(The following story by Tom Palmer appeared on The Ledger website on June 4.)
BARTOW, Fla. — Regional planners have set a hearing for Aug. 13 to examine plans for a controversial rail freight terminal in Winter Haven.
The time and location for the hearing before the Central Florida Regional Planning Council are not expected to be set until next month.
The hearing will involve plans by Evansville Western Railway, a subsidiary of CSX, to build a rail freight terminal on 318 acres purchased from the city of Winter Haven last year for $7 million.
The decision to schedule the hearing came at the railroad company’s request after completing two rounds of questions on issues relating to the project’s transportation and environmental impacts.
The CSX project is being reviewed as a development of regional impact. DRIs include major developments ranging from phosphate mines to large shopping malls and residential developments.
Among the key issues the hearing will address are the impacts of additional truck traffic on State Road 60 and other local highways, the project’s impact on a nearby tributary of the Peace River and the impact on a number of protected species ranging from gopher tortoises to some endangered plants.
In addition, there are some purely local issues, such as the project’s impact on adjacent residential areas, that are not covered by the DRI process because they don’t involve regional issues.
Evansville’s consultants submitted a formal application to the Bartow-based planning agency in mid-December.
This is the first phase of larger project that will cover a 1,250-acre site and is proposed to include a warehouse complex.
No application has been submitted for the second phase and it’s unknown at this point when that will occur, said Ron Morrow, CSX’s local representative.
The impacts of the second phase – particularly on traffic – are expected to be more substantial than those of the first phase.
Additionally, the proposed CSX development has spurred the annexation and zoning of thousands of acres surrounding the project site and extending to farmland south of State Road 60.
That has brought a call for a regional study of development trends along the SR 60 corridor from Lake Wales to Bartow to avoid uncoordinated, sprawling development that could increase traffic congestion and tax public services and infrastructure.
That study, which is being organized by county planners, is still perhaps a year off.
If the council recommends approval of the plan, that recommendation typically contains a list of conditions.
Tom Deardorff, Polk’s growth management director, said Monday that he plans to present a list of proposed conditions to Polk County commissioners on June 18.
Because the CSX project is located within the Winter Haven city limits, the County Commission has limited jurisdiction other than the ability to comment on the proposal.
The planning council’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Winter Haven City Commission, which will schedule a hearing and issue the project’s development order.
No date has been set for the Winter Haven hearing.