Orange Belt Trail project development continued
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
This archive found it in the recording: a call to order, a recess, or business the board never listed. The county recorded nothing about it, so everything below is our reading.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 9, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 13m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 79% of 58 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
If we could continue the Orange Bale Trail item, I think we just finished the staff's presentation.
Yeah.
We had finished the presentation and got the public comment.
So to the board for questions.
Yes.
I've
or Kathryn Choice or Startman.
No, I
was
just gonna say I just had I just had lunch with Terry Schrader and Andy and they are just fine with the um staff's recommendation. It isn't my first choice for a route, but I think it's a route that will Um get this trail done and as opportunities come in the future there can be tweaks. But right now I think the staff and the consultants have found a a good compromise and
um and look forward to getting this going for the residents up on this side.
Mr. Weber, the if you go back a couple to the um Next, next, next that was the color coordinated
that one.
There you go. Red line 3B. Just as we build east, it's just incredibly important that we use the existing Right of way that's there. And use the existing trail network that DOT has already built along 52. So, you know, riding a bicycle on public roads is a pretty dangerous hobby. You take your life into your own hands. You choose to exercise that way.
Um and It's you know, it's just just a risk. But I I think economically the red line that just follows State Road fifty two to County Road fifty two. uh for the economics around the project and since that multi-use path is built. I think you know for feasibility's sake that I'm I'm more partial to to using what's existing versus coming up and around and under the under seventy-five
and then coming back down but I just wanted that on have it on the record to you to use what's there, but it's come a long way. I appreciate staff's time and in all the public meetings. I know the east side of the county folks were incredibly passionate uh about the the the the the trail and its initial uh its initial direction, but um It's a it's a much better we're landing in a much better place today than we were in the past.
Um commissioner.
Oh we said Mr. Mr. Mr. Stark.
So um you know my very first MPO meeting in 2012, or one of the first, was um a meeting with DOT when they were redesigning the intersection of 75 and 52. And when I because you know, I'm the one who put that route on when I was Governor Scott's appointment to the State Greenways and Trails Council, I put that proposed route on for
the county as one of my last things I did at the on that council. And um knowing that it was You you just have to suggest a route, but where it lands, you know, gets massaged. And seeing that DOT was taking out the train underpass of 75 and messing with the Orangebelt Trail, which is one of the state's gonna be one of the state's premier trails. DOT went back and
they redid the design of 75 and 52 and they put that crossing underneath it to the two to a million dollars, they re-engineered it. To put the uh what is what's it called? Um start to the no. That uh what's the road that goes under? North of fifty two and seventy-five? Ossie Murphy. And and they saw immediately what was going on because you don't want cyclists crossing the on
and off ramps of a major highway. And if you were to take 3B. you would be killing a lot of people because they would be going through the on and off ramps of both of of a major interstate. So that is why the state went back and put the Aussie Murphy underpass in. The yellow part that's to the east of 75 is mostly built already, target built it. And the part on the left is being built right now by the developers on
that side. So there's really very little expense to take it off a major six lane, I don't know, was it eight lane at the intersection? It's not where you put a world-class trail and where you want people to be safe. Um so I would suggest we stay with the recommended 3A. And um or I don't know which one is it, yeah. 3A, yes. And we may have some more opportunities in the future to even improve all that, but That's
really kind of already built already. So we've I mean people wanna drive under the Interstate. Ride their bike. I guess they have that opportunity, but Suicide mission.
Well, we build a trail. There's not a trail now. W look. To talk about this. The trail path killing people. These folks are choosing to get on a two-wheel bicycle and pedal down major streets and up and down wherever in Bellanton and all. It's it's their decision to do that hobby. But it's our decision to be as f as efficient and effective with penny money as we can. And that's my whole point is to
to do the best job we can with the existing uh trail infrastructure. To continue to use the penny money. A trail is a want. It's not a need. We have a tremendous amount of needs in this county. and the penny is is got a lot of demands on it. So I just I'm just stating that for the record that I'm sensitive to how much we spend. I'm not gonna f fight this. I'm just just stating some facts here. So And if
I could, so if the cost of three A is being borne mostly by developers, I can get peace with that. Yes, it's already there. So then you talk to Terry Schrader about these couple of things. He's fine with this, yeah. Alright. Having said that, here's what I look at. I look at the old 52 compared to the new 52. And you know, St. Leo, I know they talk about development, but that got squashed, so don't know if it's ever coming back. But try to imagine you're gonna be driving a bike down that
steep road. Going one way or trying to move up it the other way. I do it now. Well they do it but most people aren't gonna be able to make that thing up. Yeah, just had to go somewhere else. Well so so my so here's my so thank you for the saying that and then if the the golf course is there and the balls are gonna hit you that's another issue as well. But when I look at the other fifty-two, and Commissioner Starkey you had brought this out as well when it was being built, like how did they leave this out? But there's that one piece toward the end, if that
was complete, you would have a trail running all the way from that point. where 3A ends and runs all the way to that point. I think there's just a couple of pieces, and that was one of my conversations I had with staff about go find out about getting that piece of property, find out what it would cost, and let's go take a look at that. Because if you could do that, it would take that whole road be nice and level that everybody could ride. and get there. Back and forth. Not worried about that big hill or the Gulf Coast beside it. And I think it'd be a lot safer right there if you had that one extra section that would be right about
Happy right before Happy Road to go. Did you guys have any luck with going through that exercise and figuring out the storm?
So we we did take a look. Um as noted, the university and the town of St. Leo and the town of San Antonio prefer the route and County Road fifty two because of the things that they're trying to do. Um as you also noted On State Road 52, the trail exists today up to Curly Road, but they stopped at Curly. To get from Curly to Happy Hill is relatively easy for most of it, but as you get really close to Happy Hill, if you think about it, there's actually two bridge structures that the road is
up on, that it's elevated. And then there's also the retaining walls. So the trail would actually have to go down, up, and back down. So it would actually have some hills to it similar to what's on County Road 52.
No huge difference.
I understand. But if you went behind the retaining wall,
correct
inside the property,
correct.
You could make a move going down and around.
Right. We would be down below. where the bridges are and up above the retaining wall. So it has what we look at.
Did you get some numbers on what it would take to do that?
So four A is a little bit more expensive than four B
because
of all of the drainage things that we would need to do along County Road fifty two. The difference is basically nine million versus eight million between four A and four B.
A million bucks a penny money.
So I um not necessarily their Sun Trail Money because this is a Sun Trail Trail. I was uh asked by Dewey Mitchell and the president of St. Leo and there someone was supposed to be here from Saint Leo to come meet with them because they are so ecstatic about this trail. That they want it actually to go in their campus and meander through the campus of St. Leo, and they are really looking forward to it coming to their new downtown for economic prosperity. So So
there are and there there are developments that are coming along on 52, old 52, that will be building their part of the multi-use path that will cut that price down. So um and anyway th this is not something that's gonna happen overnight. This is gonna take a decade or more unless, you know, the world changes. But um To to complete some of this. But there's actually quite a few pieces that are kind of done. That green one that goes through Cypress
Creek, that's pretty much done. Correct. Aaron Cutoff, I think we're improving that road, so that won't be much. Tampa Bay Waters letting us come up there right away on this other part from Aaron Cut Off to the to the entrance. Um We don't have to buy this other part that's coming across the bottom of CPEB. The part uh from Bellamy Brothers is already built that goes up to 52. The
part from 52 over to Aussie Murphy is already done. The developers uh sharing in the cost of that part from Bellamy or no old Pasco. up to um us the underpart it'll connect with the target. We just have that little piece on the other side of the target. That's really going through county property, so there's no purchase there.
And then we we work our way uh on this purple part. That that probably Will be the last piece that gets done unless, you know, we nominate it for Sun Trail Money again in this for the state. Um and then you connect to the Hardy Hardy Trail and Withy Gucci, so. Um the Meridian, they don't I don't think they have to buy any more property to Dwight and I.
To where?
On on uh Meridian?
No. What we're gonna do with Meridian is leave the trail that's already there, which is eight to ten feet wide, and we have about a block and a half that we have to build and the right-of-way is there.
Yeah. So Well, I don't know, maybe they'll get lucky and you'll get the people off the streets in that area and onto a nice safe place for all the new moms and their kids to come out and push their strollers and take their kids for an ice cream on a nice safe trail and help all the businesses that are gonna pop up along it. So
So I'd like to finish off with the end of the 5A5 E C, so that's good. Uh if you guys have that. Yeah. Um you guys go with a full B a four EL turn as well and Does it be more than about? Yeah. Maybe.
Alright, to the board.
I move for approval of the staff's recommendation. Second.
Any further discussion? All papers say aye. Aye.
You ain't come out gun clazing.