(The following story by Tom Palmer appeared on The Lakeland Ledger website on July 13.)
BARTOW, Fla. — A consultant study has confirmed what supporters and critics of the proposed CSX freight terminal in Winter Haven have been saying for months.
The proposed project could provide jobs, economic growth and a boost in the local tax base, but it also will result in additional delays on local highways and railroad crossings, reduce the quality of life for some residents and require probably substantial expenditures of taxpayer dollars to deal with those impacts.
The 41-page draft report completed by URS was ordered in April by the Polk County Commission at a time when it was unclear how much local review the proposed CSX project would undergo.
Since then, state planning officials have ruled that the entire project must go through the development of regional impact review process, which triggers a more in-depth study of its impacts than simply a review by Winter Haven city planners.
Having Winter Haven as the sole reviewer of the project had been seen as a problem by project critics because the 1,250-acre site proposed for the terminal is owned by the city and the city stood to gain millions of dollars from the sale of the property.
Winter Haven officials have been promoting the project for the past 18 months after reaching a tentative deal with the Jacksonville-based railroad company to sell city property in a now-rural area between Eloise Loop Road and State Road 60. It would become a freight transfer terminal that could attract related industrial and commercial development.
Winter Haven officials and business leaders predict the project could bring 2,000 new jobs for people working at the terminal as well as thousands of additional “spinoff jobs” created by the expansion of the economy.
Winter Haven officials also project a $40 million tax windfall.
The URS report does not analyze the accuracy of any of those numbers, but simply reports what city officials are claiming.
Tom Deardorff, Polk’s director of long-range planning, said he is reviewing the draft report and plans to ask URS to supply additional information on some of the foremost questions, such as the effects of additional rail traffic on downtown Auburndale and Lakeland.
He said he had not looked at the economic numbers.
The rail traffic issue – at least as it affects Lakeland – was addressed in July 6 letter to Lakeland government and business leaders from Richard Hood, CSX Real Property’s assistant vice president for business unit services.
While the URS report says the Winter Haven terminal and the planned shift of freight traffic could result in “as few as six to as many as 13 additional train trips,” Hood’s letter told Lakeland officials that CSX expects an additional four trains a day moving on the main rail line through Lakeland.
Other issues raised in the URS report included:
The increase in traffic from trucks coming in and out of the terminal and employees coming to work could be as high as 7,900 vehicles a day.
Some of the projected road improvements needed to accommodate the additional traffic are unfunded.
More work force housing in the area will be needed for the thousands of employees the terminal is expected to attract.
More traffic studies will be needed to analyze the feasibility of building railroad overpasses to improve safety and reduce traffic delays in connection with the increased rail and road traffic.
More buffering may need to be considered for surrounding residential areas such as Wahneta and the Sundance subdivision, and environmental studies will be needed to look at the project’s impact on wetlands and protected species.
The additional studies are expected to occur in the course of the review of the project through a pre-development agreement being negotiated in connection with the state ordered DRI review.
State planners had initially ruled the first phase of the project was exempt from the process but reversed themselves in May.
At this point it is unclear how long that review will take.
The URS report emphasizes the need for local governments to work together to examine the planning issues.
“Given the developing character of the surrounding area, the (terminal) provides an opportunity for the city and the county to engage in joint planning to address compatible land uses, coordinated infrastructure, work force housing initiatives and the location of spin-off businesses along State Road 60 and elsewhere,” the report concludes.