1 COUNTY ROAD 470 (CR 470) PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT (PD&E) STUDY PUBLIC HEARING 2 From CR 527 to Florida's Turnpike 3
4 Lake Panasoffkee Recreation Park East Wing Meeting Room
5 1589 County Road 459
Lake Panasoffkee, Florida 6
7
8 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT NUMBER: 434912-1-22-01 9 FEDERAL AID PROJECT NUMBER: 8886 590 A
10 EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION DECISION MAKING (ETDM) PROJECT
11 NUMBER: 14187 12 13 Wednesday, April 12, 2017 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
JOY HAYES COURT REPORTING 407 COURTHOUSE SQUARE
1 PROCEEDINGS
2 MR. MOORE: Good evening. Hello. It's 6:00. 3 If everybody could find a seat, we have got more chairs 4 that we can put out if we need them. We'll go ahead and 5 get started with the presentation here in just a moment. 6 Now, we are going to run this -- we are 7 going to have the same information on both screens, so 8 if you -- if you choose to stand in the back and you 9 want to watch this screen over here, you'll have the 10 same information. And we'll try not to block the other 11 one.
12 Are we ready to start?
13 MS. McGEHEE: Okay. Just to let you know, we 14 are recording this so for our transcript purposes, I 15 want to make sure that I'm saying everything I need to 16 be saying.
17 Good evening. The Florida Department of 18 Transportation would like to welcome you to the public 19 hearing for County Road 470 Project Development and 20 Environment or what we call PD&E study.
21 My name is Mary McGehee, and I'm the 22 District Five project manager for Florida Department of 23 Transportation. This public hearing is relative to 24 financial management project No. 40491201 -- I'm sorry, 25 let me repeat that. 43491212101.
1 AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's not what it says. 2 MS. McGEHEE: I apologize. Let me try one 3 more time. Project No. 434912-1-22-01.
4 The proposed improvements involve 5 widening County Road 470 from County Road 527 to
6 Florida's Turnpike and localized realignment to create a 7 continuous County Road 470 corridor intersecting 301 in 8 a single location.
9 This hearing is being held to provide you 10 with the opportunity to comment on the project. Here 11 with me tonight are Greg Moore who is our VHB project 12 manager. And I have Amy Sermons in the back who is also 13 with the Florida of Department of Transportation. We 14 have Jack Freeman, who is with Kittelson. I have -- I 15 also have Dave Mixon with the Florida Department of
16 Transportation. We have Rax Jung -- I'm sorry, say your 17 name again, Rax.
18 MR. JUNG: Rax Jung.
19 MS. McGEHEE: Jung, thank you. Who is with 20 the Florida Turnpike. And I think that's it.
21 At this time, we would like to recognize 22 any federal, state, county or city officials who may be 23 present tonight.
24 Do we have anyone in the audience who 25 would like to be recognized?
1 Okay. So now we would like to begin the 2 presentation.
3 MS. McGEHEE: The purpose of this public
4 hearing is to share information with the general public 5 about the proposed improvements, its conceptual design, 6 all alternatives under study, and the potential benefit 7 and adverse social, economic, and environmental impacts 8 upon the community. The public hearing also serves as 9 an official forum providing an opportunity for the
10 public to express their opinions and concerns regarding 11 the project.
12 Public participation at this hearing is 13 encouraged and solicited without regard to race, color, 14 national origin, age, sex, religion, sex, disability, or 15 family status. Persons wishing to express their
16 concerns about Title VI may do so by contacting either 17 the Florida Department of Transportation's District V 18 office or the Tallahassee office of the Florida
19 Department of Transportation. This contact information 20 is provided on this slide and is also -- we have a slide 21 at the display area.
22 Our Title VI Coordinator in the Deland 23 office of the Florida Department of Transportation is 24 Jennifer Smith. Our address is 719 South Woodland 25 Boulevard in Deland, Florida. ZIP code is 32720.
1 Jennifer's telephone number 386-943-5367. And up in 2 Tallahassee our state Title VI Coordinator is Jacqueline 3 Paramore. Her address is 605 Suwannee Street,
4 MailStation 65, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450. Her 5 phone number is area code 386-414-4753.
6 This public hearing was advertised
7 consistent with the federal and state requirements -- go 8 ahead, Greg -- shown on this slide and is being
9 conducted consistent with the American Disabilities Act 10 of 1990.
11 And here what we have is consistent with the 12 American Disabilities Act of 1990 and also with the 13 Florida Statutes Section 120.525, Section 186.011, 14 Section
--15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: It is not 186. 16 MS. McGEHEE: -- 286.
17 Section 335.199, Section 339.155. 18 There are three primary components to 19 tonight's public hearing. First is the open house,
20 which occurred prior to this presentation where you were 21 invited to view the project displays and to speak
22 directly with the project team and to provide your 23 comments in writing or to the court reporter.
24 Second, this presentation will explain 25 the project purpose and need; study alternatives;
1 project impacts, both beneficial and adverse; and
2 proposed methods to mitigate adverse project impacts. 3 And, third, a formal comment period
4 following this presentation where you will have the
5 opportunity to provide oral statements at the microphone 6 or you may continue to provide your comments to our
7 court reporter. We also have comment forms for written 8 comments.
9 There have been various opportunities for 10 the public to provide input on this project. Several 11 public meetings have been held, dating from
12 September 29, 2015 until tonight. We welcome any oral 13 or written comments you might have and that will help us 14 make this important decision.
15 At the conclusion of this presentation, 16 our personnel will distribute speaker cards to those in 17 the audience who have not received one and would like to 18 make a statement. A court reporter will record your 19 statement and a verbatim transcript will be made of all 20 oral proceedings of this hearing.
21 If you do not wish to speak at the
22 microphone, you may present your comments in writing or 23 directly to the court reporter at the comment table. 24 Each method of submitting a comment carries equal 25 weight.
1 Written comments received or postmarked 2 no later than April 22, 2017 will become part of the 3 public record for this public hearing. All written 4 comments should be mailed to the address shown on this 5 slide or in your handout.
6 The address that we have on this slide is 7 my address, Mary McGehee, 719 South Woodland Boulevard, 8 in Deland, Florida 32720.
9 And at this point I would like to turn 10 the presentation over to Greg Moore and he'll talk about 11 the PD&E study.
12 MR. MOORE: Thank you, Mary.
13 Good evening.
14 Can everybody hear me okay?
15 The PD&E study process is something that 16 we do to follow the federal requirements so that the 17 project is eligible for federal funding. And it is a 18 very detailed analysis process that looks at a number of 19 different factors, starting with Florida's efficient 20 transportation making -- decision process, data
21 collection, traffic analysis. We have looked at a
22 number of different concepts and if you attended some of 23 the past meetings, you have seen many of those.
24 We have refined those concepts and 25 conducted, as I said, engineering and environmental
1 analyses to determine the different implications of 2 doing a project. And then we are preparing the Type II 3 categorical exclusion, which is the federal
4 environmental document that's been on display prior to 5 tonight's hearing. There is a draft available that you 6 can review. And we'll get to the project website a 7 little later and all that material, as well as the 8 display boards. I've seen many of you taking pictures 9 of what's here, and you are certainly welcome to do
10 that, but if you would like a PDF or electronic versions 11 of these displays, they are all up on the project
12 website. If they are not there already, they will be as 13 soon as tomorrow.
14 And so that takes us to the public 15 hearing. And this is sort of the last stage in the
16 study process. This is our last public event. And what 17 we are here to do tonight is to present to you the
18 outcome of the study, the recommendations that we have 19 developed during the process that's been a little over 20 two years in the making. And we are going to show that 21 alternative in comparison with the no-build. And that's 22 the intent of tonight's meeting is to compare those two. 23 And coming out of the hearing, there will be a preferred 24 alternative selected from those two that you'll see and 25 that's what we'll seek to get approval for.
1 And once the study is complete and we 2 have signature on that document, then the project is 3 eligible to get funded with federal funds down the road. 4 And that's really why we are here.
5 The study area is about ten-and-a-half 6 miles between I-75 and the Turnpike. And I'm sure you 7 are all familiar with this. It includes 470 from I-75 8 where the construction is completing. And the reason we 9 start at 527 is because the improvements that are under 10 construction today are what we are going to be tying 11 into and the approximate location is that 527
12 intersection there by the gas station.
13 Over to 301 and then, currently, 470 14 overlaps with 301 and you know there is two
15 intersections with 301. And then as you get to the one 16 that's north there, you head out to the Turnpike on that 17 long segment.
18 There is a lot going on in Sumter County 19 and there is going to be a lot more going on in the near 20 future. This regional overview, which we have on
21 display here, shows you some of the large developments 22 in the region that are planned and/or ongoing. You can 23 see The Villages is here. That's mostly developed at 24 this point.
1 improvements that will support this future growth and 2 the County's been -- had a very progressive stance in 3 advancing some of these road widening projects and other 4 improvements to support that future and 470 is part of 5 that.
6 You can see here there is a number of 7 different projects but the one that's under construction 8 on I-75 is this orange one. That's due to complete
9 later this year. I believe.
10 The 301 study, we have got a
11 representative tonight, Jeff Arms is here with the U.S. 12 301 study team. Their project overlaps our limits
13 slightly, extending from the 470 east intersection up to 14 State Road 44 and addressing the Turnpike interchange. 15 And if you have any questions on that 16 project, Jeff is here and will be happy to discuss that 17 with you. That's the blue one you see here.
18 This green one, that's the 468
19 improvements that are just about complete. You can see 20 that was widened to four lanes in the very recent past. 21 The County has also studied the 501
22 corridor for widening from two to four lanes. That was 23 a study that completed about a year ago.
24 And the Turnpike is actually looking at 25 their future plan for the main line Turnpike to go to a
1 future eight lanes. And as Mary mentioned, Rax Jung is 2 here, with the Turnpike, and can explain that project 3 more if you have any questions. So there is a lot going 4 on out here.
5 We also have the jurisdictional transfer 6 and this is -- another reason that we are doing the 7 study is that there is an agreement currently in place 8 for the County to assume State Road 48 in Bushnell, when 9 that construction completes. And I believe that's due 10 to complete in the October time frame. Once that
11 project completes, that road will be transferred to the 12 County and the entire 48 will be County Road 48.
13 And in exchange for that, the State is 14 going to take on maintenance of County Road 470. This 15 road -- 470 used to be a state road back in the '80s 16 when it transferred to the County, so now it is coming 17 back to the State, again.
18 And one of the things that goes with that 19 is that everything that we have evaluated for this
20 project is set up so that we can meet the state criteria 21 and that when the future road comes it's going to meet 22 standards.
23 It should also be noted you are going to 24 see "CR 470," and that's interchangeable with C-470. We 25 recognize that Sumter refers to many of their roadways
1 as "C, dash, 470", or "C, dash, 514", so those are 2 interchangeable.
3 As I mentioned on the regional overview, 4 specific to the 470 corridor, we do have the ongoing 5 construction on I-75; the 301 PD&E, and that's Jeff at 6 the table back there; the 501 widening, which will 7 happen sometime in the future. As I mentioned, the 8 County conducted a study to widen that to four lanes, 9 but I don't think it has gone beyond that at this point. 10 And then the Turnpike will eventually have an eight-lane 11 facility, and I'll show you a little bit about what that 12 looks like here in a minute.
13 So purpose and need: You know, one of 14 the main objectives that we have in the study process is 15 to clearly define, you know, the purpose and need of the 16 study and then why it is that we are doing the project. 17 And really for -- this project is to provide for the 18 long-term transportation needs, to facilitate regional 19 mobility within this significant corridor. This is a 20 very important part of the transportation network in 21 that it connects I-75 with the Turnpike.
22 You know, one of the things we talked 23 about was the Turnpike improvements. There is actually 24 an ongoing construction happening right now that will 25 improve the geometry at that interchange, but it is not
1 going to add the movements that are currently missing. 2 So you will not be able to go from Turnpike, headed 3 northbound, and then go back south on I-75. That's a 4 movement that's served by 470 today and will continue 5 for the foreseeable future; as well as northbound I-75 6 to go Turnpike towards South Florida. That's another 7 movement that a lot of traffic does use 470 to
8 facilitate that.
9 And the need for the project is 10 reinforced by two primary factors; it is really
11 accommodating that substantial growth and then providing 12 a systems continuity. And that's really the reason that 13 we are looking at the realignment in that central
14 section, that we'll get into, is to provide that 15 continuity. Because as traffic grows, the current
16 overlap that we have between those two intersections is 17 going to create -- it has already created some
18 congestion and that's going to continue to get worse and 19 so that's one of the things we are trying to solve
20 there.
21 This project is consistent with the
22 locally adopted plans; both the MPO in Sumter County as 23 well as in the DOT District V work program. And you can 24 see, here, just some of the different phases that are 25 funded. Obviously, the study phase is funded and then
1 after the study phase completes in fiscal '19-'20 -- and 2 that starts July 1 of '19 -- there is a design phase 3 funded to carry the recommendations of this project 4 forward into a design phase. And at this point that's 5 all that's funded.
6 Okay. So let's get into the specifics of the 7 different options that we have looked at, starting with 8 the no build. Okay. And the no build has advantages 9 and it has disadvantages. Some of the advantages are 10 that if we do nothing, if the no-build solution is 11 selected, then we have no disruption of traffic, we 12 would have no construction activity, no environmental 13 impacts, or needs to acquire right of way, and no 14 construction costs. So those are the advantages. 15 And the disadvantages really are that we are 16 not satisfying the purpose and need for the project, we 17 are not addressing some of the safety concerns that --18 the concerns with roadway geometry that need to be
19 improved, that network connectivity that we talked about 20 is not achieved, and we are really not able to serve the 21 future mobility needs. And you can see these Fs on the 22 screen are -- it's kind of like grades in school; if we 23 do nothing, the three intersections that you see there 24 today will be operating at a failing condition.
1 it is really bad.
2 The recommended alternative is 470 from 527 3 I'll walk you through the different segments of this and 4 explain what it is that we are proposing to do just to 5 solve those issues.
6 Starting at 527, which is essentially the I-75 7 interchange, we would be coming through improving the 8 curves slightly to try and set those up so that they can 9 accommodate the widening.
10 This is a concept of the roadway section 11 there. You can see we have got -- we call this a
12 four-lane road, which is two in each direction separated 13 by a raised median that's 22 feet wide. It will have 14 paved shoulders and those shoulders can accommodate
15 bicyclists. Those are 7-foot shoulders. And then there 16 is a drainage swale on either side of the road that will 17 convey drainage to some of the stormwater areas that you 18 have seen on the maps. And then we'll have sidewalks --19 right toward the edge of the improvements, we'll have 20 sidewalks set out there, kind of on the right of way, 21 near the right-of-way line.
22 This is what the proposed improvement looks 23 like through the curves that are just east of 75. You 24 can see the truck stop here, the interface with 527, and 25 then the curves as they are improved through here. And
1 then these light shaded areas are the stormwater
2 retention areas. And originally these were blue, but I 3 didn't want to imply that those were going to have water 4 in them all the time because we -- based on the soil 5 conditions out here, we anticipate those to be dry 6 ponds. So they will have water in them sometimes but 7 most of the time they will not. And they'll be grassed, 8 open space, basically.
9 Skipping over to the point where we start to 10 curve to the north -- and this is where we have the 11 realignment in the middle -- and you'll see right about 12 in the location of Weaver Aggregate we'll start to curve 13 northward and then up into this area. And then the
14 existing road -- what will happen to the existing road, 15 which is here, where it intersects 301 today by what 16 used to be the Cumberland Farms -- and I can't recall 17 the name of the current gas station -- Sunoco. Thank 18 you -- that will remain open, okay.
19 That existing road will continue to serve the 20 residents that are to the south there, as well as the 21 access to the north. And then we'll realign that to 22 connection with the new road. And then we'll have 23 another little access here it will serve.
24 So the goal is to make sure everyone still has 25 a connection, okay, and that's how that's going to look.
1 This is still a concept, okay, but that's our 2 best stab at trying to get that worked out.
3 Okay. So let me explain a little bit more 4 detail about why we need to do the realignment. I have 5 had this conversation with several of you but just bear 6 with me. Currently, 470 -- if we consider that to be 7 the purple line, okay -- the path for 470 involves
8 traveling on 301. And as traffic grows, 301 and 470 are 9 both regionally significant roads, okay. And if we look 10 at 301 traffic is the blue, in the future, combining 11 that blue and that purple ends up with a really big 12 number.
13 And what we would need to have -- and we have 14 looked at, you know, there were previous studies and 15 even one of our alternatives earlier looked at that. We 16 would need somewhere close to eight lanes in that
17 segment, and so it is -- and it really doesn't meet that 18 systems continuity objective, and it really doesn't work 19 very well to keep those overlapped. So, you know,
20 that's really what we are trying to solve.
21 So with the realignment, what we do is instead 22 of these two signalized intersections, we have just a 23 single intersection because that's -- you know, a
24 crossroads, typically, is one intersection. And that's 25 what we are trying to achieve here. And you can see
1 that the location of the proposed intersection between 2 the new 470 and 301 is right on top of the existing 471. 3 You see that. The existing 471 comes up on the east 4 side of SECO and then you have that curve that comes 5 right in to the 470 curve and it gets a little dicey 6 there, right, with the tilt and the way that the
7 pavement is tilted? Okay. So that's the other thing, 8 we are trying to solve that with this project; is
9 address that as well.
10 So let's look at the details of that. With 11 471 being so close to the proposed new major
12 intersection between the two, it needs another place to 13 live. And we have looked at a number of options for 14 that. The preferred option that we have come up with, 15 in coordination with the County and several of the
16 entities, is to utilize the existing improved 528 that's 17 just south of the Lake-Sumter State College. The County 18 made an investment in that roadway very recently and 19 about half of that corridor is already improved.
20 And what we would do is utilize what they have 21 started, introduce a curve on 471 to get that aligned 22 with that improved section that the County did, and then 23 continue it on. Right now, you have probably noticed 24 there is a little offset between the new part of 528 and 25 the existing part where it is kind of offset there.
1 So what we would do is keep that going
2 straight and then kind of shift down to the south to try 3 to avoid the, you know, brand new church that just went 4 up and try to get kind of between there and the
5 residents on the south side.
6 We have got a detailed map showing that. I'll 7 get into it. But essentially what we are doing here is 8 shifting that connection so that that traffic ends up on 9 301, because that's where it is going; it's going to 301 10 whether it happens where it is today or it happens
11 somewhere else, it wants to go to 301. So that's what 12 we are doing.
13 And that's about a mile south of the current 14 location. And you saw the Fs from before on the no 15 build. This is a similar display that shows you how 16 this particular option works. And these numbers here 17 are daily traffic numbers. And so on 470 we have got 18 about 34,000 cars a day. And then on the northern
19 segment of 301 we have got about 31 and that drops off--20 there is a big change, you know, with the interface with 21 470.
22 And then going south, it would go back to the 23 existing two lanes that's there today. And then that 24 traffic from 471 would come over to 301 and it would 25 head north up to our primary intersection there.
1 This is 2042. So we look out -- we try to 2 anticipate an opening year and we look out beyond that. 3 And we have evaluated 2042 traffic conditions. So
4 that's the distant future. And that does account for 5 most of the development that you see on the regional 6 overview. So the model includes all of that future 7 growth as well.
8 Within this central section, the road will 9 look a little different than it does in the western 10 piece that I just showed you. We'll have more of an 11 urban style roadway. For both 301 and for the 470 right 12 around the intersection, it will kind of look like this 13 with the curbs and the buffered bike lanes on both
14 sides, sidewalks, and a 30-foot median.
15 Okay. So getting back to the central section 16 here. As I mentioned, 301 will widen out. As you go 17 through the existing intersection, it will widen out to 18 come in to 470 and that will continue on as a four-lane 19 facility north of there. And as we mentioned, the 301 20 study will pick it up from about right here and carry it 21 on up to State Road 44 with whatever comes out of that 22 study, okay?
23 Here's the stormwater retention areas that you 24 see there, Sumterville Cemetery, SECO, and then most of 25 the property out here to the west is owned by the
1 Bedrock Dixie Lime and Stone mine operation, okay. But 2 that's how that will look.
3 Questions about the existing 470 east that is 4 sort of orphaned as part of this project. The
5 anticipation there is that that would remain to serve 6 the SECO substation that is out to the east. That would 7 likely revert back over to the County because State
8 Road -- what will be the future State Road 470 will be 9 here on the new alignment.
10 Other thing about that was that the existing 11 State Road 471, the piece that's orphaned as a result of 12 the 528 connection, that would also go back to the
13 County, and I honestly don't know what they'll call it. 14 I guess that will be up to them. But County 471 seems 15 to make sense. But that would be a county road. And 16 that was recently improved so that road is in good 17 shape.
18 I should probably also mention the ongoing 19 construction that you see at the intersection of 528 and 20 471 down there where the curve is, that is a turn-lane 21 project that the Department had programmed for some 22 time. And what that's doing is it is adding turn lanes 23 so that you can make a left turn without having to stop 24 in the through lane. If you are coming north, you can 25 make a left turn to go down 528 and over to the college.
1 And that's a turn-lane project that's underway right 2 now.
3 As we go out to -- so the future 528 will look 4 a lot like it does today in the eastern segment. The 5 only thing that we are really doing, other than the 6 curve that's introduced, is we are going to add 5-foot 7 paved shoulders in order to bring that up to state
8 standard because right now the shoulders that are there 9 are not quite as big as they need to be. So we'll be 10 improving that to make that a state facility. And so 11 that is here.
12 The turn-lane project that you see under
13 construction is going to facilitate the northbound left 14 turn, and I believe there might be a southbound right 15 turn lane, also.
16 At the intersection of 301 and the new 471, 17 current 528, we have evaluated a number of different 18 options there, and it was determined that a roundabout 19 needs to test for feasibility. And there is a
20 three-step process that we would go through for that. 21 So there is potential you might see a future roundabout 22 at that intersection. Okay.
23 So going on out to the east here, this is 24 where -- we are almost finished -- this concept applies 25 for the rest of the project as we go out to the east of
1 301. And that's a four-lane divided roadway. Initially 2 we're going to have a very similar section to what you 3 saw in the west, okay, through here. It will be that 4 suburban, typical section that you saw there. And then 5 we are going to widen it out a little bit further and 6 have a grass median swale instead of the curb. And that 7 will be 40 feet wide and it will have the travel lanes 8 with the 5-foot shoulders out that way.
9 The other thing we have made accommodation for 10 with this project is the option to do either drainage 11 within the swales or to have stormwater areas like what 12 you have seen. And then we have also got a flat space 13 back in here that could accommodate a future sidewalk. 14 As the area develops, and we know that there are some 15 planned developments, there is space to go ahead and add 16 those facilities there. And that has a design speed of 17 sixty miles an hour.
18 Okay. Some of the access -- we won't walk 19 through the entire, but I just wanted to highlight some 20 of the items of interest in the east portion. At
21 American Cement, we would maintain basically a similar 22 access to what they have today. And you'll see a full 23 median opening there with turn lanes. It is just a 24 wider 470.
1 of 501 with this intersection. For those of you 2 familiar with the Landstone Development, this is the 3 primary entrance to Landstone as well. But because the 4 status of that development is somewhat uncertain at this 5 time, we have not shown that connection. That would be 6 something that the developer would need to come in and 7 work with the DOT to get that access request. But we 8 are anticipating a future south leg at some point. And 9 so our design is reflective of that anticipated
10 connection.
11 At the Turnpike, we have basically an
12 opportunity to advance a plan that came together a long 13 time ago. And what you see there today is a two-lane 14 bridge that goes over the Turnpike. And if you have 15 noticed, all the travel lanes are sloped in one
16 direction. And that's because it was set up for future 17 expansion to the north to add the new lanes that will 18 serve the westbound traffic. So there will be a twin 19 bridge that would go on to the north. And we would set 20 that bridge up, basically, to accommodate that future 21 widening of the Turnpike.
22 And so that's why we have not shown a concept 23 on the existing because that will basically stay today 24 and we will just add the other two travel lanes on the 25 north side.
1 And that would essentially end our project 2 here, just beyond the ramp terminal intersection. And 3 then from there on, Lake County has developed a design 4 which has already been finalized, and is not yet funded 5 for construction, but they do have a design to improve 6 their section of 470 from this point -- in fact, their 7 plans go all the way to the county line -- but from this 8 point all the way over to U.S. 27. So that is another 9 segment that could be coming in the future that we have 10 made accommodation to tie into there.
11 Access Management. This public hearing also 12 serves as the access management public hearing and 13 Section 335.119 of Florida Statutes requires a public 14 hearing wherever access management changes are proposed. 15 This includes modification, addition or
16 closure of existing median openings, intersections, or 17 interchanges. Because 470 is currently a two-lane road 18 and it is a County facility, it doesn't have an access 19 management class, as of yet, and so part of the
20 transition to the State system would involve 21 establishing that.
22 So what we have done is: For the 470
23 improvements, we have access management class V in the 24 western section between I-75 and 301. And that involves 25 quarter-mile spacing for signals, quarter-mile spacing
1 for full median openings, and 660 feet, which is half of 2 the other one, or and eighth of a mile for directional 3 openings.
4 And then out in the section to the east, to 5 the Turnpike, that spacing increases to half mile for 6 signals and full median openings and a quarter mile for 7 directional openings. There are also access management 8 spacing requirements for driveway accesses, also. So 9 new driveways, new driveway permits would need to meet 10 those criteria. Existing driveways we are showing -- I 11 believe throughout the project -- showing those
12 remaining where there are today. With the exception of 13 the stuff we did there in the curve to keep the existing 14 residents hooked up that I went through before.
15 For 471, it does -- the 528 section does not 16 currently have an access management class, same as 470. 17 So that would be an access management class IV is what 18 is recommended. That's essentially a two-lane road with 19 unrestricted access.
20 And the 301 improvement through this section 21 of the project is currently class IV because there is no 22 median. And that would be proposed as a class V with 23 the criteria that we have talked about there.
24 We also look at a number of environmental 25 factors as part of the study. So I'll take you through
1 the different aspects of this that we have considered; 2 starting with wetlands. We have looked at impacts to 3 wetlands that could be involved in the project. And 4 this is in accordance with Executive Order 11990, 5 protection of wetlands.
6 We have a total of 4.3 acres of wetland
7 impacts. And there is mitigation proposed for that that 8 involves purchasing credits from the mitigation bank. 9 And if anybody has any questions on wetlands, we have 10 Brian Russell in the back there who conducted all of 11 this analysis and would be happy to explain the details 12 of that if you have any questions.
13 Floodplains, in accordance with Executive 14 Order 11988, we evaluated the project for potential 15 impacts of floodplain, and we do not anticipate 16 floodplain impacts with this project.
17 We have also looked at threatened and
18 endangered species in accordance with the Threatened and 19 Endangered Species Act of 1973 and Florida Statutes. 20 Our findings have been reviewed by the U.S. Fish and 21 Wildlife Service. We did find quite a few gopher 22 tortoise burrows that are out there. That is a
23 state-only listed species, but the presence of gopher 24 tortoises also introduces the need to consider the
1 species.
2 The anticipated finding for the study is "may 3 affect but not likely to adversely affect," which
4 essentially means that, you know, we have done our due 5 diligence and we don't anticipate any major impacts. 6 There are a few other species; there are Cooley's 7 water-willow, which is a plant species. And then the 8 wood stork. And then, as I mentioned, the Eastern 9 indigo snake.
10 There will be certain measures as part of our 11 project that will go into the commitments to make sure 12 that we are appropriately mitigating for any impacts to 13 those species as the project moves forward.
14 We also look at cultural resources; cultural 15 and historic resources. We don't anticipate any Section 16 4(f) involvement so I won't go into too much detail on 17 what that is.
18 We look at historic sites and districts in 19 accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act 20 of 1966 as amended in Florida Statutes. We have not 21 determined that there are any impacts to this project 22 with -- associated with the project. The State historic 23 presentation office is reviewing our documentation on 24 that. That consultation is currently ongoing. And the 25 interface with the U.S. 301 study, right now those two
1 studies are kind of being looked at concurrently by the 2 SHPO, they call them, so we are working through that 3 process now. We don't anticipate any major impacts. 4 Contamination was also looked at in terms of 5 the potential to get involved with any potential sites 6 that may contain contamination. There were six high 7 risk sites within the corridor and those have been noted 8 here. And then eight medium risk sites. But basically 9 the finding is we don't anticipate any issues with
10 contamination, but we have recommended a Level II impact 11 assessment as part of the design phase to look at that 12 further.
13 Air quality is also reviewed as part of the 14 project. A screening analysis was conducted in
15 accordance with National Ambient Air Quality standards 16 and the project does meet those standards.
17 Noise quality was also evaluated and a noise 18 study was conducted for the entire project. We look at 19 various receptors and we have a noise model that looks 20 at future noise for the project in comparison with the 21 existing. And you can see some of the different sites 22 that were evaluated there. There was no noise abatement 23 found to be needed for the project.
24 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, right.
1 Within the western segment, we do have SECO distribution 2 lines along the north side. We evaluated the central 3 segment, which has both SECO and Duke Energy
4 transmission lines. City of Bushnell has some utilities 5 on both sides of 301, and we are in coordination with 6 the City to determine the impacts there and kind of how 7 to address those.
8 And then within the eastern segment, we 9 do have some fairly major utilities but the larger 10 facilities that are on the north side of 470 have been 11 avoided by the recommended improvements.
12 Right of way requirements. One of the 13 unavoidable consequences on a project such as this is 14 the necessary relocation of families or businesses. On 15 this project we anticipate the relocation of one
16 residence, no businesses, and that's associated with the 17 curve on 470 to get to the 528 corridor.
18 The right of way acquisition will be 19 conducted in accordance with the Federal Uniform 20 Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisitions 21 Policies Act of 1970, commonly known as the Uniform Act. 22 If you are required to make any type of 23 move as a result of the Department of Transportation's 24 project, you can expect to be treated in a fair and
1 Assistance Act. If a move is required, you will be 2 contacted by an appraiser who will inspect your
3 property. We encourage you to be present during the 4 inspection and to provide information about the value of 5 your property.
6 You may be eligible for relocation 7 advisory services and payment benefits. If you are 8 being moved or -- and you are unsatisfied with the 9 Department's determination of your eligibility for 10 payment or the amount of that payment, you may appeal 11 that determination. You will be formally furnished 12 necessary forms and notified of the procedures to be 13 followed in making that appeal.
14 A specific word of caution: If you move 15 before you receive notification of the relocation
16 benefits that you might be entitled to, your benefits 17 may be jeopardized. The relocation specialists who are 18 supervising this program are here tonight. And we have 19 got the -- we actually put the right of way folks in the 20 room in the middle there so if anyone needs to have a 21 conversation with them, they can hear a little bit
22 better. This room does get pretty noisy, but we do have 23 the right of way folks that are here tonight. And
24 they'll be happy to answer any questions that you have 25 and will furnish you with copies of the relocation
1 assistance brochures.
2 Which is a good segue to the project
3 phasing. And so the right of way phase currently is not 4 funded, okay. As I mentioned before, design is funded 5 in fiscal '19-'20, which starts July 1 of '19. That's 6 the only phases that's funded at this point beyond the 7 study. The right of way would come next after the 8 design phases and that's not yet funded so, typically, 9 the right-of-way phase is -- design is two years, right 10 of way is about two years, typically, and then
11 construction is -- it is kind of a two, two, two there. 12 As far as the costs go -- let me back up. 13 We show the design cost is what has been budgeted for 14 the design phase of 5.1 million. The right-of-way 15 estimates are still under evaluation but this is a 16 pretty good number; 24.5 is what's being assumed right 17 now in the total project cost. The construction cost of 18 the project is in the 75-million-dollar range. And then 19 the environmental mitigation to account for the impacts 20 to wetlands, of which we had 4.3 acres, is about
21 700,000, for a total project cost of 105.3 million. 22 This number is still being evaluated but this is very, 23 very close to what we anticipate the project cost to be. 24 So just to summarize for you, the two 25 alternatives that we have available here is the no
1 build. And we mentioned that it really doesn't meet the 2 purpose and need of the study. The recommended
3 alternative that's been arrived at, through an extensive 4 evaluation of different options, it does provide systems 5 continuity, it's favorable for the anticipated
6 population growth and travel demand associated with 7 that. There is a lot of anticipated growth coming. It 8 will improve regional mobility and will also enhance 9 safety. And the improvements to that 471 intersection 10 is a good example of that; being able to kind of remove 11 that issue from the system.
12 As I mentioned earlier, we are at the 13 very tail end of the PD&E phase; the study phase is 14 about complete. Design is funded for fiscal '20. And 15 then right of way and construction and each of these 16 next phases are -- you can assume about two years. So 17 to answer the question as to when you could actually see 18 this construction start, you know, if this were '19, 19 okay, so that puts us in '21, '23, '25. So probably in 20 the 2025 time frame before you would be able to really 21 see some substantial progress out here.
22 So the next steps for us are to finalize 23 the public hearing transcript to include any comments 24 that we receive from you-all. As Mary mentioned before, 25 we have a number of ways that you can make comments, and
1 I'll go through that in a minute.
2 To complete the project documentation. 3 Everything that's been put on display in advance of
4 tonight's workshop is in draft form, and it is posted on 5 the website along with these displays that you see.
6 We'll be finalizing that documentation and closing out 7 the study. And the key milestone at the very end of the 8 project is called location and design concept
9 acceptance. And that's LDCA. That's kind of the
10 pinnacle crowning moment of the study when everything is 11 complete and you have to sign off on the documents.
12 So I'll just review, really quickly, and 13 we'll take a brief intermission while anyone that wants 14 to speak can fill out comment cards. And if you are not 15 comfortable speaking, we can -- we have other ways that 16 you can make comments. We have comment forms. We have 17 the court reporter here. You can speak to her directly 18 after the public testimony. And any correspondence that 19 you send us, we have our contact information here. Any 20 email received or comment forms that are mailed back by 21 this date of April 22, as long as it's postmarked by 22 April 22, it will become part of the record, the 23 official public records for the meeting.
24 And as I mentioned before, this is the 25 project website: C-470study.com. And that's in your
1 handout as well.
2 So we'll take a brief intermission.
3 Appreciate your patience with the presentation. If you 4 would like to fill out a speaker card, Nikki will be the 5 one collecting those. Or you can come to the sign-in 6 table, and we'll get those in the order they are
7 received.
8 (Intermission)
9 Okay, if you would like to come back
10 over, we'll get into the public testimony portion of the 11 hearing.
12 Okay. We have received three speaker 13 cards so far. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak 14 to the microphone that hasn't yet turned in a speaker 15 card?
16 Okay. So we'll go ahead and get into 17 that. I would like to go ahead and open the public 18 testimony portion of the public hearing. We will now 19 call upon those who have turned in speaker cards. When 20 you come forward, please state your name and address. 21 If you represent an organization, municipality, or 22 public body, please provide that information as well. 23 We ask that you limit your input to three minutes. And 24 please come to the microphone so that the court reporter 25 will be able to get a complete record of your comments.
1 After the last speaker card is called, 2 then we'll see if anyone else would like to speak. And, 3 if so, we'll do that part. And then if anyone has
4 comments they would like to make to the court reporter 5 in more of a one-on-one setting, you're welcome to do 6 that. And she's sitting right over here. Her name is 7 Tiffany, and she'll be glad to take your comment without 8 having to come to the microphone and speak.
9 So with that, I will get into -- the 10 first comment is from Katherine Gloria. And then next 11 we will have Carolyn Brown, okay. And then, finally, 12 we'll have Harry Hillager (phonetic).
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Larry.
14 MR. MOORE: Larry. I'm sorry, Larry. Larry 15 Hillager. And then anyone else that would like to speak 16 that hasn't turned in a card.
17 So, Ms. Gloria, we will turn the 18 microphone over to you.
19 MS. GLORIA: Thank you. I'm Katherine Gloria, 20 and I work for SECO Energy. Our address is 330 South 21 U.S. 301. I'm the vice president of corporate
22 communications and energy services. And we are here 23 tonight agreeing with the need for the realignment of 24 470, but significantly concerned about U.S. Highway 301 25 and 471 and the way that our company's campus is
1 sandwiched in those roads. And we are concerned that 2 you know, we met with the project team previously a
3 number of times and felt like those meetings were
4 genuine. We were encouraged to come to the table early 5 with our concerns about congestion of those roads, our 6 ability to get to your homes and businesses quickly to 7 restore power when power goes out and, you know, I 8 realize that we are not in the design stage yet. But 9 there are design decisions being made that affect our 10 ability, and we are worried that we are not going to be 11 able to plan for the future, we are not going to be able 12 to get out of our compound safely and quickly to restore 13 power for you.
14 So SECO serves not just in Sumter County. 15 We are the third largest employer in Sumter County, but 16 we serve 200,000 consumers across seven counties in 17 Central Florida. We are a large organization. And we 18 are an organization that's going to continue to grow. 19 We've -- again, we have put our concerns 20 in writing at each comment period. We have voiced those 21 concerns but we really don't feel like we have been
22 addressed. And, in fact, the current design seems to 23 have put even more obstacles in place than previously 24 discussed.
1 Our members expect reliable service and quick
2 restoration. And we think you expect that and you 3 deserve that as well.
4 We are worried about public safety
5 getting into and out of our compound. We drive really 6 big trucks. And we think our ability to serve you is 7 going to be significantly impacted without some
8 concessions at -- on 301 and 471.
9 The lost of the signalization at the 10 intersection of old 470 and 301 and a lack of
11 signalization at old 470 west of 301 are issues for us. 12 We are concerned about the lack of a hazard or emergency 13 notification signal at that entrance to our operating 14 compound and our headquarters facility on 301. Yes, 15 there is an open median in this plan on 301 that we will 16 never be able to get across.
17 The roundabout plan for 301 at the new 18 proposed intersection of 471 is going to be challenging 19 for large utility trucks. We pull 80-foot trailers and 20 carry 90-foot poles and even the large, high-speed
21 roundabout, we feel like it is a safety issue and that 22 it is going to be tough for our employees, for our
23 vendors who are bringing those materials to and from our 24 compound.
1 acknowledge the growth The Villages will bring; the 2 Village of Southern Oak and Landstone. Our customer 3 service center at the top of the triangle at 471 and 4 301, we process almost 40,000 transactions annually at 5 that payment center, to the tune of about $18 million. 6 And with the increase in population in 7 Sumter County, really close to our Sumterville compound, 8 we know that that number is going to go up. And there 9 is not -- with this plan, there is not a good way for 10 you to conveniently and safely get into and out of our 11 payment center.
12 So we just want -- you know what, I
13 acknowledge that Greg and Mary have met with us, and we 14 came to the table early because they encouraged us to. 15 We just feel like our concerns have not been
16 acknowledged. Thank you.
17 MR. MOORE: Thank you for your comment.
18 Carolyn Brown.
19 MS. BROWN: First of all, everybody lied to 20 us. Nobody told us when this started in 2015 -- I never 21 got a letter. That's the first thing that was a lie. 22 Now y'all trying to fix it where we can't get in and 23 out; put a roundabout there. I wasn't for it and I 24 wasn't for The Villages. Y'all destroyed too much. 25 They destroy too much. There is no trees left for the
1 people to breathe oxygen and purify. The Villages is 2 doing the same thing. And y'all just tell us one lie 3 after another and don't want to compensate nobody for 4 nothing until it gets down to it and who wants to buy 5 it.
6 Since I have been lied to, from these 7 people here just said, they sent us letters from 2015 8 when it started. I never received one until the 2017, 9 March of this year. I would have been to the meetings, 10 but it don't happen that way.
11 And this is just one lie after another, 12 after another. I don't want to see the cemetery screwed 13 up down there. My family is buried in that cemetery and 14 I go down there all the time.
15 Now, how y'all going to compensate -- and 16 I asked y'all three or four years ago -- actually, about 17 six years ago. My husband was alive and I was taking 18 him to Thomas Langley down there, and I asked them to 19 fix -- DOT to fix where that caution light is coming off 20 of 470 and enters 301 because they almost took the side 21 of my car off I don't know how many times. And they go 22 out and put some blinking lights and said, oh, that 23 solves my problem. If it had killed my husband, it 24 would have solved my problem because he'd be dead. 25 Now y'all going to screw everything up
1 around there for people that don't want it and don't 2 like it. Y'all just creating one problem after another. 3 Now you're talking about putting a roundabout in Oxford. 4 People here don't want it. What do y'all don't
5 understand? We don't want it. And then you're going to 6 create a bottleneck on 301 and it's going to be four 7 lanes and coming into a two lane. You know, you people 8 don't make no sense. Or maybe it is me that's crazy. 9 I don't get you people but whatever. I 10 ain't happy with it and I'll tell you right now I don't 11 like all The Villages moving in; they can go back where 12 they come from. We don't need no improvement to Sumter 13 County. I've been in Sumter County every day of my 14 life. I was born in Marion County and raised in Sumter 15 County; been here every day of my life. And I hate what 16 y'all are doing.
17 MR. MOORE: Thank you for your comments.
18 Mr. Hillager.
19 MR. HILLAGER: My name is Larry Hillager. I 20 live at Shady Brook, 178 North highway. You skipped the 21 whole part on that program up there today about Shady 22 Brook. You never mentioned you were going to take part 23 of our golf course, nothing. Why would you not mention 24 that? You went all the way around it. You never
1 It was showed that you had the road, you 2 showed your little red arrow going out through there and 3 everything else, but you never said nothing about Shady 4 Brook.
5 Now, Question No. 2: We were talking to 6 the lady right here next to you in the dress, and she 7 said that if Jim put his foot down and said no, that the 8 State could not take any part of that under the
9 domain -- property domain?
10 SPEAKER: Eminent domain.
11 MR. HILLAGER: Eminent domain. So if enough 12 of us get on him about it, would that kill this project?
13 You can't answer nothing?
14 Cat's got your tongue?
15 Thank you.
16 MR. MOORE: Thank you, sir.
17 Just a few clarifications because I 18 certainly don't want to create the impression that we 19 are avoiding anything with Shady Brook.
20 Shady Brook is impacted by the proposed 21 improvements. It is -- the footprint that we require to 22 do the new road is in the back nine portion of the golf 23 course, okay. So it is the back nine holes that are 24 impacted by the proposed improvements as well as the 25 stormwater area right here, okay. There is no
1 relocation of any resident in Shady Brook but the golf 2 course itself is impacted by the project.
3 MR. HILLAGER: See, when everybody was here 4 from Shady Brook, you should have mentioned it then. 5 MR. MOORE: And one of the reasons we wanted 6 to hold the hearing when we did is because -- and we 7 realize we are at the tail end of the peak season, but 8 we wanted to be able to offer an opportunity when the 9 residents could attend and that's
--10 MR. HILLAGER: Yeah, but see, the last time 11 you did this was in September and you knew everybody was 12 gone back then. Now you are doing it, now, and you know 13 we are all gone again. You guys ain't dummies about 14 this thing because you knew you would have the whole 15 place in here full of people from Shady Brook. Thank 16 you.
17 MR. MOORE: We appreciate your comments. 18 Is there anybody else who would like to 19 speak at the microphone as part of the public testimony? 20 If not, we can take your comments at the 21 boards informally or if you would like to speak to the 22 court reporter you are certainly welcome to do that. We 23 also have comment forms available that you can fill out 24 and submit. That all becomes part of the public record 25 and makes its way to the regular meeting.
1 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I want to ask a question. 2 MR. MOORE: Okay, sure.
3 THE COURT REPORTER: I cannot hear her. 4 MS. SPILLOWS: Nancy Spillows (phonetic). 5 Actually, I am a property owner here, but I do not
6 reside here. I just wanted to ask if you could explain 7 a little bit more about the roundabout and really what 8 is the significance of having that there? What is it 9 going to do?
10 MR. MOORE: Thank you for your comment. So 11 it -- at this time, we'll go ahead and -- I'm going to 12 answer her question, but I want to close the public 13 testimony, just as a matter of procedure. We'll close 14 public testimony at this point. And I'll go ahead and 15 answer this question and then any other comments you may 16 have, we have got a team of a lot of good people here 17 that can help answer anything that you might want to get 18 into further.
19 Okay. So for 528 -- so a number of 20 options were looked at for the roundabout. So how we 21 got to the roundabout and why we want a roundabout at 22 this location. Okay, so the future traffic demand with 23 this being a T-intersection had some operational issues. 24 It didn't meet the level of service, it's difficult to 25 make left turns, and the delay that was experienced in
1 those turns caused that intersection to fail as an 2 unsignalized intersection. So we went through a
3 screening process. It is a three-step process and we 4 have got some experts here that can explain that in 5 detail.
6 But, essentially, what we did is we said 7 this doesn't work as a stop control intersection. How 8 do we address that? Okay, any time you put in a traffic 9 signal, that's going to introduce the potential for
10 crashes in the future. Any time you do any kind of 11 intersection control, you are going to have a safety 12 implication in doing that, okay.
13 As we looked at the cost benefit of a 14 signal versus a roundabout, part of the equation, part 15 of the analysis that goes into that cost benefit is the 16 cost of future crash potential and the potential to have 17 fatalities and injury crashes at that location.
18 The roundabout analysis that we conducted 19 showed that that's going to be a safer intersection
20 because the traffic is moving more slowly. Doesn't mean 21 there won't be any crashes but the crashes that occur 22 there are going to be less severe than they would be if 23 it was signalized.
24 And it also -- the signal takes it from a 25 failing condition to almost -- it is almost overkill
1 where a roundabout is really the more appropriate
2 treatment. The signal is almost taking it too far. And 3 that was -- in layman's terms, that's kind of how that 4 decision was made.
5 This is also designed for -- a tractor 6 trailer is the design vehicle WV67FL, which is a big 7 53-foot tractor-trailer to be able to negotiate that 8 roundabout. We also considered the special case, as we 9 were asked to do, with a utility truck pulling a
10 trailer, with a pole trailer, and we looked at that as 11 well, and that's -- this design accommodates all of 12 those vehicles.
13 So with that, we'll go ahead and close 14 this portion of the hearing and if you would like to 15 discuss more at the boards, we are happy to do it. 16 Thanks for coming out tonight.
17 I'm sorry. Just one more thing. This is 18 a procedural thing but the time is now 7:30. A verbatim 19 transcript of the hearings, oral proceedings, together 20 with all written material received as part of the
21 hearing record, and all studies, displays, and
22 informational material provided at the hearing will be 23 made part of the project decision-making process and 24 will be available for public review upon request.
1 for providing your input into this project. We hereby 2 close the official -- we hereby officially close the 3 public hearing for County Road 470 project development 4 and environment study, FM No. 434912-1-22-01. Thank you 5 and have a good evening.
6 (This begins the comments given directly 7 to the court reporter:)
8 THE COURT REPORTER: Please give me your name 9 and address.
10 MR. HECKER: William Hecker, Shady Brook 11 mobile home park. And my big beef is on the sound 12 impact. He said there is no possible impact. I mean, 13 you got to be crazy. I mean, we hear the trucks running 14 up and down 301 now, and they are going to be coming a 15 lot closer. I mean, how they did that impact and come 16 up with that decision is unbelievable. I mean, it is 17 just -- I can't believe it.
18 Thank you.
19 MR. GRABOW: Are you still working, young 20 lady?
21 THE COURT REPORTER: I am.
22 MR. GRABOW: Okay. I'm in Shady Brook. 23 THE COURT REPORTER: Okay. Can you give me 24 your name?
1 THE COURT REPORTER: And you're in Shady 2 Brook?
3 MR. GRABOW: Right.
4 THE COURT REPORTER: Great.
5 MR. GRABOW: And my concern is we have got 6 $70,000 in a park model. We are affected already, 7 adversely, because the property values
8 THE COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry, because of 9 what?
10 MR. GRABOW: Property values are dropping, 11 there are more homes for sale now than there ever has 12 been. And when they were selling before, some of them 13 went on the market and sold in a couple of weeks. Now 14 there is places that have been on the market for years. 15 Also, we bought there so we could be on 16 an 18-hole golf course. Now it's nine, and it is
17 affecting us socially and economically. 18 THE COURT REPORTER: Socially and 19 economically?
20 MR. GRABOW: Yes.
21 THE COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry, I'm having a 22 hard time hearing you.
23 MR. GRABOW: Oh, sorry. I noticed he skipped 24 over the slide that had the social and economic impacts. 25 He never showed it on the board, he just flipped right
1 through it. That's important to us because it affects 2 us. And we had 70-something people here tonight from 3 Shady Brook, so it has definitely affected us. Thank 4 you.
5 THE COURT REPORTER: Thank you.
6 MS. VANN: Next.
7 THE COURT REPORTER: Your name and spell it 8 for me.
9 MS. VANN: Victoria Vann, V-A-N-N.
10 THE COURT REPORTER: Okay. And your address? 11 MS. VANN: 2327 County Road 528, Sumterville, 12 Florida.
13 THE COURT REPORTER: Okay. I'm having a 14 little bit of a hard time hearing --
15 MS. VANN: I know. It's loud in here.
16 THE COURT REPORTER: So if I lean in, I'm not 17 trying to be rude, I'm just trying to hear you.
18 MS. VANN: No, I know.
19 Come over here, Lester.
20 The church they built across from me on 21 528, when these plans was made, the church wasn't there. 22 The church is really close to the road. All their
23 electrical, water, everything is right there next to the 24 road.
1 by the middle of next month.
2 THE COURT REPORTER: What's your name, sir? 3 MR. SUMNER: My name is Lester and the last 4 name is Sumner, S-U-M-N-E-R.
5 MS. VANN: The whole ball of wax is my land is 6 for sale. It is 10 acres. I want to keep the back 5 7 acres, and I'm going to sell the front 5 acres. That 8 way they can widen the road, they can put in -- they are 9 going to have to put in a turn lane into the church. 10 And they are going to have to -- basically, that's it. 11 I just want it on record that it is for sale. It was 12 going up for sale regardless.
13 She said it will be, what, 2020 before 14 the plans were done?
15 MR. SUMNER: Because of the engineering. 16 MS. VANN: I'm going to put up the house, 17 which is next to the road, before then. Because we are 18 wanting to travel. So they can either buy it from me or 19 deal with me and somebody else down the road.
20 MR. SUMNER: I would like to voice my opinion 21 about their idea of a roundabout.
22 MS. VANN: Yes, me, too.
23 MR. SUMNER: On a major thoroughfare of 301 24 becoming 301 and 471. With the large amount of trucks 25 that will be coming through there; the speed, which they
1 are saying is 45 miles an hour, I don't see how that's 2 going to work.
3 MS. VANN: A traffic signal would be awesome. 4 And they need a traffic signal there now.
5 MR. SUMNER: And, also, I -- there is a curve 6 going towards Bushnell that they'll be coming around 7 that curve and in less than a half a mile they'll be on 8 that roundabout. And they are dropping from 55-plus 9 down to 45, the posted speed limit? I know good and 10 well that, you know, if I -- if it says 45, I'm going to 11 be doing 50. I mean, I'm sorry, that's just human
12 nature. And I just -- I -- I would like to see all the 13 calculations that they did on that.
14 And I know people complain about that 15 and, I'm sorry, I just
--16 MS. VANN: When you got a roundabout like 17 this, and you are trying to come off of what's going to 18 be 471, and you got people going this way and you got 19 people going this way, and people trying to come out, it 20 ain't going to work. It is not going to work real well 21 at all. A traffic signal with a turn lane would be 22 awesome.
23 MR. SUMNER: Maybe folks that live up north 24 and have all the roundabouts, they are smarter drivers 25 than us southerners.
1 MS. VANN: And all they would want to do is 2 squall tires around it all night long. All these
3 teenagers, that's what they going to do; they're going 4 to ride the roundabout and squall tires all night. 5 MR. SUMNER: I ain't going to worry about 6 them. I was a teenager a few years ago.
7 MS. VANN: If I'm living on the back of the 8 property I won't have to worry about it.
9 But with the houses sitting right there 10 at 301, they will. That's all they are going to do all 11 night long is squall tires around it.
12 The new road down below me, right now, 13 they use that for a racetrack right now. And you can go 14 down there and see where they squall tires up and down 15 that road all night long. Charlie -- him -- he lives on 16 that new part. And I guarantee you he can tell you how 17 they race up and down that road all night long. There 18 is black stripes all up and down the road. That
19 roundabout will be the same thing; something for them 20 kids to play with.
21 MR. SUMNER: And I guess while I'm
22 complaining, where 471 and 528 meet at this time, they 23 are talking about coming in there and putting a
24 right-hand turn to continue on 471 to where it 25 intersects 470 in Sumterville there. They need to
1 consider putting a traffic light there. Again, because 2 of the traffic. So, you know, unless some guy comes up 3 with a brilliant idea to put a roundabout there. You 4 know it is a -- it is a major intersection because 5 presently 471 goes straight past 528.
6 They are presently putting some turning 7 lanes up there now, which is going to be useless when 8 the project goes forward, according to the plan, because 9 of the curve through on the existing piece of property 10 and connect to 528, and then come off a hard right-hand 11 turn to come back on to 470, again, going towards 470 12 east.
13 My understanding is that 528 to 301 is 14 going to be the westerly route to I-75. And then the 15 continuation to 470 east would be that continuation 16 there. It looks to be complicated for the traffic. 17 MS. VANN: He was an engineer with Sumter 18 Electric for how many years?
19 MR. SUMNER: 34 years.
20 MS. VANN: So he ain't stupid. He knows what 21 he's talking about.
22 With a roundabout, when you -- when there 23 is a wreck on 75, they generally get off at Bushnell and 24 come up 301. And what he's trying to say is that when 25 you are coming down 301 from Bushnell, the road comes
1 over a hill and it curves right where that roundabout is 2 going to be. And the traffic will be bumper to bumper 3 to almost Bushnell when they detour them around with car 4 wrecks on 75. You would never get out of 528. It would 5 be impossible.
6 MR. SUMNER: That would be a major clog. I 7 would almost venture to say you would have to put a 8 traffic cop there to flag the traffic through that 9 roundabout. Because the northbound -- if it comes off 10 of I-75, which it has, it would be a major blockage 11 right there.
12 MS. VANN: So I'm more concerned about the 13 roundabout than I am the road.
14 THE COURT REPORTER: Thank you.
15 Let me get your name.
16 MR. HOOK: Charles Hook, H-O-O-K.
17 THE COURT REPORTER: And your address? 18 MR. HOOK: 2549 County Road 528.
19 Two concerns: The original public 20 meeting, I never got a letter stating that they were 21 going to use County Road 528 as an alternative route. 22 Second thing is that after -- I'm opposed 23 to what they are going to do now. I think they need to 24 find a different alternative route. But if they are 25 going to use the road as an alternative like they want
1 to do, I think they need to look for -- to plan for 2 future pedestrian traffic, sidewalks, and drainage; 3 especially if schools are proposed there by Sumter 4 County. Thank you.
5 (Comments concluded at 7:41 p.m.) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
1
CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER
2
3
I, Tiffany Treffeisen, Registered
4
Professiona
lReporter, Florida Professional
5
Reporter, hereby certify that I was
authorized to6
and did report the foregoing proceedings, and that
7
the transcript is a true and correct record of my
8
stenographic notes.
9
No reproduction of this transcription is
10
permitted unless under the direct control and\or
11
supervision of the certifying reporter and the
12
foregoing certification of this transcript will not
13
apply to any reproduction.
14
Dated this 7th day of May, 2017 at Lake
15
Panasoffkee, Sumter County, Florida.
16 17 18 19
