Plans for Post Boulevard under way

Plans are underway for a roadway extension that one day may service a new high school in Lakewood Ranch.

The Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District on May 5 approved a $129,820 contract with Dewberry, an engineering firm, to design Post Boulevard north to a planned extension of Rangeland Parkway.

Approval of the Post Boulevard extension design, specifically, is being prompted by negotiations between Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch and the School District of Manatee County for an 80-acre high school site at the southwest corner of the future Post Boulevard and Rangeland Parkway intersection, said Bob Simons, a district supervisor and president of development for SMR.

No deal for the land has been finalized, but SMR will design Rangeland and Post Boulevard in that area to accommodate the school district’s land needs, said Richard Bedford, vice president of planning SMR.

Bedford said the property’s location adjacent to Premier Sports Campus, with its 22-lighted multi-purpose fields, make the site a good one for a school. SMR envisions there potentially could be some shared use of the sports facilities.

Premier’s main entrance is at the intersection of 59th Avenue East and Post Boulevard, immediately northeast of the Lakewood Ranch Post Office.

“It would skirt the western boundary of Premier Sports,” district engineer Rob Engle said of the future Post Boulevard. “It misses all the fields. All the fields were laid out with that (future road) in mind.”

The Post Boulevard extension completes the major roadway grid for SMR’s property roughly east of Lorraine Road and north of State Road 70. In that area, all other major future roadways, including 44th Avenue East, Rangeland Parkway and Uihlein Road, are in design and permitting already.

SMR has no timeline for building Post Boulevard through to Rangeland Parkway, but expects construction would start within two years, Simons said.