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Planners will have a full report by Feb. 9 for the Polk Transportation Planning Organization on plans by local officials to help Poinciana's developers build a new toll road.
Poinciana Parkway is a proposed 10-mile road from Cypress Parkway in Poinciana to U.S. 17-92 in Loughman.
The road is seen by Poinciana residents as a long-needed additional access route to relieve traffic congestion in the community of 82,000 residents that spans unincorporated Polk and Osceola counties.
County Commissioner Ed Smith has spearheaded the current effort to get Polk County involved in funding the 1.3-mile section of the road that's actually in Polk County.
“It's far, far past the time when it was needed,” he said, explaining transportation relief is the number one concern among Poinciana residents, based on comments at recent public meetings there.
The issue that will come before the TPO is whether to realign state and federal transportation funding priorities to pay for improvements at the U.S. 17-92 intersection.
Florida Department of Transportation officials cannot legally spend money on a project that's not contained in a list of projects in TPO's approved work plan.
The February report will deal with a flood of questions that were raised during Thursday's TPO meeting.
Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields said he'd like to know more about the pros and cons of putting the project in TPO's work program.
County Commissioner Sam Johnson raised similar questions.
“If we bring it back, we need to look at the impact on other intersections,” he said. “This has the potential to change the behavior of drivers.''
Another issue is whether the road will help Polk's economy.
For the full article, visit the Lakeland Ledger.
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