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Hernando Today
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County Shifts Funds For Elgin Widening
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Published: May 10, 2008
BROOKSVILLE - County commissioners voted unanimously earlier this week to approve an agreement that requires the developer of Cortez Commons to pay $522,580 to mitigate the cost of transportation impacts to his project at State Road 50 and Mariner Boulevard.
What makes the agreement unique - and historic - is that the developer is being asked to make those improvements on Elgin Boulevard, east of Mariner Boulevard - about 3-4 miles away from his project.
Cortez Commons is a 196,000-square-foot shopping center proposed for the south side of S.R. 50, west of Mariner.
The mitigation payment calculation was based on the projected impacts Cortez Commons would have on the widening of S.R. 50 from four to six lanes.
However, since the improvements to S.R. 50 near the new shopping center are not included in the current five-year Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) work program, the county asked the developer to pay his "proportionate fair share" for road improvements to another road project, in this case Elgin Boulevard.
The widening of Elgin Boulevard, east of Mariner, is currently considered to be over traffic capacity.
The $522,580 will help ensure that the Elgin Road project stays within the county's six-year program and will be beneficial to the entire county, according to Paul Wieczorek, county senior planner.
"(Elgin) is a project the county has indicated is an over-capacity area and we elected to put the money onto that corridor because we feel that's an important one to improve," Wieczorek said.
Wieczorek said this is the first time such a transfer of money to another location has been done since the county amended its Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance in 2006.
He stressed that the developer, Dallas-based Team Retail Spring Hill LLC, will have no problems getting permits to start building the shopping center. The developer's agreement and $522,580 payment will satisfy the transportation concurrency issue, Wieczorek said.
County Commissioner David Russell said the "fund shift" benefits the developer because it will allow the county to remove the bottleneck at Elgin and Mariner, where it is two lanes.
The future improvements to S.R. 50 will eventually be paid for by the state of Florida because that section of the road is part of the state's strategic intermodal system, one of three so designated in Hernando County, Russell said.
The other two are the Suncoast Parkway and U.S. 19.
The money will help widen that corridor to four lanes, which should make it easier for people to reach the new shopping center at S.R. 50, he said.
Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.
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