Arlington, VA-based Alcalde & Fay has the assignment. The county last year failed to get $3 million from Washington to study the road project. County staffers tell GlobeSt.com that if the Congress approves, the money would have to be tied to a new transportation spending bill next year.

Based on the $237 million it recently cost to build 10.5 miles of Orlando's beltway, the proposed 35-mile Lake-Sumter Greenway would come in at around $22.6 million per mile or a total $791 million, county planners tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

County commissioners themselves tell taxpayers they have no idea yet what the project will cost or where they might find funds to build it. And Florida Turnpike officials already are on record as saying they have no money for the project.

"If the majority of the residents and the business interests in Lake and Sumter counties decides this road would improve their economic life, you can be sure the money will arrive from various sources, including the development and private investment communities," Dean Fritchen, senior associate, Arvida Realty Services Commercial Division, Winter Park, FL, tells GlobeSt.com.

Lake County commissioners want the toll road to ease traffic congestion on U.S. 441 which runs through Sumter, Lake and Orange counties. They have told taxpayers they can control unbridled commercial growth by limiting the number of interchanges and restricting zoning in the toll-road corridor.

Anti-development forces scoff at that simplistic solution. They argue that land speculators and developers will have a field day once construction begins on the four-lane highway.

The road would start at Interstate 75 near Wildwood, FL in Sumter County; run east over alligator-infested Lake Griffin; skirt Lake Eustis and Mount Dora, FL; and connect to a planned extension of State Road 429 (East-West Expressway) just north of Apopka, FL, 17 miles north of Downtown Orlando.

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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Lake Politicos Hire Lobbyist to Find $5M for Toll Road Study

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