This is the day of the now famously private meeting between CSX and staffers from Lakeland government and business groups set for this afternoon at the Chamber of Commerce, I’m told.

With that in mind, I thought I’d write a little about a conversation I had last week with state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, for a story I was writing about the new USF-Lakeland campus. The discussion eventually drifted into the general future of Polk County and some of the vital transportation and growth questions facing the county today.

In talking about general growth pressures on the county, Alexander mentioned that U.S. 27, much of which lies in his sprawling, mostly rural, “Heartland” district, “is going to be wall-to-wall” even without the CSX hub project planned for Winter Haven. U.S. 27 is also expected to be a prime route for many of the 1,150 projected truck trips per day the hub is expected to generate when it opens in 2009 or 2010.

So I asked Alexander if he was worried about the impacts of the CSX projects on Polk’s road system. Here’s how he answered:

“Sure I’m worried, but I have to look at what’s happening. The CSX thing is a reality. It’s going to spur economic development. The county really doesn’t have a choice but to improve our infrastructure.”

Hmmmm. Compare that with the position of John Ryan, an environmental activist and Polk County planning commissioner, who opposes the CSX project. Here’s the relevant passage from the Tribune story I wrote earlier this month:

------ Winter Haven city planners say S.R. 60, where the trucks will enter it, can easily handle the traffic for the first phase.

But Ryan, the Polk planning commissioner, warns that the public - through state or local governments - can expect to pay big money for upgrades to all those roads and whatever additional infrastructure the rail center requires.

He envisions this scenario: After the hub is built, CSX will have to submit the larger second phase as a development of regional impact. That will trigger a review of the regional transportation system, which will be found lacking. But the intense regional effects of the hub’s operations will create political inertia for state or local government to widen and upgrade the roads.

“They’re going to use this to do a lot of projects that have been on the back burner for years,” said Ryan. ---------

One of the projects Ryan specifically mentioned was the Heartland Parkway. As has been well-documented, Alexander was an early booster – arguably the driving force – of the proposed $8 billion-plus toll road that would do a half loop in Polk, tying into the CSX center, and then move south through Alexander’s district and land owned by businesses he or his family controls.

Alexander has publicly distanced himself from day-to-day advocacy of the Heartland Parkway, citing ethics guidance. But he made clear he still supports it.

And there’s a bill now pending in the state Senate that at least one prominent environmentalist sees as a big boost for Heartland Parkway supporters. Alexander is not a sponsor.

Here’s the full email from Charles Lee of Audubon of Florida:

---------“All concerned with Florida’s Future (both environmental and fiscal) including the “Heartland” road corridor routes from Lakeland to LaBelle and Bradenton to Vero Beach should look at this legislation headed toward passage in Tallahassee.

The Florida Turnpike Enterprise’s current “Financial Feasibility” test, which requires that proposed new turnpike segments produce 50% of their bond debt service in 12 years and 100% payment of bond debt by the 22nd year of toll road operation is about to be swept aside.

SB 2804 would ELIMINATE ENTIRELY the “12 year/50%” part of the test, and would extend the 22 year threshold to 30 years.

SO...the Turnpike Enterprise and allied land speculators and developers would be able to get new routes approved solely on the most speculative possible data - whether ridership on a road would support debt service 30 years out - with NO near term checkpoint where a partial threshold of payment had to be met.  (Note- In February this year, a Turnpike Enterprise
“Financial Feasibility” analysis showed that most of the distance of the “Heartland” routes was NOT feasible under the 12/22 test.) This legislation is obviously a response to the result of that analysis (If you don’t like the fiscal analysis, get the legislature to change it!!!)

SB 2804 also authorizes $9 BILLION in Turnpike Enterprise bonds to build new roads.

(Just think of this - the Legislature was unwilling to follow Governor Crist’s recommendation to add an additional $100 million to Forever Florida this year to raise the environmental land purchase program from $300 million to $400 million....BUT quietly and with little discussion, bonds for new roadbuilding by the Turnpike Enterprise are authorized at a $9 BILLION dollar level!!!)”---------

I spoke with Lee this morning. He said he considers this issue bigger than just the Heartland Parkway. He’s concerned that it would spark highway building generally. And he thinks the impetus for the legislation is coming from the Turnpike Enterprise itself, rather than, for instance, Rick Dantzler’s HEART group, which is pushing for the road and an accompanying corridor of green space. Lee even finds HEART’s talk of preservation laudable, though he wants to see “nuts and bolts” put down on paper.

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