Plans for a Polk County tollway drew criticism earlier this year from nature lovers who worried the road could knock out native plant populations in a one-two punch to an endangered Florida mint and longtime native plant nursery.
About 870 people submitted comments criticizing the proposed routes or encouraging a “no build” alternative. Five expressed support.
Their input – and the Florida Department of Transportation's evaluations– led to a new route.
Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, a unit of FDOT, published its chosen corridor in October. The route bends northeast from U.S. Route 27 in Dundee to U.S. Route 17/92 in Davenport, bordering the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area for many of its 17 miles.
It comes close to, though wouldn’t pave over, the world’s last remaining population of endangered blushing scrub balm. It spares the native plant nursery, too, splitting its property but dodging its greenhouses.
“ There has been a gigantic feedback from people all over the state who pled our cause,” said Nancy Bissett, co-owner of the nursery with her husband, Bill. “I think that made a huge difference.”
Still, some plant protectors hesitate to celebrate. They worry the road could make it hard to maintain the rare plant’s population. They plan to make that case in the next steps of the project’s design.
An outpouring of support
Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise received over 1,000 comments about its Polk Parkway East project.
More than 400 comments mentioned Bok Tower Gardens, 111 The Natives nursery and 94 the endangered mint, according to a WUFT analysis. A Tampa-area tattoo artist even designed a palm-sized scrub balm bloom for those willing to sport a permanent commitment to the cause.
“The public does not support killing our rare species,” wrote one Polk County resident.
Another commented blushing scrub balm, “is something to take pride in and given the fact that the species is so close to extinction, no dollar value can overcome its conservation priority.”
That level of support surprised Florida Native Plant Society communications director Valerie Anderson, who said endangered plants typically don’t get as much attention as their furry animal counterparts.
“We haven't had something like this happen in central Florida since I've been working in conservation,” Anderson said of the plant’s high profile. “It was really nice to see that people didn’t just disregard it.”
Back at The Natives, Nancy Bissett believes public comments saved her family’s nursery.
“I don’t know how many people spoke up, but they certainly got the message to FDOT,” she said.
Both corridor options circulating last spring cut straight through her nursery and its conservation easement, a land constraint meant to protect the property from development. The new route snakes between the two.
“We certainly won't be isolated the way we were,” Bissett said, admiring two sandhill cranes as they walked along her field’s fence, “but we should be able to continue to operate.”
FDOT’s scoring system
Though most comments highlighted environmental concerns, FDOT staff considered the cultural, physical and social impacts of tollway routes, too.
The agency denied WUFT’s request for an interview. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson said the tollway’s path “was guided by stakeholder input and planning-level engineering and environmental evaluations.”
Those evaluations included “impacts to residential, commercial and agricultural parcels, planned and approved developments, wetlands, floodplains, federal and state threatened and endangered species habitat, conservation lands, preserves, and wildlife management land, parks and recreational facilities, archaeological & historic sites, cemeteries, contamination sites, and utilities.”
FDOT’s chosen route, F, beat its alternative in nearly every criteria.
It would impact nearly half as many wetland acres, dodge floodplains that span the length of 75 football fields and displace fewer homes, businesses and farms.
Still, some commenters criticized the inclusion of planned developments in route scoring, saying it prioritized future residents over current ones.
Gordon Meth, a highway engineer unaffiliated with the project, said developments influence corridor selection whether or not they’ve been built.
Since large tollway projects take years to design and build, paper plans may be real subdivisions by the time FDOT construction crews break ground. Plus, “the government has to pay fair market value for property it acquires no matter what,” Meth said.
That value is appraised by the land’s “highest and best use,” essentially the most profitable way it could be developed. If an empty lot is zoned to allow apartments, for example, FDOT would have to pay the landowner as if the units were already standing.
Carving a road through land with lower development potential saves taxpayer dollars, but Meth cautioned acquisition costs don’t typically factor into early corridor comparisons.
“Any time I've ever been involved in a project and we're selecting alignments, real estate value was not one of the factors that we looked at,” he said.
Finding a road to recovery
Anderson, the Florida Native Plant Society spokesperson, called the tollway’s route “disappointing” but “unsurprising.”
Project managers didn’t request more information about the blushing scrub balm after the society sent a letter of concern, she said. “They didn’t want to go look at it or meet with the managers.”
The chosen route won’t affect the mint directly, Anderson said, but could make it harder to manage with prescribed burns. University of Florida fire ecology expert Raelene Crandall noted in 2024 the plant’s single population was shrinking because of a lack of management and could disappear, “if this pattern persists.”
The native plant society occasionally relocates or “rescues” plants in development’s path. Anderson doesn’t foresee a rescue for the blushing scrub balm because it isn’t at risk of being paved over and doesn’t respond well to transplanting.
Still, the proximity of the road to its habitat, “definitely strengthens the case for a very thoughtful outplanting effort,” she said.
Outplanting involves collecting seeds from the wild population, propagating them and planting them somewhere else. Plant managers use it to protect genetic diversity and mitigate risk.
Anderson is considering a yard program that would train residents who live on sandhill habitats to grow the mint at home. She has led similar efforts for firebush and milkweed in St. Cloud with success, but emphasized the program would need long-term funding, monitoring and maintenance.
The native plant society will continue to advocate for an alternative route farther from the mint in the agency’s upcoming meetings and hearings.
According to its statement, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise “will continue to solicit public feedback.” After presenting the selected corridor for public input next month, the agency plans additional public information meetings and formal public hearings in early 2026.
