Some local residents are concerned about threats from development to Tallahassee’s much-loved canopy roads. So, when people began spotting clear-cutting near the Miccosukee Greenway, the news spread. There are construction projects underway in that area.
Eric Draper is a career environmentalist, and he often visits the Miccosukee Greenway’s open spaces to walk and ride his bike. He came to join WFSU on a road that abuts the greenway and the city property that’s now being clear-cut.
“There are huge piles of old trees, large trees that are being pushed into burn piles," Draper said. "It’s bare dirt. And what used to be a native wildlife habitat is now turned into a huge dirt field. It’s horrible.”
Draper belongs to a group called the Friends of the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway.
“I just wish that people would recognize that the Miccosukee Canopy Greenway is seven miles of beautiful green space," he said. "It’s very popular for people to walk and stroll [with] their children and walk and run and ride their bicycles…and we’re basically losing what it is.”
The clear-cutting Draper is talking about is near Welaunee Boulevard. It’s part of the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency’s Northeast Gateway road project. Director Autumn Calder says the road is being constructed on land owned by the city of Tallahassee.
“It’s adjacent to the Miccosukee Greenway, which is managed by Leon County on land that’s owned by the state of Florida," she said. "The Northeast Gateway project does not impact the Miccosukee Greenway. So, by saying that, it does not cross the Miccosukee Greenway or cause any change in the boundary for the Miccosukee Greenway.”
The road will eventually extend Welaunee Boulevard to Roberts Road and includes a two-lane extension of Shamrock Street to Welaunee Boulevard north of I-10. Calder says it will also help ease traffic on Centerville.
“...then people who would otherwise use Centerville or Miccosukee roads could now use this new Welaunee Boulevard road.”
The city is also establishing a new eight-mile Welaunee Greenway that will connect with the Miccosukee Greenway to form a 17-mile greenway loop. And there are still plans for more…
[wind blowing]
Further east on Miccosukee Road lies the 894-acre parcel called the Welaunee Heel, which is intended for development. That property is located north of U.S. 90 and east of Interstate-10. It’s slated to contain residential, office, industrial park and retail commercial uses. A proposed road described on maps as the “spine road” enters the Miccosukee Greenway east of I-10, well away from the Northeast Gateway clear-cutting. The plans to develop alongside the greenway trouble Rob Lombardo, who calls the linear park a unique concept, the first in Florida.
“Do the citizens who live here want to break up this unique place because 10,000 more people can live on the edges of this park?" Lombardo asked. "That is really the question.”
Lombardo is president of the Friends of the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway, which includes experts in almost every field associated with managing a park.
“Why can we not plan for parks of significance instead of just roads?" he asked. "Why can’t we value safe recreation above faster traffic?”
Lombardo predicts the next ten years will bring an explosion of development that will affect the greenway.
“If there was an opportunity now to start meeting with some of these leaders in our community to find ways to actually minimize the impact, that needs to happen now.”
The current development underway is already a done deal. But Lombardo hopes to influence city and county commissioners to take more measured approaches in development planning in the future.
