Over at the Polk County News Blog Billy writes about the Heartland Parkway. What's that you say? It's a road that will connect Fort Myers to Polk County. The northernmost part would of course be in Polk.

It would be a sort of Super Polk Parkway - linking the existing Parkway in Lakeland to State Road 60 east of Bartow and Interstate 4 east of U.S. 27.

It amounts to a huge loop - 45 miles or more - around most of the populated areas of Polk County, which would also, in theory, tie-in to the CSX distribution center the city of Winter Haven is pursuing.

One theory is managing growth is that you build the roads and the development will follow. This is similar to the 417 Greenway in Orlando. I remember when it was first built and it was nothing but empty land to the airport. Today it's surrounded by growth. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You decide.