Public comments are critically important in policy-making and taxpayer-funded projects like roadbuilding. When you raise your voice, you speak up for your community, our wildlife, and the Florida we all share. Your public comments matter to us.
After 15 months of task force meetings and collecting public comments in multiple formats, FDOT has never provided a complete record and accounting of public comment submissions to the three task forces or to the public. Because FDOT has not tabulated your positions (anti, unclear, or pro), volunteers with the No Roads to Ruin coalition undertook this Herculean effort.
Conservation Voters and advocates like you submitted a whopping 9,886 comments. Coalition “comment counters” from across the state read through and categorized each of your comments in order to identify the number of anti-M-CORES, pro-M-CORES, and unclear positions. Public comments record our history, and we wanted task force members to know that Floridians are overwhelmingly against the Roads to Ruin. Of the nearly 10,000 comments counted, 93% were in opposition to the toll roads.
Since the beginning of this dangerous project, there has been strong and sustained opposition by Floridians. This has been thanks to Conservation Voters like you. Thank you for submitting public comments, sharing your opposition on social media, and most of all, staying engaged with this issue. Because of your support, we are able to continue fighting against these roads, which threaten to destroy our water, wildlife, public health, and rural communities.