Injunction To Stop Construction In Serenova Preserve Denied

Correction: A statement in a previous version of this story indicating that the county paid a consultant $35,000 a year to lobby the Army Corps of Engineers is incorrect. The county provided a summary of the amount paid in a corrected version of the story.

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — Pasco County has the OK to proceed with construction of the Ridge Road Extension despite a lawsuit objecting to building in the environmentally sensitive Serenova Preserve.

On Friday, a federal judge denied the Suncoast Group of the Sierra Club's motion for an emergency injunction to halt construction of the road while the Sierra Club's lawsuit, filed on Feb. 6 in U.S. District Court in Tampa, navigates the court system

Timothy Martin, who leads the Suncoast Sierra Club's efforts to protect the perserve, said the judge's decision on Feb. 14 wasn't a surprise.

"We submitted 4,000 pages including 20 years' worth of documents," he said. "It's pretty hard for a judge to digest even a fraction of that information in such a short amount of time. But we still feel like we have a strong case. We're in this for the long haul."

On Dec. 20, 20 years after the application was first submitted by the Pasco County Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit to allow the county to construct a four-lane, divided road connecting Ridge Road to the Suncoast Parkway and eventually to U.S. 41.

Commissioners say the $90 million 8.7-mile extension through the Serenova Preserve will provide a critically needed east-west thoroughfare in Pasco County.

"In a time of unprecedented growth, the importance of this project cannot be overstated," said Pasco County Board Chairman Mike Moore. "The Ridge Road Extension has the potential to save lives during an emergency evacuation, while providing enhanced connectivity and accessibility for our residents and visitors in their daily travel."

The Army Corps of Engineers' sudden approval of the extension after years of silence took the Sierra Club and Save Our Serenova Coalition, a grassroots group of 70 concerned Pasco residents, by surprise.

"It came out of the blue," said Martin, noting that the coalition has been meeting on monthly and sending regular inquiries to the Army Corps of Engineers. "We had no clue that a decision was coming down. We didn't hear about it until days after it was approved."

Lack of notification plus the timing of the approval during the holiday season delayed filing the lawsuit, said Martin. By the time the organization could react, bulldozers had begun clearing the land and filling wetlands on the preserve.

The county originally requested the federal permit to construct the extension through the Serenova Preserve in 1998, making it the longest pending permit application in the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

See related story: After 20 Years, Ridge Road Extension Gets Go-Ahead

At that time, the permit was blocked by the coalition and Sierra Club, which argued that the extension would jeopardize endangered wildlife and exacerbate flooding in flood-prone southwest part of the county.

However, the county wasn't willing to throw in the towel.

The county retained Dawson & Associates to provide advice, technical services and advocate on behalf of the county with the Army Corps of Engineers. Dawson & Associates bills itself as "the nation’s premier firm for resolving complex challenges involving federal water and environmental policy."

According to county public information officer Brendan Fitterer, Pasco County had been paying Dawson & Associates $400 an hour since September 2018. Before September 2018, Fitterer said the county had a month-to-month agreement with Dawson & Associates at a rate of $28,500 plus expenses for 14 months.

Established in 1937 by Jay B. Starkey as a cattle ranch and timber operation, the Serenova tract is part of the 8,300-acre Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, managed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Pasco County Parks and Recreation. It is bordered by the Suncoast Parkway on the east, S.R. 52 on the north and the Moon Lake subdivision on the west. The entrance is located on State Road 52 in Land O' Lakes.

The property was purchased by the Florida Department of Transportation in the late 1990s to mitigate environmental impacts from the construction of the Suncoast Parkway, which destroyed about 200 acres of wetlands. But when the FDOT transferred the land to the SWFWMD, it retained the right to allow construction of the Ridge Road Extension.

In its lawsuit against the county, the Sierra Club contends that, while the arrangement between the FDOT and the SWFWMD technically allows the Army Corps of Engineers to consider a permit for the road extension, it doesn't guarantee approval.

Since the purchase of the tract was intended to alleviate ecological damage caused by construction of the parkway, the Sierra Club maintains that it should be protected from development, especially since a major wildlife habitat is threatened.

"This is one of the largest wildlife habitats left in Pasco County," he said. "It's just not smart growth to develop there. We need to be concentrating on developing urban areas that already have the infrastructure, not expanding into the last of our wilderness."

The lawsuit asserts that the county hasn't performed sufficient wildlife studies to adequately determine the overall impact on the animals that make their home in the Serenova Preserve.

As part of its permit, the county is required to relocate the gopher tortoises that have made their home in an estimated 350 burrows along the extension route, according to a survey by the Sierra Club.

"They've already started relocating the tortoises," Martin said. "The problem is the burrows are shared by other wildlife species including the endangered Eastern indigo snake. When they fill in the burrows, these other species also lose their habitat. It's just tragic. The Eastern indigo snake is one of the largest indigenous snakes in Florida -- a beautiful creature."

Additionally, said Martin, studies have shown that the gopher tortoises that are moved have a 50 percent mortality rate.

"They have a hard time adjusting to a new environment," he said.

According to a 2015 document prepared for the Army Corps of Engineers by the Pasco County Engineering Services Department, the preserve is also home to the endangered Florida panther, the Florida sandhill crane, bald eagle, wood stork, striped newt, the Florida pine snake, the Florida mouse, the Suwanee cooter, the gopher frog, Sherman's fox squirrel, Florida black bear and the threatened short-tailed snake.

The West Pasco Audubon Society, which supports the Sierra Club's lawsuit, said 177 species of birds make their home in the preserve including the threatened Florida scrub jay and Southeastern American kestrel; the endangered red cockaded woodpecker; and the burrowing owl, a species of concern.

Martin said the county is jeopardizing the habitat of all these animals without providing any substantial proof of the need for the road.

He pointed to the county's claim of its value as a hurricane evacuation route from U.S. 41 to the Suncoast Parkway. However, when evacuation orders were issued in September 2017 as Hurricane Irma made its way to the Gulf Coast, Martin said the Sierra Club took time-lapse photos of State Roads 52 and 54.

"The photos showed zero traffic on these roads," he said, indicating that the extension is unnecessary for access during an emergency evacuation.

"Utimately, the road (extension) would be of limited use if not useless during a storm," he said.

Martin and fellow opponents believe the real motivation behind the extension is to attract development and economic opportunities.

"The Ridge Road Extension project is more about catering to development than about providing an evacuation route," Martin said.

County officials have stated publicly that the extension would be advantageous to a nearby large-scale development approved through a comprehensive land use plan amendment in 2018.

The amendment gave developer Lennar the green light to develop a portion of the 7,000-acre Bexley Ranch property next to the Suncoast Parkwa, just south of S.R. 52.

Lennar and its development partner, Metro Development, developer of the Epperson and Mirada communities in east Pasco County, want to build more than 11,000 new homes and an 800-acre commerce park with 24 million square feet of office and industrial space.

The county has agreed to foot the bill for the first phase of the extension from the existing Ridge Road to the Suncoast Parkway where an overpass is already constructed.

Phase two of the extension project, scheduled for late 2022, will be funded by developers and continue the extension to U.S. 41 at the intersection of Connerton Boulevard.

Additionally, the Florida Turnpike Authority plans to build a $15 million interchange linking the Ridge Road Extension to the Suncoast Parkway, dramatically shortening the travel time from the proposed commerce park to Tampa International Airport.

By continuing construction of the extension, the county is betting it will prevail in the courts.

While he said the county has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation, Fitterer said the county stands by its assertion on the necessity of the extension.

"The Ridge Road Extension is a critically needed additional east-west thoroughfare that has the potential to save lives during an emergency evacuation while providing enhanced connectivity and accessibility," said Fitterer in a statement to Patch. "Pasco County has taken great care with the design and environmental considerations of this project, including extensive bridging and numerous wildlife crossings designed to maintain habitat continuity."