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Hernando Today

Widening Not Planned Until 2012-13

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: May 24, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Driving down Elgin Boulevard, from Landover west to Mariner, are rows and rows of empty homes with large "No Trespassing" signs placed conspicuously on the outside windows.

The county bought them in preparation for the widening of a short 1.8-mile stretch of Elgin that is fast becoming clogged with cars as more stores are built in the area and more people move into surrounding neighborhoods.

But there are still more homes to buy and more rights of way to acquire before any substantive roadwork begins.

That could take awhile.
County Engineer Charles Mixson said construction is scheduled to begin in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

He'd like to begin sooner. But that depends on whether the county is able to successfully negotiate buyouts for the remaining homeowners who live on the north side of Elgin and who must move to make way for the new road.

If they don't want to sell, the county would have to take them to court and try and acquire the property via condemnation - a long and potentially costly legal process.

The project go-ahead also depends on how much impact fees are collected in that district, Mixson said.

With the economy in a downward spiral, the fees have not been coming in as briskly as when the project was first proposed.

Mixson said the county has acquired about 50 percent of the right of way along Elgin.

That process should improve after July 1 when Hernando County gets a $2 million state grant that will allow the county to acquire remaining properties along that road.

So far, the county has acquired 19 of the 36 parcels along Elgin Boulevard and spent $4 million in doing so.

Negotiated settlements with homeowners have averaged from $55,000 to $325,000, depending on the square footage of the house and other property amenities.

Mixson said he plans to go out for bid soon to see if there are any companies interested in buying the homes from the county and having them moved to another location for possible resale.

That would save the county the cost of having houses demolished.

The county recently erected a traffic signal at Elgin and Landover, which should alleviate traffic for the short-term.

County commissioner and former state legislator David Russell said projecting road improvements five or more years out is typical for transportation projects.

For example, when he served as chairman of the state transportation committee in 2001, Russell said he helped obtain $22 million in Department of Transportation funding to four-lane County Line Road from U.S. 19 east to Cobblestone Drive.

That road project is finally moving ahead next year, a full eight years after it was proposed.

Road projects are given long-term windows and are based on anticipated funding, he said. Sometimes those funding sources go away or don't materialize.

He said the Elgin project suffered from a downturn in housing and a subsequent lack of impact fees. But the $2 million state grant will go a long way in reviving it, he said.

And, hopefully, the county will be able to meet the 2012-13 deadline, Russell said.

"That stretch (is) an absolute bottleneck," he said.

Russell said it sometimes becomes necessary for the county to become creative in paying for road projects.

That creativity proved somewhat controversial earlier this month when county commissioners voted unanimously 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 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.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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