LOCAL

Toll road task force meets for last time, finalizes report

Karl Schneider
Naples Daily News
An attendee of the M-CORES community open house points to a display on Thursday, Dec. 13 in Naples.

The task force assigned to the southernmost portion of a statewide toll road system met for the last time Monday to finalize its report to the state Legislature.

After 15 months of meetings, the Southwest-Central task force discussed final revisions to the report due in Tallahassee in mid-November. The report outlines guiding principles to be considered while the roads are planned.

The Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, called M-CORES, has three task forces, each assigned to its own section of the overall toll road system. The proposed sections of the toll roads are the Suncoast Connector, the Northern Turnpike Connector and the Southwest-Central Connector, which would run from Collier County to Polk County.

More of our coverage:Commissioners show M-CORES support, with conditions

More:Task force navigates Florida panther protection during toll road meeting

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed M-CORES into law in May 2019. The toll road system is meant to provide broadband access to rural Florida, as well as provide relief to traffic congestion and aid in hurricane evacuations.

Among the more than 70 amendments in the report, task force members asked the state Department of Transportation to include public comments received throughout the process, as well as provide an emphasis on environmental protection and various other language changes.

“Protecting the environment, to me, is the common denominator through all the decisions needed to be made going forward,” said Penny Taylor, task force member and Collier County commissioner.

Taylor suggested several amendments to the report including adding the data from the thousands of public comments received as the task force put together its report.

State DOT staffer Beth Kigel outlined the major themes found in the department’s analysis of the public comments. Comments centered around natural resources, corridor need and feasibility, funding and economic opportunity.

Last week, a coalition of organizations against M-CORES came out with its own analysis of public comments state transportation officials received in regard to the toll road system.

No Roads to Ruin members said the group’s analysis found that an overwhelming majority of public comments were against the toll roads.

“What we found, after going through each of the comments submitted between August 2019 and October 7, 2020, is that 93 percent of the public comments were opposed to the M-CORES program, 3 percent of the comments were unclear, and only 4 percent were in favor,” Jon Bleyer of Progress Florida said in a news release.

Map of proposed M-Cores toll roads in Florida

State transportation department staffer Will Watts said at the meeting that the department was able to determine the different type of sentiments taken from submitted form letters and will include those percentages in the final report.

“We did take the liberty of choosing those categories, so we can provide those sets of percentages to rank what is more prevalent,” he said.

Kevin Thibault, state transportation secretary, thanked the task force members during its final meeting, saying the transition to a virtual format has gone well.

He went on to say that even though M-CORES has been on an aggressive schedule, that does not overrule laws regarding economic and environmental feasibility, issues that have been voiced by community members throughout the state.

“I want to assure you we will use these guiding principles and make sure that these needs are evaluated,” he said. “I will ensure your action plans will be followed as we continue to monitor and ensure transparency and public engagement throughout the process.”

FDOT will consider each task force’s report while planning and developing each section of the toll roads. The 10-year project will be funded as part of FDOT’s turnpike program, which is separate from the gas taxes used to pay for more traditional projects.

Karl Schneider is an environment reporter. Connect with him via email at kschneider@gannett.com or on Twitter: @karlstartswithk