The Relationship between State laws, Transportation Funding and Local Road Congestion
We are all frustrated with traffic and congestion throughout Lake County. Over the past 15 years, our State leaders have embraced a pro-development philosophy and incrementally transferred planning and zoning authority away from local governments to the State through changes to Florida’s growth management laws. As population growth exploded in recent years, local governments had insufficient capital funding through State and local sources to adequately address the strain that new development placed on our roads.
During and after Covid, many people began moving to Florida from other states or to Lake County from other areas in Florida. As housing prices climbed and the availability of affordable housing worsened, State laws were introduced that mandated local governments approve high density housing and apartment complexes in commercial and industrial zoning district. A variety of State laws loosened regulations on development. For example, limitations were placed on impact fees that could be charged by local governments and Senate Bill 180 actually prohibited local governments from adopting more stringent local regulations to manage growth.
Despite the population explosion, no substantive changes were made by the legislature to the State’s transportation funding formulas and mechanisms to keep up with the growing number of vehicles on our roads- whether local vehicles or those passing through. Gridlock and congestion began increasing throughout the state and disproportionately in places like Lake County.
To make matters worse, transportation “concurrency” was not an option for addressing the issues, since it was dismantled in 2011. Transportation concurrency allowed permits to be denied for projects on roads or intersections that were failing. Developers are now only required to pay for their share of impacts versus bringing a condition to an acceptable level before proceeding.
In Lake County, many of our worse conditions exist on State roads such as SR 44B, SR 19, Hwy 441, Hwy 50, Hwy 27, SR 44. Theses roads need a variety of improvements including widening, turn lanes, traffic signals and better intersections that can handle the increase in traffic, but these roads are under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation and funds allocated by the State to Lake County’s Regional Transportation Organization known as the Lake-Sumter MPO have not been able to keep up with much needed capital projects.
What We Are Doing to Address These Issues
As your County Commissioner, I try my best to cut through red tape and bureaucracy to find solutions, move road projects forward, and improve the roads you use every day. Our biggest obstacle is available funding, and our second biggest obstacle is the fact we do not have jurisdiction to undertake improvements on State roads unilaterally.
Many residents ask why developers are not required to fund these infrastructure deficiencies. Here is the reason: Lake County currently charges developers the maximum allowable impact fees under State law and are not allowed to force them to “fix” existing problems, although they are required to contribute funds or fix problems directly associated with their development’s impacts. The same State laws that limit impact fees also prohibit withholding development permits based on road conditions.
The Lake County Board of County Commissioners has gone so far as to borrow funds to offer to FDOT in order to move along projects at a faster rate (such as SR 44B between Eustis and Mount Dora, and Hartwood Marsh Road in Clermont). As noted above, we have also adopted the highest transportation impact fees allowed under State law, and we leverage these dollars in order to “move up” projects. We coordinate with developers who are willing to build roads in conjunction with their own projects. This is how many roads in Clermont and South Lake County have been built, including the road network in Wellness Way south of Clermont.
More Information
I have put together a list of some common questions and roads projects that I am monitoring daily, understanding there are many projects and needs throughout the County. The best way to see a comprehensive list of regional projects is to visit the MPO website’s priority list: https://www.lakesumtermpo.com/planning-documents/lopp/.
If you are interested in reviewing County road projects listed under the Lake County Five Year Transportation Construction Program, please visit the Lake County Government website below, and click on “Services” and thereafter click on “Engineering” and scroll down to the Five Year Transportation Construction Program:
If you have any questions or thoughts on road projects in your area, I am happy to talk with you. My cell number is 352-455-4633 (please text first).
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Lake County is a member of the Lake-Sumter MPO which is our State mandated transportation planning agency. Per State and Federal law, Lake County is required to participate in regional transportation planning and funding through the MPO. Lake County has its own local projects funded from sales tax, gas tax, impact fees and the general fund. Projects that fall under the MPO are considered regional in nature, including State roads within our County as well as County roads that “relieve” State roads (e.g. CR 44 is considered a State reliever road).
To give you context on the level of spending projected on regional type projects from 2026-2030 through the MPO, the estimate is between $130-150 million. In addition, the Turnpike Authority is slated to spend between $10-20 million. The cost to complete Lake County’s highest priority projects far exceeds the amount of funding available. For example, we have upwards of $700 million needed to fund our highest priority projects, but $130-150 million has been identified and slated to be expended from 2026-2030. These funds come primarily from State gas taxes (60-65%), federal highway administration funds (25-35%), and the rest from local gas taxes, local sales taxes and impact fees collected from developers (5-10%). In 2025, $7,755,000 was collected in Lake County through transportation impact fees.
For an overview of the Lake-Sumter MPO, please visit the MPO’s website: https://www.lakesumtermpo.com/
Here you can learn more about the complex methodology used for long range and short range planning, engineering and funding roads, sidewalks and the trail system in accordance with State and Federal law requirements. County Commissions of Lake and Sumter sit on the MPO along with members from cities within both Counties. The MPO meets regularly, receives updates on projects that are underway, and continually updates priority lists. This is all done in coordination with the Central Florida Expressway Authority, the Florida Turnpike Authority, the FDOT, and Federal Highway Administration.
You may also be interested in tracking FDOT projects at the following website: https://www.cflroads.com/projects/County/Lake
If you would like to review the County’s Five Year Transportation Construction Program, visit the County’s website at www.lakecountyfl.gov
Click on “services” and thereafter click on “engineering” and scroll down to view a PDF of the Five Year Transportation Construction Program.
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Although the State has not scheduled improvements to SR 44B until 2032, the Board of County Commissioners has approved a loan to offer funds to FDOT in order to speed up this project (with reimbursement to the County to occur in 2032). FDOT is currently in the redesign phase and has indicated they may be able to begin the first phase of this project in fiscal year 2027-28 (which still seems so far away, but it is much better than 2032).
I have met with FDOT many times to request interim improvements be implemented sooner to alleviate problems at neighborhood entrances such as Loch Leven and others on the north end of CR 44B. In addition, I have requested changes to the turn lanes at the intersection of SR 44 and SR 44B in order to accommodate stacking that is happening outside of the designated area (because there is literally no where else for cars to go).
I will update my website if I learn these changes are imminent. I can assure you I will keep pressure on FDOT to make these improvements sooner than later. This is a huge priority for me.
Please note: Once Britt Road repairs and reconstruction are complete, SR 44B should experience some improvement due to the diversion of current traffic. The Britt Road repairs will begin in the next two months (the St. Johns Water Mgt Permit has been issued and FDOT’s deadline to sign off on the engineering plans is May 14), and the hope is that the work will be completed by the Fall.
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Hwy 441 from Donnelly Avenue to Renningers is slated to be widened in the future, and it has actually been on the MPO’s “top 10” priority list for many years. The fact that Hwy 441 goes from three lanes to two lanes along this stretch explains why it is so congested, especially at certain times of the day. This project is listed as “priority 8” on the MPO’s “top 10” list. It has been listed as a higher priority at various times, but has been moved around for various reasons related to funding. Often smaller projects are moved up in priority and funded earlier then large projects such as this, or FDOT and the MPO are seeking for fund a large project and need to piece together partial funding already allocated to other projects.
This process is extremely aggravating to County and city officials who have been advocating for this project for years - and continue to do so.
In my opinion, the State of Florida woefully underfunds regional transportation needs identified by MPOs and transportation planning organizations throughout the State, and State laws which promote growth and take regulatory authority away from counties and cities have not provided funding to offset these pro-development and pro-growth State policies.
For example, recently adopted State laws mandate high density projects such as apartments, but again, no additional funding mechanisms have been provided by the State to deal with the huge influx of residents to Florida or those Floridians who have moved to central Florida and particularly Lake County..
It is important to note that Lake County has worked very hard to make sure that the new development along this stretch of Hwy 441 paid for offsite infrastructure including: a new traffic signal, a frontage road, a connector road from Hwy 441 to Limit Avenue, and a roundabout at Grandview and Limit Avenue. The County also allocated funds to the roundabout at Grandview and Limit in order to facilitate north-south traffic in this area.
I will continue to speak out and advocate for changes to the way the State of Florida funds their roads in local jurisdictions (e.g. SR 19, SR 44B, SR 44, Hwy 441, Hwy 27 and Hwy 50). The current methodology has been in place for years with no meaningful reform or accounting for the State’s pro-growth platform and recent laws which facilitated higher densities.
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SR 19 from Tavares to Howey: The conditions on SR 19 from Tavares to Howey are severe. County and city officials have asked FDOT to “expedite” improvements to increase capacity on this roadway. The Lake-Sumter MPO voted to seek funding for a safety and capacity study which is a prerequisite for actual improvements and this study is listed on the MPO’s top 20 priority list. The study is estimated to cost $2.5 million and it is a necessary first step since FDOT will not participate in improvements such as widening and turn lanes unless this study is first completed. While it doesn’t make conditions better in the immediate future, it is important to know that this project is definitely on FDOT’s radar and your local officials are passionately advocating for widening and improvements on SR 19 from Tavares to Howey to alleviate congestion.
If I learn of any new reports on the timing of this study and improvements by FDOT, I will post them on my website.
CR 44 between Eustis and Leesburg: CR 44 is a county road but t “relieves” several state roads as an alternate route. It is currently overburdened and several intersections are experiencing severe conditions including SR 19 and CR 44A, and CR 44 and CR 452. It is also very difficult for those attempting to turn onto CR 44 in various locations.
Lake County, Leesburg and Eustis have formally requested funding from FDOT through the MPO in order to update widening plans for this road and the intersections throughout the area. This will be a multi-year process, and once the plans are finalized, the next step will be to secure funding (this is estimated to be a $180 million project).
In the meantime, the County is working on addressing choke points through the construction of turn lanes and the lengthening of existing turn lanes where we are experiencing stacking problems.
This includes the intersection of CR 44A and SR 19. This entire intersection will need to be modified in the future to increase its capacity, but the County has conducted survey work in this area and is designing options to present to FDOT for authorization to proceed. I believe these improvements will be initiated in the near future.
Another choke point is CR 452 and SR 44 intersection adjacent to the Fairgrounds. I have requested that this intersection be studied to determine if capacity could be increased in conjunction with the relocation of the Fairgrounds (e.g. depending on future use of the area currently used as parking near this intersection). Several challenging conditions surround this intersection including private property and local businesses, power company transmission lines and railroad crossings. These factors make this an especially difficult intersection to expand or modify.
If I have any updates on these measures, I will post them on my website.