The Tamiami Trail was once considered a Scenic Highway but it may not stay that way. Now advocates are trying to keep the designation.
The League of Women Voters of Collier County holds a public session today on the need to have the Tamiami Trail remain a Florida Scenic Highway. It was first designated in 1998 from Collier Seminole State Park to the Miami Dade county line. Since then more than nine million dollars of improvements have been brought in. But in 2005 the designation was put in jeopardy, says Ellee Kreir, executive director of the Southwest Florida land preservation trust. She says if those who want the designation dropped win, there will be ramifications.

“The roadway per say will not change but we will cease to have a local voice that can comment on plans. We will cease to have the ability to use the designation to get higher rankings for grant applications. The designation will not allow us to form what is called a corridor management entity and it is that entity that provides a voice for citizens as to what happens in that corridor.”

Kreir has been in the forefront of the effort to try to get the designation reconsidered by the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization this winter. The luncheon about the highway is at the Norris Center in Naples today at 12:30.


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There’s an effort to save the Florida Scenic Highway designation for the Tamiami Trail. Some folks want to do away with the label and the county’s Metropolitan planning organization is about to agree. Now people like Ellee Kreir, executive director of the Southwest Florida land preservation trust, hope to reverse that. The road was given the title in 1998 and has since seen more than 9 million dollars in improvements.

“The Kirby Storter roadside pull out, which is on the south side used to be just sort of a pull out for cars. It now is an absolutely beautiful facility with parking, simple restrooms and then a beautiful elevated boardwalk that goes down a long a slough to the south. It’s a gorgeous walk”

There have also been improvements at Turner River Road canal, a popular alligator viewing spot. Kreir speaks to the League of Women Voters of Collier County today at noon about the Scenic Highway issue. The public event is at the Norris Center in Naples.