Background:
The City of Sunrise and Broward County have been working since February 2015 to have Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) include the construction of a full access interchange at Pat Salerno Drive in its project to widen the Sawgrass Expressway. The interchange currently only provides limited access to and from the south.
Following many discussions and meetings with FTE staff, the City received the attached letter dated February 8, 2019 from the FTE Executive Director, requesting a $28 million local match toward the projected $56 million project cost. The letter provided a date of March 15, 2019 for local commitment, followed by a Local Funding Agreement (LFA) by May 31, 2019.
On March 5, 2019 the Broward County Commission discussed the request to enter into an LFA for the Pat Salerno Drive interchange improvements. Following comments by Sunrise Mayor Michael Ryan and City Manager Richard Salamon, along with FTE representatives, the County Commission acknowledged that this project was consistent with the intent of the transportation surtax approved by voters in 2018 and authorized the County Administrator to negotiate the terms and conditions of an LFA with FTE and Sunrise, with the intent that the deal would be presented for County Commission approval on March 26, 2019. At the March 5th meeting, FTE granted an extension of the March 15th date for written commitment of local participation to March 31, 2019. The May 31, 2019 LFA execution date remains unchanged.
On March 12,2019, the Sunrise City Commission authorized the City Manager to negotiate the terms, conditions and amount of the LFA with FTE and Broward County. On March 19, 2019, Mayor Ryan and City Manager Salamon attended a meeting with the County Administrator and her staff to discuss local participation. At that meeting, the City Manager agreed to recommend to the City Commission a participation by Sunrise of up to $2 million over 20 years using future Transportation Surtax revenues. The City Manager also agreed to work with County staff to identify land available for acquisition by FTE or for mitigation of wetlands and conservation areas. On March 20, 2019, County Administrator Bertha Henry and City Manager Salamon jointly sent the attached offer of local funding to Governor DeSantis' Chief of Staff.
This Resolution approves the City's offer as described above and in the attached March 20th letter, subject to future development of a LFA which would be brought back for City Commission approval.