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Highlands Today

Landowners Hope To Build County Line Road

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By GARY PINNELL Highlands Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2008

Every year, Orange-Co sends 15,000 trucks loaded with oranges across 12 to 15 miles of limerock roads on its own land before they get to SR 70 or SR 66 in Highlands County, or SR 74 in Glades County.

Depending on which juice plant they're heading for, they'll eventually wind up on U.S. 27 or U.S. 17, passing through Sebring, Wauchula or Punta Gorda.

But what if there was a farm-to-market road that followed the boundary between Highlands, DeSoto and Hardee counties, asked Ron Mahan, a financial and business analyst for Orange-Co Inc.

"If that road were there now, that would be the north end of our grove," Mahan said.

Mahan and transportation planner Walter Bertschinger of David Plummer & Associates were in Sebring last month to propose a new road to the Highlands County Long Range Transportation Committee. It would follow the county line, said Bertschinger, between western Highlands County and its eastern borders with DeSoto and Hardee counties.

"We're conducting a study for property owners in the area. A majority of them are in the agriculture business: cattle, citrus, sod. The primary focus is to provide them with easier access to move their products to market," Bertschinger said.

Orange-Co, for instance, owns 19,000 acres, primarily in DeSoto County. Their citrus is shipped mainly to Minute Maid and Tropicana juice plants.

The county line road would save Orange-Co several hundred thousand dollars a year, based on $3.50 per gallon diesel, said Mahan.

"Would we be interested? The committee says yes," said Don Hanna, Highlands County's chief planner. The exact route is yet to be determined, since it might wind around environmentally sensitive areas.

"But it's a north-south highway," Hanna said, which means it could keep orange trucks off heavily traveled U.S. 27. "We would have to do an analysis; it's certainly holding a good spot in the hierarchy of roads."

"We've talked with the other landowners, and they view it favorably," Mahan said. There are about 25 landowners in the path of the country road, but about five own most of the land, including Joe L. Davis Citrus Management and Lykes Brothers.

One possibility, Mahan said, is to donate land and let the state build the road.

"They're willing to give us the right of way, and that's very attractive," said Hanna. "It runs along the edge of Blue Head Ranch, the new Eagle National Security Training Center." Alico has proposed building a new city on its 62,000-acre parcel, and Eagle wants to locate a military and civilian shooting range and war games facility on 7,700 acres. Both are in southern Highlands County.

The issue may come before the Long Range Transportation Committee again in January, Hanna said.

Hardee County Administrator Lex Albritton is less than convinced. A road that goes across the land of a half-dozen private landowners may be an agricultural need, but it may not be a public need.

Besides, Albritton reminded, U.S. 17 is the focus of Hardee County.

"We're not going to take on any type of connector or collector roads until Highway 17 is four-laned," Albritton said.

New roads are always long-term projects, Mahan reminded. "We hope they'll start pushing dirt in five to seven years."

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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