Editor

The Southport Connector, a long-discussed roadway that would go from Cypress Parkway in Poinciana to the Florida’s Turnpike and to Canoe Creek Road near St. Cloud, remains on the drawing board with no way to pay for it, according to information presented to Osceola County commissioners at their April 12 meeting.

The next step on the way to eventually building the roadway, county officials said, would be to conduct a project development and environmental feasibility study, followed by a justification study for the road’s interchange with the turnpike and then a study on how the roadway could be financed.

While the final alignment of the roadway has not been decided, most likely routes for the 13-mile first segment generally would go through the area immediately south of Lake Tohopekaliga, which is largely undeveloped, has few landowners and is within the area of the county covered by what is called the South Lake Toho Conceptual Master Plan, county officials said.

Commissioner Ken Smith said there’s been talk about the Southport Connector for 20 years.

“I would hope that the next commission (following the Nov. 2 election) would at least establish the right of way for this road,” said Smith, who is not seeking re-election. “This should have been done 20 years ago, especially the piece from Pleasant Hill Road (in Poinciana) to the turnpike.”

Smith said Poinciana residents now have no alternative but to go north to Kissimmee and then east on U.S. Highway 192 to get to the Florida’s Turnpike from which they can then go south toward Miami or north toward Orlando.

Commissioner Michael Harford said a commitment to the roadway, which would have an estimated $217 million price tag for construction alone, is long overdue but that the issue, as always, is funding.

“We are going to have to make a decision on how to fund it: a transportation sales tax, use an expressway authority (that would issue bonds) or impose a gas tax,” Harford said.

The South Lake Toho conceptual master plan area, which is comprised of 16,350 acres on the south side of Lake Tohopekaliga, includes the Green Island development of regional impact, or DRI, and the smaller Tranquility development of county impact, or DCI. This planning area extends west to the Disney Nature Preserve, east to Canoe Creek Road and south to the end of the urban growth boundary. At build-out, this area would have 40,000 housing units and would provide 41,200 jobs.

County officials said if the Southport Connector were to be built as a toll road, then an alignment bringing it as close as possible to developed areas – and more potential users – would be beneficial, helping to make it more economically feasible. County officials also said the most expensive part of the project would be building the turnpike interchange.

Just to the north of the South Lake Toho plan area is the East of Lake Toho Conceptual Master Plan area. This area is comprised of 11,250 acres bounded by the Florida’s Turnpike, Friars Cove Road, Neptune Road and Lake Tohopekaliga. This area includes the Toho Preserve, Tohoqua, Edgewater and Friars Cove DRIs and the Bella Tara DCI.

This area, at build-out, according to plan documents, would have 33,500 housing units and provide 24,700 jobs.  A main roadway through this area would feed into the Southport Connector.

The second segment of the Southport Connector would extend from Canoe Creek Road eastward north of Lake Gentry, south of and then east of Alligator Lake, east of Narcoossee to eventually connect with State Road 528. Often referred to as the southern extension of State Road 417, this segment of the connector could cost from $640 million to $660 million to build, depending on the alignment.