Proposed toll roads and unrestrained CSX rail growth are taking a toll on rural areas of Florida.

[madfloridian]

A Florida company removed a board member who wants to preserve rural areas from a toll road running up the middle of the state. They replaced him with his pro-development cousin. They are both cousins of Katherine Harris and, like her, descendants of Ben Hill Griffin. The company which replaced Troutman is determined to have their toll road from Collier County to Polk County through some of the most rural areas in the state.

Griffin Heirs Remove Troutman From Board. Lawmaker is replaced by pro-development Sen. Alexander.

Pro-development mem-bers of Alico, a company controlled by family members, threw a less development-friendly family member off the company's nine-member board and replaced him with his pro-development cousin. Alico owns 136,000 acres in the center of the state, right in the path of the proposed, and controversial, Heartland Parkway.

The parkway is a proposed toll road that would extend from Polk County to Collier County through some of the largest and most rural landholdings in the state.

State Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who has pushed for years to get the large roadway through the state's heartland and his family's property, was placed on the board, and a cousin, state Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, was removed.

Troutman has been concerned about the way the company is moving. I am surprised at his stance, but I agree with it. This is the heartland of our state, and there is so much opposition to disturbing rural land when it is not really needed.

They have been pushing this road for a long time. It would cause great upheaval.

Florida to "help" environment by building a toll road up the rural center of the state.

A little sarcasm there. They are using the "growth is going to happen anyway, so let's help it along" type of argument. Dishonest argument.

There were hints by both that the big landowners along the route might be willing to a trade right-of-way for the toll road in exchange for concentrated development rights on portions of their properties - lowering the cost of the road even further. The land among the owners in the group totals about 1 million acres. Dantzler said the vast majority would be kept undeveloped or in light use.

If we do nothing, we are going to see sprawl anyway,'' Dantzler said. "If we take the proper planning and create this agreement, it will protect a major portion of the land (from development) and allow connected wildlife corridors, while still aiding (counties south of Polk) which are areas of critical economic concern,'' he said.

The DOT allotted them 5.5 million to study the 8 billion dollar proposition.

Proposed toll road wins study money

Members of the group talked about creating a corridor of green space and tightly managed development around the 150-mile toll highway. Opponents called it a boondoggle that would enrich the landowners and damage one of the last pristine areas of Florida.

The parkway's momentum stalled during the spring, largely because of the change of Florida governors, said Rick Dantzler, a former state senator from Winter Haven and spokesman for HEART.

"I don't think it's any secret that Gov. Charlie Crist is less enthusiastic than Gov. Jeb Bush was," Dantzler said in May. Neither Dantzler nor state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, one of the landowners supporting the road, could be reached for comment Friday.

You know what? That Ben Hill Griffen company wants rural areas in one part of Central and South Florida. Meanwhile CSX is taking over rural areas a little to the east and north in the I-4 Corridor. CSX was given carte blanche by the state of Florida to start work before studies were done.

The CSX project harm several cities and their downtown development plans as well, not just rural areas.

WINTER HAVEN - State planning officials have told CSX it can begin building a rail transfer center before planning reviews of the massive project are completed. In a letter sent to CSX this week, the state Department of Community Affairs said it would consider an agreement with the company that would allow CSX to begin construction on the Winter Haven project while a comprehensive planning review known as a development of regional impact is under way."

Guess there won't be many rural areas left in Florida soon. Developers and corporations have ruled the state for years now. As the water crisis worsens, the state continues to develop its aquifer areas like the Green Swamp and the Okeechobee area. No area is sacrosanct with these Republicans in control here.

I was reading the section of the local paper that presents the zoning changes that are going on. There are so many it is overwhelming to even try to understand. I have never seen this many zoning changes, never. Today I tried to read a few, and by the time I was few taking my magnifying class to it and trying to read the blurred map...I knew no more than when I started.

[Triana]

1. Some big cheese from CSX is in the bu$hit admin - or was - can't remember the cretin's name now..

...anyway, they're bu$h family criminals.

[madfloridian]

4. John Snow?

I think.

[Triana]

5. Yea maybe he's the one - I think so. (n/t)

[Doctor Cynic]

2. So it's a given that the new subdivisions will soak up more water

and in turn cause the water table to drop. One Cat 5 hurricane later, and you make New Orleans look like a basement flood. By that time, the image of McMansions swallowed by the swamp will look very fitting.

[Atman]

3. Treasury Secretary John Snow was the CEO of CSX and received a huge bonus...

...in his contract if he landed a job in the Bush administration. Fact.

His CSX railroad was also supposed to be the purveyor of nuclear waste over rail to Yucca Mountain, NV. Fact.

Bush family...Florida...Jeb...George...Coincidence? Given the BushCo history, you decide.

.

[lostnfound]

6. Beaches aside, Florida is a jewel in its swamps and rivers

People used to joke about swampland in Florida but actually there is a lot to be said for swamps. I know where your sadness is coming from, madfloridian. I've canoed through the swamps and rivers.

Even though Crist has GOT to be better than Jeb, I suspect that the process has been fundamentally corrupted by the money and real estate interests that Jeb cultivated, and the people-driven government in the sunshine-amendment state has lost its checks and balances. It was a tragedy that Jeb wasn't followed by a good Florida Democrat to restore some integrity in the process.

[madfloridian]

8. That Green Swamp has been developed shamelessly.

We were visiting someone in Sherwood homes in that area, or something like that. It was a rainy time. They had bought the house when it was dry. Now it was the rainy season.

They showed us how the water from a little creek behind their house was filling up their back yard and creeping onto their porch.

They had no clue where they had bought.

There was a whole lake that dried up over the decades. It was called Lake Deeson, once a beautiful lake. They built expensive homes in the lake bed, and the contractor never really had to pay for that. It was the people who came from outside the state and did not know they were buying a house in a lake bed. It was not disclosed.

[OneBlueSky]

7. just what this country doesn't need . . . more highways . . .

when oh when are politicians going to wake up to the fact that the future of transportation does not lie with the automobile . . . whatever they're planning to spend on this dinosaur would be FAR better used for mass transit . . .