Deltona won’t pay to help widen 415

GRAPHIC COURTESY FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
A free ride for Deltona? — Although many of its residents use State Road 415 as a commuter route to and from the Orlando area, the Deltona City Commission is not willing to pay a portion of the expense of widening the busy highway. The Florida Department of Transportation proposes to four-lane a segment of S.R. 415 on the east side of Deltona, beginning in 2013, at a cost of approximately $54 million. The FDOT and the Metropolitan Planning Organization asked the city to pledge $2.2 million as its local share to secure a state grant, but the City Commission voted 6-1 not to do so.

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 29, 2009 - 8:40:39am

Adding lanes to a busy highway in Southwest Volusia may be delayed because of a lack of cash and a city’s unwillingness to pledge money for the project.

Although many Deltona residents use State Road 415 to commute to and from work in the Orlando area, the City Commission Nov. 16 rejected a request for $2.2 million to widen part of the road.

“This would be a major construction project,” George Lovett of the Florida Department of Transportation said in his appeal to the City Commission for help in funding the planned widening. “Projects like this promote economic development.”

Lovett is director of transportation development for the FDOT’s 5th District office in DeLand.

Because of the economic downturn and shortfalls in state gasoline-tax collections, the FDOT is turning to county and city governments for help to fund road construction.

“In the last three years, the FDOT’s work program has lost $9 billion,” Lovett said.

S.R. 415 bisects the Osteen Joint Planning Area, a 3,000-acre community on the east side of Deltona. The county and city governments earlier this year signed a long-range agreement that establishes land uses for the area and effectively halts Deltona’s spread across the highway.

The agreement also envisions the development of a commercial center with professional offices and high-technology employers.

City Commissioner Herb Zischkau stood alone on the Deltona City Commission in favoring Deltona’s participation in funding.

“Our commitment would position us to be eligible for grants,” Zischkau said.

Lovett said four-laning S.R. 415 between Reed Ellis Road and Acorn Lake Road, a segment of about five miles, will cost approximately $54 million. Lovett said local matching funds are critical to beginning the work in 2013. The funding would probably include a state grant, which may require local dollars to leverage the state dollars.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization, an agency of state and local officials that handles transportation planning, has ranked widening S.R. 415 at the top of its list of needed projects.

MPO Executive Director Karl Welzenbach warned the Deltona City Commission the widening of the road would be jeopardized, “if we cannot get a commitment for local funds.”

“It definitely could put the timing of the project in doubt,” Volusia County Public Works Director George Recktenwald said.

With Deltona’s refusal to contribute, Recktenwald said the MPO may ask the FDOT to pay all of the local share of the proposed widening, including the county’s share as well as the amount sought from Deltona. Another option would be to allocate the grant funding planned for S.R. 415 to the MPO’s second-ranked project, improving various intersections along U.S. Highway 1 in East Volusia.

Welzenbach told the City Commission it would effectively kiss goodbye to the widening of S.R. 415, as the MPO and the FDOT may find other grant-eligible road projects on Volusia’s east side.

“That money goes away from 415,” Welzenbach said.

A few Deltona commissioners interpreted Welzenbach’s words as hostile.

“I don’t respond to threats,” Commissioner Michele McFall-Conte said. “That changed my mind, and I will not be supporting it.”

The loss of anticipated funding has forced the FDOT to postpone indefinitely many road projects around Florida, Lovett said, and there is considerable competition for whatever state transportation dollars are available.

The FDOT offered to improve S.R. 415 under the County Incentive Grant Program, which calls for local matching funds. Unless the local money is available, Lovett and Welzenbach said, widening the highway will probably be pushed back several years.

“We have to fully fund candidates on any projects or the funds may be lost,” Lovett said. “We will not have any project partially funded.”

He also held out the prospect of funding for the S.R. 415 project from other sources, if the City Commission would guarantee matching dollars.

“I think there is a fair chance ... we’ll see some additional funds,” Lovett said, hinting the state’s coffers may be replenished with revenues from a recovery. “The economy has to get better.”

The Deltona City Commission voted 6-1 against pledging money for the project.

“As much as I would like to see 415 go forward ... the City of Deltona should not have to commit to two-and-a-half million. We have paid once, and we should not have to pay again,” Commissioner Michael Carmolingo said.

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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