Alternate US 19 and Gulf Boulevard: How FDOT Plans a Pinellas Taking Years Ahead

FDOT has set aside money to buy right of way along Alternate US 19 and Gulf Boulevard in Pinellas County, and the two largest purchase lines are programmed for fiscal years 2030 and 2031. The work program is public years before the certified letter arrives, and it names the items, phases, and dollars.

Is FDOT Buying Land on Alternate US 19 and Gulf Boulevard?

Yes. FDOT’s Adopted Work Program 07/01/2026 (B) for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 carries right-of-way money on eleven Pinellas County items totaling $4,689,746, of which $3,764,200 is budgeted to buy land outright. A few of those eleven are residual lines on projects already built; the forward-looking money sits in four items.

Roughly 81 percent of the county total falls in fiscal years 2030 and 2031, and none of the money programmed for right of way on the Alternate US 19 and Gulf Boulevard items has been drawn down. Pinellas ranks 33rd among Florida counties in programmed right-of-way dollars and is nearly built out, so the slivers FDOT needs come off dense frontage with little room to absorb them.

Which Pinellas Projects Carry Right-of-Way Money?

Four items on these two corridors account for most of it:

• Alternate US 19 (SR 595) at Virginia Avenue in Palm Harbor. $1,500,000 to purchase right of way plus $500,000 in services, both in fiscal year 2030, on a roundabout project (item 448042-2).
• Gulf Boulevard (SR 699) from Park Boulevard to Walsingham Road, the Indian Shores and Indian Rocks Beach stretch. Design money in fiscal year 2029, then $1,000,000 to purchase in fiscal year 2030 for a sidewalk project (item 436697-2).
• Gulf Boulevard from the Tom Stuart Causeway to 153rd Avenue in Madeira Beach. Design in fiscal year 2029, then $559,100 to purchase, $232,500 in services, and a $3,000 relocation line in fiscal year 2031 (item 439517-1).
• Alternate US 19 (SR 595) on 5th Avenue North in St. Petersburg, west of 21st Street North to west of 28th Street North. $100,000 in fiscal year 2027 on a sidewalk project (item 448036-2). FDOT lists this item’s status as right-of-way acquisition begun, so owners here sit further along than the other three.

Posture varies by item. SR 595 at North Myrtle Avenue in Clearwater carries right-of-way and construction money together in fiscal year 2027 on a railroad crossing rebuild, and the Curlew Road item in Dunedin reached awarded status in May 2026. If you own frontage on either corridor, our eminent domain and condemnation attorneys can tell you which item your parcel falls inside.

Why Does FDOT Program a Taking Three or Four Years Out?

Because funding, design, and acquisition run on separate schedules. A work program year shows when money is budgeted, not when a parcel receives a written offer. On both Gulf Boulevard items, design money lands a year or two before the purchase money, the sequence that produces right-of-way maps.

The work program does not contain notice dates, negotiation windows, parcel counts, or a list of affected properties, so a fiscal year is a planning signal and nothing more. The Central Florida and Tampa Bay project inventory reads the same way.

What Does the Lead Time Actually Buy You?

A record. Photograph and measure the site while it is intact: parking counts, driveway throats, turning radii, signs, and drainage. Those conditions are hard to reconstruct three or four years later, and they are what an appraiser and jury weigh. Owners who wait make the common mistakes that cluster after an offer.

What Must FDOT Pay for a Sliver of Frontage?

More than the dirt. Section 73.071(3) covers the value of the property appropriated and, where less than the entire property is taken, any damages to the remainder caused by the taking. Subsection (5) excludes any increase or decrease in value occurring after the project scope is known in the market and resulting solely from knowledge of that location. On a constrained corridor, remainder damages routinely exceed the strip’s value, as the I-95 at Broward Boulevard and US 231 in Panama City analyses show.

Access, Parking, and Signage on a Beach Corridor

Gulf Boulevard is the main through route on the Pinellas barrier islands, and parcels there are shallow. A sidewalk widening or a signal rebuild can consume the front of a lot with no room to give, so lost access, parking, and signage are where the money is. Access loss is compensable when the taking substantially impairs access, not merely when it makes access less convenient. A temporary construction easement is compensable too, and roundabout and signal projects generate them.

Do You Have a Business Damages Claim?

Possibly. Section 73.071(3)(b) allows business damages where the taking is partial, the condemnor is FDOT, a county, a municipality, a board, a district, or another public body acquiring a right of way, and the effect of the taking may damage or destroy an established business of more than five years’ standing owned by the party whose lands are taken and located on adjoining lands that party owns or holds.

Business damages are a separate claim on a separate clock, and the statute puts the first move on the owner. The business damages primer and the companion on calculating and proving business damages walk through the proof. Tenants sit differently, because the split turns on the lease’s condemnation clause.

Which Clocks Start When the Letter Arrives?

Four, and Section 73.015 sets them out:

1. At least 30 days to respond before the authority may file a condemnation proceeding, measured from receipt of the notice or the date it is returned as undeliverable.
2. 15 business days after your request for FDOT to furnish the appraisal, plus right-of-way maps and construction plans to the extent prepared.
3. 180 days from the business owner notice, or the date it is returned as undeliverable, for a qualifying business that intends to claim business damages to submit a good faith written offer settling them.
4. 120 days after the authority receives both that offer and the accompanying business records for it to accept, reject, or counter by certified mail.

Either silence or an outright rejection is deemed a counteroffer of zero dollars for the fee calculation. That third deadline also has teeth: absent a showing of good faith justification the court must strike the business damages claim, and on such a showing it shall grant up to 180 additional days. The Suncoast Parkway extension and Kings Highway matters run the same sequence. Call Jimerson Birr before these clocks start running.

Who Pays for Your Lawyer?

The condemning authority. Section 73.092(1) bases fees on benefits achieved, defined as the difference, exclusive of interest, between the final judgment or settlement and the last written offer made before the defendant hires an attorney, on a cumulative schedule of 33 percent of the first $250,000 of benefit, plus 25 percent of any portion between $250,000 and $1 million, plus 20 percent above $1 million. Section 73.092(2) applies a separate reasonableness analysis to supplemental proceedings.

If a written offer is already on the table, that offer is the baseline. If counsel is retained before any offer exists, the baseline becomes the first written offer that follows. Section 73.091(1) separately requires the petitioner to pay reasonable costs of defense, including reasonable appraisal fees and, when business damages are compensable, a reasonable accountant’s fee. Section 73.015(4) extends cost and fee recovery to owners who settle road right-of-way claims before suit. Recovery depends on the outcome, and an owner may be responsible for costs and expenses in addition to any fee.

What Should Pinellas Owners Do Before the First Offer?

Five, and each is easier before the letter arrives:

1. Confirm whether your parcel sits in the footprint. Request the right-of-way maps and construction plans by item number.
2. Document the site now, with measurements, photographs, and parking counts.
3. Pull five years of business financial records if a business operates there.
4. Review every lease, easement, and title instrument. Title defects and zoning approvals affect who gets paid.
5. Retain counsel before responding to any written offer.

The full process overview is worth reading first, and the Gateway Expressway corridor in Pinellas County shows the back end of this process.

Talk to Jimerson Birr Before You Answer FDOT

Jimerson Birr represents Florida property and business owners in condemnation matters brought by the state, counties, municipalities, and utilities. We research corridor projects at the work program item level and publish what we find, so you walk into the first meeting knowing how your project is funded and scheduled.

If you own property or run a business on Alternate US 19, Gulf Boulevard, or elsewhere in the Pinellas program, the useful conversation happens before you respond to a written offer. Our Florida eminent domain attorneys and real estate development and construction group handle the valuation, access, business damage, and permitting questions together. Call Jimerson Birr to have your parcel reviewed against the plans.