Uninterrupted driving is what Lee wants for longer CR 951

It’s official: Lee County commissioners want the proposed extension of County Road 951 to have limited access.

Commissioners made those intentions clear Tuesday by passing a resolution indicating they plan to make the road a limited access facility, meaning it should contain fewer interchanges, driveways and other access points.

“I’m concerned about how much is open to access,” said Commissioner Ray Judah, who brought the initiative forward.

Limiting the access will help traffic flow more freely and discourage development in environmentally sensitive areas adjacent to the road, Judah said.

During the design of CR 951, which would travel from the road’s current ending at Immokalee Road in Collier County to Alico Road in Lee County, planners will incorporate access points at major intersections. County commissioners will vote on the designs and also decide whether to follow their intentions and make the road a limited-access facility.

The designation means anyone who wants a driveway or intersection connecting to the road will have to get approval from Lee County commissioners.

Approval will take what is called a supermajority vote, which means four of five board members must agree, rather than a simple majority.

That could make it a lot harder for anyone to get access to the road, Commissioner John Albion warned.

The resolution commissioners approved states the board will only approve additional access points if the public’s interest will be served.

The designation is important because if there are multiple access points, the road will cease to function as a viable alternative to Interstate 75, Judah said.

It also will keep environmental groups from opposing the project, said Nancy Peyton, Southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation. Peyton’s group, along with nine other environmental groups, support the western alignment of CR 951 as long as commissioners meet seven conditions, including limiting access to intersections at Alico Road, Corkscrew Road, Bonita Beach Road and Logan Boulevard.

“The idea was that with fewer areas to get on and off there will be less incentive to develop along there,” Peyton said.

Another condition was that Coconut Road not be extended beyond I-75, Peyton said.

The groups want the sections of land to the east of I-75 protected as part of the necessary mitigation for building CR 951, she said.

Lee County has four roads that are designated controlled access, which is less strict than limited access.

Lee planners are determining whether the extension should be a toll road, which could have a bearing on when the road would be built.

Planners are also judging the need for the road based on whether a bid to build four additional toll lanes on I-75 is successful, said Dave Loveland, head of planning for the Lee County Department of Transportation.

“If we are able to achieve the 10 lanes (on I-75) sooner, it will provide extra capacity, which pushes the need for 951 back,” Loveland said.

Planners submitted the road’s project development and environmental study to the Florida Department of Transportation for review.

It will then go to the Federal Highway Administration for comments before heading to the public hearing process, Loveland said.

That process should take about a year. Even though Lee County has not identified funding, construction on the first stage of the road, from Immokalee Road to Bonita Beach Road is included in the county’s five-year plans.

If the section is not funded through tolls, Lee and Collier counties will have to come up with $100 million to build it, Loveland said.