Two Price Tags and a Wooden Bridge: Reading the Rangeland Boulevard Timeline at Starkey Ranch

On September 14, 2026, the Tampa Bay Beacons reported that the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization had put the Rangeland Boulevard extension on its 2026 state funding priority list. The estimate was $77 million, split into a $38.5 million county share and a $38.5 million request to the state. Ten days later, the county held a public workshop at the Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center. Its evaluation matrix priced the same 3.4-mile road at $150.0 million to $157.8 million, depending on which design is chosen.

These are two official figures for one road, published ten days apart, and neither document explains the gap. That gap matters to anyone weighing a home on Starkey Ranch's northern and eastern edges. The widely repeated date for when construction could start depends on the money adding up.

What Pasco County is proposing

The Rangeland Boulevard Route Study covers about 3.4 miles, from Cattle Gap Trail to the existing roundabout at Bexley Village Drive. A new overpass would carry the road across the Suncoast Parkway, and the plan calls for four lanes, bicycle lanes, a sidewalk and a multi-use path. That path would become part of the Orange Belt Trail, a planned 37-mile trail across Pasco. The county is also studying a possible connection to the Suncoast Trail, with a trailhead where the two meet.

The county's stated goals are regional connectivity east and west of the Suncoast Parkway, relief for State Road 54, better evacuation and emergency response, and a second way into nearby communities. The SR 54 point stands out because recent state work on that corridor maintained it without adding lanes. FDOT finished repaving SR 54 from Little Road to Marathon Road by June 30, 2025. That project widened the north-side sidewalk near Starkey Boulevard and added a mid-block pedestrian crossing east of Starkey Boulevard. A second project, from east of Gunn Highway to east of Crossings Boulevard, was resurfacing and safety work and was finished by January 29, 2026. Neither project added capacity, so Rangeland is the county's main proposal for moving traffic off SR 54 in this part of Pasco.

Three build alternatives are still under study, along with a no-build option:

• Alternative A: four-lane divided road with a standard median throughout
• Alternative D: four-lane divided road with a wider median from South Branch Boulevard to Bexley Village Drive
• Alternative E: the wider median plus a second pedestrian underpass east of the Bexley Village Drive roundabout

Alternative E's concept drawing shows a 44-foot median and a pedestrian underpass designed to accommodate wildlife. Two earlier options, B and C, included an interchange with the Suncoast Parkway. The county dropped them because they did not have enough public support. The Beacons reported that residents of Bexley, including people behind the Keep Bexley Beautiful effort, had asked for a design without a traffic signal or on- and off-ramps at the Suncoast.

Even with B and C dropped, the county's materials keep one condition open. If Florida's Turnpike Enterprise ever builds a Rangeland interchange on the Parkway, the stretch from South Branch Boulevard to west of Bexley Village Drive would need six lanes.

Why the cost gap matters for the 2029 date

The state program behind the funding request, the Transportation Regional Incentive Program, can pay up to half of a regionally significant project, and the local government pays the rest. The Beacons wrote that construction would begin in 2029 if design, approvals and funding stay on track. Under that program, a county matching half of $77 million faces a very different budget than a county matching half of $150 million or more.

Here is how the county's own matrix breaks down the cost:

A footnote on the matrix says the right-of-way costs were estimated in September 2026, so these are the county's newest numbers. Construction alone runs above $100 million in every build alternative, more than the full $77 million figure on the priority list. The Beacons said its $77 million figure covered design, right-of-way and construction. Until the two numbers are reconciled in public, treat 2029 as a target that depends on funding, not as a schedule.

The process also isn't finished. Comments for the September workshop record had to be in by October 8, 2026, and the county's materials list study completion as "Fall 2026 (anticipated)," with construction "TBD."

The wooden bridge already on the route

Part of Rangeland Boulevard already runs through Starkey Ranch, and it includes a wooden bridge. In April 2025, Bay News 9 reported that the county would take over the bridge as part of the extension. It also reported that Pasco wanted Starkey Ranch to replace it with a concrete bridge before that handoff.

The records of the TSR Community Development District, one of the districts that serves Starkey Ranch, tell more of the story. According to the minutes of its February 12, 2025 meeting, the district's operations manager said the CDD's map shows the district's property line running across the bridge. A county road mapper shows Pasco as responsible for its maintenance, but that mapper carries a note that it may contain errors. The same minutes record a board member's recollection that the developer or builder representatives at the time chose the wooden bridge and accepted its maintenance after county representatives said they did not want a wooden bridge or the upkeep that comes with it.

The board approved a letter to the county for the Rangeland comment record. The draft described the district as the bridge's owner and maintainer and cited a $60,000 bridge maintenance budget for that fiscal year. Before approving it, the board removed the language asking the county to fund the district's maintenance.

The two accounts differ. The CDD minutes describe the district maintaining a bridge that one county map assigns to Pasco. Bay News 9 describes a county position that Starkey Ranch should pay to replace the bridge first. No published agreement settles the question. Rangeland also still shows up on the district's agenda. The TSR CDD's September 9, 2026 agenda listed a $33,769 asphalt proposal for Rangeland Boulevard for the board to consider. That agenda item puts upkeep of a county road project in front of the community's own district board.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Anyone weighing how district obligations could affect a specific property should confirm the details with the CDD and the right professional.

The second clock: DeCubellis Road and Starkey Boulevard

Rangeland is the project with public workshops. The DeCubellis and Starkey widening has a more concrete county schedule. It would turn two-lane county roads into a four-lane divided section, with new intersections, drainage, lighting, landscaping, signals and traffic technology. A March 2024 county notice set the limits as DeCubellis Road from Little Road to Town Center Road, plus Starkey Boulevard south from DeCubellis for about one mile. The Pasco MPO's 2050 long-range plan lists the Starkey Boulevard segment with a bridge widening.

The county's tentative schedule:

1. Design: FY26 to FY27
2. Right-of-way: FY27 to FY29
3. Construction: FY30 to FY31

Right-of-way work starts before construction does. Someone who buys near Starkey Boulevard south of DeCubellis next spring could see land acquisition for the wider road begin during their first few years of ownership, while the construction itself is still years away.

What the county's numbers say about the ground

Back on Rangeland, the evaluation matrix gives the most specific picture available of what the extension would require. Every build alternative affects 27 parcels and requires no relocations. Each one needs 26.88 acres of right-of-way for the road, 19.44 acres for pond sites and 26.64 acres for floodplain compensation. The matrix rates noise impacts as medium and identifies two noise-impacted areas along the corridor. It lists about 34 acres of wetland impacts for each alternative.

The design changes along the route. The standard median runs from Cattle Gap Trail to South Branch Boulevard, and the wider-median options apply from South Branch Boulevard to west of Bexley Village Drive. To see how a particular street relates to the corridor, compare its location with the county's concept maps on the project page. The concept maps show the corridor in detail, and the workshop newsletter lists the project manager's contact details for questions.

Common questions

Is the Rangeland extension approved? No. As of the September 2026 workshop, the county was still comparing Alternatives A, D and E against no-build, and its schedule listed construction as to be determined.

Will there be an interchange with the Suncoast Parkway? The alternatives with an interchange were dropped. The overpass in the remaining designs crosses the Parkway without connecting to it.

Is anything else changing on nearby roads? The same Beacons report said Pasco placed a Sunlake Boulevard project on the funding list too. It would close the gap from Ridge Road to Center Village Drive in Angeline at an estimated $24.2 million, with construction possibly beginning in 2028. The Ridge Road Phase 2 extension is under construction through fall 2027.

If you're deciding between homes near Rangeland Boulevard, Cattle Gap Trail or Starkey Boulevard, Anne Bromberg Luxury Group can pull the county's corridor maps and the CDD records for the addresses on your list and compare them with you before you write an offer. Owners thinking about timing a sale around these projects can start with a home valuation, and we'll show you where your street sits on the county's maps.