After eight years of planning, The Villages and Sumter County are abandoning a proposal to build a Florida Turnpike interchange at County Road 468.
CR 468 is an extension of Morse Boulevard that goes to the Village of Fenney, about four miles south and west from State Road 44. The limited interchange, with access to and from the south only, would have provided a quicker route to and from the turnpike for many villagers than existing interchanges at U.S. 301 and County Road 470.
Sumter County was scheduled to build the proposed interchange by 2025. Some earth moving has been done, but no construction has taken place. Dirt ramps were scheduled to be built this year so construction could be completed when money became available. CR 468 was widened to four lanes last year over the turnpike.
The Villages bought land for the interchange and then sold it to the county.
But a June 8 letter to Florida Turnpike administrator Jennifer Stults from a law firm representing The Villages states that local officials no longer are interested in developing the interchange.
The interchange would interfere “with a series of planning actions of several of the agencies to create north/south and east/west roads in the southern Wildwood area,” stated the letter from Nancy Linnan of the law firm Carlton Fields. “As a consequence, neither the County nor The Villages is currently interested in continuing either a requirement or option of an interchange at that location.”
Sumter County Administrator Bradley Arnold said a recent county transportation study “shows (the interchange) is not warranted,” especially with a proposed $36-million extension of Buena Vista Boulevard between SR 44 and CR 468.
A study several years ago by Kimley Horn & Associates Inc. of Ocala said the new interchange was needed because the population of the tri-county area of Sumter, Lake and Marion counties was expected to reach 770,000 by 2020.
