Sharon Garrett has lived on her family's land east of Haines City since birth, and now she is fighting to keep a proposed toll road from running practically through her front yard. The route under consideration for Central Polk Parkway East could pass about 20 feet from her front door, cutting through the roughly 250-acre property her family has held since the late 1940s.
Garrett's father, World War II fighter pilot Carl Boozer, bought the first piece of the land in the late 1940s using his military pay, according to Tampa Bay 28. The family eventually expanded the tract to nearly 300 acres, and Boozer built the house where Garrett's parents lived. Garrett said she grew up, played and rode horses on the property, and she and her husband still live there today, growing award-winning orchids in their greenhouses — Garrett says they have won more than 200 awards.
The stakes go beyond sentiment for Garrett. She said the proposed route could cut off Carl Boozer Road, which provides the only road access to her home, and it would run between her house and a pond to the southwest. The nearest crossing under current plans is an underpass at Champagne Road, and the proposed toll road corridor sits north of Baker Dairy Road and south of Champagne Road in Polk County.
A Landscape Full of Wildlife and Family History
Garrett describes the property as full of natural areas and wildlife. She has seen bald eagles, sandhill cranes and turkeys on the land, and she said her family's pets are buried there. No amount of money, she said, could replace what the land means to her.
Garrett has attended public meetings on the project and written a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis. She has also offered alternatives to planners, including giving the state 100 acres for free if it chose a different route off her property — preferably one running up Cypress Parkway — and separately offering 100 acres for wetlands mitigation.
The State's Broader Plan for the Corridor
Central Polk Parkway East is planned to connect U.S. 27 in Lake Wales to an area just north of U.S. 17/92 near Davenport. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise has structured the project into three separate Project Development and Environment studies, tracked under Financial Project Identification Numbers 451419-3, 455878-1 and 455879-1, according to Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. The agency has released a map showing the proposed route, and the project remains in the planning and design phase, meaning nothing is finalized.
State planners have identified proposed access points and interchanges along the corridor at U.S. 27, S.R. 17, Lake Hatchineha Road, Marion Road, Johnson Avenue, Adair Road and U.S. 17/92, per the agency. The Turnpike Enterprise held in-person public information meetings on the route alternatives in late August, at the Lake Eva Event Center in Haines City on August 25 and the Tom Fellows Community Center in Davenport on August 27, where affected residents like Garrett could weigh in.
Public Pushback Has Already Reshaped the Route Once
This would not be the first time community feedback altered the project's path. Planners shifted proposed Central Polk Parkway East corridors in late 2025 after more than 870 public comments raised concerns about threats to a native plant nursery and the world's last wild population of the endangered blushing scrub balm plant, as reported by WUSF. That earlier reroute shows public comment can move state plans, though it offers no guarantee for any individual property owner.
The push for new capacity comes as Polk County grows fast. The Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area ranked fourth in the nation for percentage population growth, with a 2.7% annual increase from July 2024 to July 2025, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, a trend that has projections for the county's total population approaching 1 million by 2030. The station also reports that Central Polk Parkway East is designed to link directly to Interstate 4 and State Road 429 via the planned Poinciana Connector, creating a regional bypass around congested corridors like U.S. 27 and U.S. 17/92.
Other Segments Already Under Construction
Work on a different piece of the broader network, the western Central Polk Parkway segment known as S.R. 570B, began in 2022 as a 6.5-mile, $257 million toll road connecting the original Polk Parkway to U.S. 17. State officials reported the project was running two years ahead of schedule. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is also planning a separate 2.6-mile extension from U.S. 17 to S.R. 60, estimated to cost $134 million, with construction projected to continue through early 2031.
What Compensation Could Look Like
If the state ultimately takes part of Garrett's property through eminent domain, Florida law offers some protection for what remains. Under Florida Statutes Section 73.071(3)(b), landowners subject to partial condemnations are entitled to recover severance damages, compensating for reduced market value or diminished utility of the remaining land, according to Jimerson Birr. For Garrett, though, the fight is less about compensation than about keeping the home her father built and the land where she has spent her life. As she put it, no amount of money could replace what it means to her.
