Red Hills Coastal Parkway

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The Red Hills Coastal Parkway was a proposed $500 million toll road in northwestern Florida, USA.

[edit] Purpose

The Red Hills Coastal Parkway was planned in 2005 by the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency as part of the CRPTA's 2030 Plan as a hurricane evacuation route as well as an eastern bypass of Tallahassee. The Red Hills Coastal Parkway would have been a four-lane toll road linking US 98, near St. Marks, Florida with Interstate 10 in Leon County by cutting through rural Wakulla County and rural and suburban portions of eastern Leon County, eventually connecting with US 319 Thomasville Road, north of Lawton Chiles High School in Bradfordville and within the Red Hills Region.

[edit] Opposition

Opposition to the proposed toll road was put forth by residents of the Red Hills with the support of scientific evidence by Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, The Florida Wildlife Federation, 1000 Friends of Florida.^[1]^[2] The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Department of Transportation and the Northwest Florida Water Management District said a need for such a project had not been established.^[3]

In March 2007, a public meeting of the CRTPA was held and federal agency's review identified numerous problems including potentially adverse impacts to the Wakulla River and St. Marks River, groundwater, springs, sinkholes, wetlands, forests, and wildlife. Other problems arose such as the proximity to the unincorporated area of Chaires, Florida and urban sprawl in rural Wakulla and Leon Counties.