, Sanction, and Lee Ann streets all have major road construction sitting right on top of them.

One Lecanto resident noted the obvious: These streets aren’t built to handle heavy trucks.

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“The asphalt is starting to crumble off the sides of the roadway due to dump trucks driving off the edge of the roadway,” the citizen wrote. “When it rains water is starting to collect where rain has never collected before. I am starting to see splits in the asphalt where there were none before.”

The writer noted she’s lived in the area long enough to remember when the streets were limerock, so this isn’t a Janey-come-lately complaining about the roads.

“Who is going to be responsible for repairing these roads when the construction is done? The state? The county? The construction company building the parkway?”

Very good questions. County officials sent the citizen’s questions to the state Department of Transportation, and we’re all interested to see how that comes back.

We’ve talked about this before. These are rural, narrow streets that were built 50 years ago to accommodate farming families. Now rock trucks are barreling up and down the roads all day long.

We can’t expect the county to keep its eyes on everything all the time. These streets, though, should be on somebody’s radar. 

Meanwhile, on the S.R. 44 end of the parkway, Crystal Oaks continues to see fallout from a poorly designed on-ramp.

At least 13 wrecks have occurred at the Crystal Oaks/44 intersection since the parkway opened in 2022. The community has also complained about heavy construction trucks using Crystal Oaks Drive as a cut-through between S.R. 44 and U.S. 19.

Other than people who lost their property to the parkway, did anyone end up on the short shrift more than Crystal Oaks? Just about every time I drive through there, I see someone confused how to access the southbound Suncoast ramp.

The state’s working on it.

— You recall we mentioned last week that the prospective Betz Farm buyer wanted the county to approve his new development plan before closing on the contract.

The County Commission agreed to extend the due diligence another 60 days until mid-April, but the developer is seeking some assurance that this isn’t all for naught.

According to attorney Clark Stillwell, the property is rife with development issues. Even though it was approved three decades ago for 1,500 units, times have changed.

For one — and I didn’t know this — the prior approval is only for condominiums and multi-family. To build single-family homes on standard lots will require a new planned unit development and all the bells/whistles that go with it.

The property also has flood and drainage issues. To read Stillwell’s memo, it’s questionable whether it's developable at all.

So, he asks two things:

— The county will “fully cooperate” in the PUD process. I’d like to know what exactly that means. Cooperate, like we’ll expedite it? Or does cooperate mean rubber stamp it?

— No sale without the development modification. This is actually normal. Most developers won’t close on buying large tracts of land unless they have the zoning in hand first. 

However, sellers usually don’t have the ability to make the buyer happy in that way. This seller can because it not only holds title to the land it holds regulatory authority over it as well.

I sure hope this turns out well, but it’s getting murkier and murkier. What’s more important — $6 million cash in hand, or giving carte blanche to a developer?

(The same developer that’s threatening legal action against the county for saying no to another one of his projects. Oh, the web we weave…)

That’s it for your Tuesday. Enjoy it, friends.

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