Lakewood Ranch transit discussion continues

LAKEWOOD RANCH — An open house Aug. 12 reaffirmed to officials what they already knew.

People from outside Lakewood Ranch want to come there — with its schools, businesses, hospital and entertainment — but often don’t have a way to visit.

During a three-hour MPO Public Transit Open House at the Manatee County Public Library, more than 25 people spoke out — most in support — of bringing bus service to Lakewood Ranch.

Tindale-Oliver & Associates, a consultant the MPO hired, is working to determine if bus service can connect the outside to Lakewood Ranch.

“No matter the route, there’s been a consistent theme here,” said Asela Silva, a project manager at Tindale-Oliver. “People want buses to serve Lakewood Ranch.”

Manatee County earned a service-development grant — money dedicated to expand transit in Lakewood Ranch — from the Florida Department of Transportation in February 2011.

That funding can be used beginning fiscal year 2015-16, so implementation of bus service there would not begin until then.

Currently, MCAT service on State Road 64 goes only as far east as Interstate 75.

Service on State Road 70 ends at the Walmart at U.S. 301.

Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) has stops along University Parkway, but not east of I-75.

Any new route to Lakewood Ranch, no matter what service company provides it, will have to travel north to south on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard from State Road 64 to University Parkway, a path that has destination points such as Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park.

Since April, Tindale-Oliver has been gathering data, interviewing Lakewood Ranch employers and probing the public. The study will conclude in September.

Chad Fosnight, an MCAT senor transit planner, said any expansion of MCAT’s service would require new buses and more operators. A bus costs $400,000 to $500,000.

Winifred Mitchell and her mother, Debby Barber, would benefit from extended service on State Road 70 and to Lakewood Ranch.

Mitchell, a Bradenton resident, is enrolled in MTI’s nursing program for the fall, but she has no transportation. Barber will drive her to school.

Mitchell also regularly visits a doctor at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

“Having my mom drive me to school is a long way,” Mitchell said. “If I can’t get public transportation soon, I will probably switch majors and schools.”

Another open-house visitor, Ann Rashid, who lives near I-75 and S.R. 64, would rather save gas and not drive her car to make her weekly commute to Lakewood Ranch to visit Publix, Main Street and the post office.

“It’s just not easy to get to and from Lakewood Ranch right now,” Rashid said. “And I want to be there.”

Additionally, an official with the Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT) said the MPO has already explored extending service on State Road 70, in an attempt to serve the new Walmart and Manatee Technical Institute’s East County campus.

Fosnight says his staff already has driven State Road 70 to gauge the potential timing of a longer route and anticipates extending service there before Lakewood Ranch receives a route.

He did not have a timeline for extending service on State Road 70, because MCAT has to wait for state funding, for which it has applied.

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].