Dozens of residents packed a public workshop this week to fight plans for a four-lane extension of Rangeland Boulevard through their west Pasco County neighborhoods, warning that a road they were told would stay local is shaping up to look like a regional highway. The proposed extension would cut through subdivisions, cross over the Suncoast Expressway, and connect directly with the Bexley community in Odessa.
Pasco County's Transportation Engineering Department hosted the workshop on Thursday at the Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center in Odessa, giving residents a chance to weigh in on route options for the Cattle Gap Trail to Bexley Village Drive connection, according to Pasco County. County staff collected written comment forms as part of the ongoing public review process. As reported by Tampa Bay 28, the Rangeland Boulevard extension project is now estimated to cost about $150 million, and Pasco County officials say the road is needed to relieve traffic on State Road 54 and open up access to communities along the corridor.
Neighbors Say They Were Promised a Local Street, Not a Highway
Bexley resident Beth Block told Tampa Bay 28 she opposes what she called a highway running through her development, saying residents already struggle to cross the street safely in a 25 mph zone and fear the extension would add heavy truck traffic to the mix. Fellow resident Mircea Cercega said the project could bring accidents, noise, and a reduced ability for people to walk, run, or bike through their own neighborhoods.
Some residents told the outlet they were originally led to believe the extension would function as a local urban roadway, not the regional connector now on the table, and several described the current proposal as more of a highway than a neighborhood street. Not everyone is against new construction outright — some acknowledged another road is needed to handle growth, but said they want it designed for local traffic rather than as a major regional route. Others said they would prefer nothing be built at all.
Cercega, for his part, argued the road project is actually overdue, saying the county overbuilt the surrounding area without putting the necessary infrastructure in place first. Rangeland Boulevard currently dead-ends before it reaches the Suncoast Expressway, and county officials are weighing several options for extending it, including alternatives that feature an overpass over the expressway along with new bike paths and sidewalks.
Twenty Years in the Comprehensive Plan
The idea of an east-west connector along the Rangeland Boulevard corridor is not new. Pasco County's long-range planning documents show the roadway has been part of the county's comprehensive plan for roughly 20 years, according to Tampa Bay 28's reporting. Tampa Bay Beacons also describes the projects as long-discussed.
County officials on September 3 added the 3.4-mile extension to the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization's 2026 Transportation Regional Incentive Program priority list, seeking $38.5 million in state matching funds toward the project, per the same Tampa Bay Beacons report. That state program allows the Florida Department of Transportation to cover up to half the cost of regionally significant roads. The Rangeland extension isn't traveling alone on that priority list — the MPO also placed a $24.2 million completion of Sunlake Boulevard on the same list, a project meant to close a gap between Ridge Road and Center Village Drive and give the county a continuous north-south route between State Road 54 and State Road 52.
Design Details Could Determine the Road's Character
Official route study documents Pasco County presented in January 2025 show the four-lane extension alternatives would require acquiring roughly 25 to 26 acres of roadway right-of-way and another 46 acres for stormwater ponds, affecting 19 private parcels and as much as 26 acres of wetlands. Wetland mitigation alone was estimated at more than $6.6 million under state formula rates, per those county documents.
The same planning documents indicate the multi-use path running alongside the extension is designed to link into the Orange Belt Trail, a planned 37-mile regional trail network crossing Pasco County, with county planners also evaluating a direct connection to the existing Suncoast Trail. Construction on the extension itself isn't expected to begin until 2029 at the earliest, contingent on design approvals, right-of-way acquisition, and state funding, according to the Land O' Lakes-Lutz Courier. The project is currently moving through its project development and environmental study phase.
Opposition has taken organized shape under a campaign called Keep Bexley Beautiful, which is urging county commissioners to reject any design that includes traffic signals or highway-style on- and off-ramps at the Suncoast Parkway, the Courier reported. Block told Tampa Bay 28 that residents have petitioned their neighbors, sent letters to commissioners, and shown up to meetings to make their objections known, with some having already voiced concerns at Pasco County Board of County Commissioners meetings earlier this year.
Growth Along SR 54 Fuels the Pressure
Part of what's driving the push for a new connector is the commercial growth already reshaping the SR 54 corridor. Hoodline previously reported that development filings from May include plans for a 178,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter on 21 acres at State Road 54 and the Suncoast Parkway in Odessa, a project that itself proposes expanded internal access roads to divert traffic away from SR 54. The Rangeland Boulevard extension is intended to relieve congestion on SR 54 — but for residents already living along the corridor, the shape that road ultimately takes remains the central fight.
