Thoughtful long-range transportation planning is crucial to providing a prosperous future. According to economic development experts, efficient transportation is key to both attracting employers and retaining the employees that fill those jobs. Proper transportation planning helps prevent the infrastructure problems that have sometimes diminished the quality of life in Central Florida and helps preserve the environment that enhances that quality of life. These problems will be avoided by fostering smart, quality growth in safe and walkable communities built around a variety of transportation options.
Deseret Ranch occupies a key location in the region between Orlando and the Space Coast. Many significant roads already cross the Ranch, and concepts for future roads, rails, and trails likewise look to traverse Ranch property. Deseret supports preserving transportation corridors for future growth and connectivity, as planned for by the East Central Florida Corridor Task Force.
Deseret recognizes the current road network will not be sufficient to handle a doubling of the region’s population over the next 50 years. Innovative long-term planning must occur now so corridors for necessary transportation facilities are not blocked by development. Corridors must be planned that will be adequate to service new growth and take pressure off existing roads.
Future plans must allow for varied transportation choices in addition to roads. A regional public transportation system involving high-quality facilities such as commuter rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit will ease the burden on the road network, provide new transportation options, and reduce household transportation expenses.
The Ranch, because of its size, key location, and single ownership, can play a key role in addressing regional transportation challenges. We believe that future corridors across the Ranch can be an important part of plans for the region’s future in connecting the Space Coast and Melbourne to Orlando, providing hurricane evacuation routes, alleviating traffic congestion, preserving sensitive areas, and, most importantly, in establishing communities or “centers” where growth can be accommodated.
For these reasons, Governor Rick Scott signed an executive order in November 2013 establishing a task force in East Central Florida as part of Florida’s Future Corridors Initiative. The Task Force was a collaborative effort among state and local governments, private landowners, and economic development, environmental, and agricultural interests. Deseret Ranch property figured prominently in the study area. The Task Force looked out 50 years – beyond the normal planning horizon – to develop consensus recommendations on future transportation corridors serving established and emerging economic activity centers in portions of Brevard, Orange, and Osceola counties. The Task Force completed its planning efforts in December 2014 and issued recommendations to the Governor. Deseret Ranch supports the Task Force’s recommendations and its efforts to chart a course for the future of this area.
For more information on this visionary effort, please see the final report of the East Central Florida Corridor Task Force.
Building on Task Force recommendations, Deseret Ranch is working with the Central Florida Expressway Authority as it begins to implement plans according to those recommendations. SR 534, a toll road connecting the region to the existing road 417 will be the first road shown in the Task Force’s report to be constructed. SR 534 is currently in design and construction will begin soon. Additional studies are underway to connect this road to the Florida Turnpike and ultimately connect to I-4.
Ranch collaboration with the Expressway Authority also facilitated expanding the right of way for the SR 528 Beachline Expressway to accommodate the recently opened Brightline high-speed rail connection from Orlando International Airport to Miami.
See the CFX website for further information on its current projects.
Video: Deseret Ranch planning executive Don Whyte explains Ranch participation in the East Central Florida Corridors Task Force, a collaborative effort to find solutions to regional transportation needs (an excerpt from “The World Report,” April 2016, produced by Newsroom staff of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
