The Suncoast Parkway Extension 2 is a planned four-lane toll facility initially extending 13 miles from US 98 in Hernando County to State Road 44 in Lecanto, Citrus County. Once that segment is completed in 2024, state transportation officials plan to extend the Parkway another three miles to County Road 486. As such, three interchanges are planned for Suncoast Parkway Extension 2: at Cardinal Street, at SR 44 and at CR 486. Suncoast Parkway 2 is likely to have significant impacts on land uses in the vicinity of its three interchanges, offering Citrus County an opportunity to think about future development of the corridor.
With funding provided by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Citrus County contracted with Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) to prepare the Suncoast Parkway 2 Transportation Corridor Land Use Study. TBRPC found that against a background of countywide slow growth, there is both potential for absorbing the limited amount of
growth currently anticipated within the planning area and potential for more intensive development of the interchange areas to leverage the value that increased access to other parts of Florida impart to land uses in the vicinity of the proposed interchanges.
As part of this study, TBRPC prepared three land use scenarios for developing the interchange areas in Citrus County. These scenarios are intended to stimulate discussion and to provide data to Citrus County and its residents to further discussion about future land uses in the interchange areas. While the scenarios depict currently non-existing commercial
and industrial buildings on the various maps in this study, those depictions are illustrative and do not represent any specific plan or action under consideration by the County.
