County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson is about to up the ante in the CSX debate.

He has prepared a letter he wants his fellow county commissioners to send to the state Department of Community Affairs, urging it to reconsider its decision not to impose development of regional impact status on the first phase of the planned CSX rail hub/distribution center south of Winter Haven.

Here’s the text of the letter, addressed to Tom Pelham, secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs:

“On April 24, 2007, your staff issued a response to a request for a Supplemental Clearance Letter for a project known as CSX Integrated Logistics Center Terminal, Winter Haven, Florida. Your staff cited information in that letter that concluded the described project falls below the statutory standards of 320 acres that would require a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review for this project. This project is described by the owner’s representative as 318 acres. Further information indicates that there are another 930 acres planned for this project. Various reports indicate that up to 8,000 or more employees may be on the combined site in the future.

“Although this project is being developed in the city of Winter Haven, there are major potential impacts to surrounding properties, infrastructure (especially roads), and to other local governments. Unincorporated Polk County in particular will be strongly impacted by this proposed development. The cities of Bartow, Eagle Lake and Lake Wales will also need to deal with the impacts from this development.

“The Polk County Board of County Commissioners urges you to consider requiring the CSX project to undergo a full DRI review. By entering into this process not only can local governments be available to review the impacts of this project on lands in their jurisdictions and on their infrastructure, but also state agencies including the Florida Department of Transportation, and regional agencies including the Southwest Florida Water Management District, can assess and plan for impacts and permitting issues related to the project.” 

Wilkinson said he has placed CSX on the agenda for Wednesday’s commission meeting and will likely discuss this at Friday morning’s agenda review session. [I’m going out of town and won’t be there. But The Ledger generally covers those meetings.]

As we’ve reported here a number of times, the DRI issue is perhaps the key element of the CSX story. A DRI review typically takes years to happen. Avoiding the DRI review allows CSX to build the rail hub fast, by 2010 most likely, which in turn allows for the state’s half-billion dollar deal for commuter rail through Orlando to move forward.

Critics argue that CSX, Winter Haven and the state have created an artificial division between the rail hub and distribution center in order to avoid the time-consuming regional review. Wilkinson’s move will likely force county commissioner to take public positions on the CSX hub and how it’s being developed. They have largely avoided until now.

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