Segment would run from McIntosh Road to Coburn Road
In unanimously approving their Nov. 18 Consent Agenda of routine business items, the Sarasota County commissioners agreed to send a letter to state Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, seeking her help in securing the state designation of the section of Fruitville Road between the McIntosh Road and Coburn Road intersections as the Charlie Kirk Memorial Road.
Kirk co-founded the conservative organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in 2012 and was its executive director until he was assassinated during a Sept. 10 presentation at Utah Valley University, as Wikipedia notes.
The formal resolution that the commissioners approved this week, in support of the highway designation, also points out that Kirk “was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald J. Trump.” The resolution explains, as well, that Section 334.071 of the Florida Statutes “authorizes the Legislature to designate transportation facilities for honorary or memorial purposes and requires the appropriate county commission to pass a resolution in support of a particular honorary designation for markers to be erected …”
The Nov. 18 agenda packet included a copy of the letter that commission Chair Joe Neunder was to sign for delivery to McFarland, along with a copy of the draft bill for renaming the portion of Fruitville Road.
A county staff memo that also was part of the agenda packet said that staff would “coordinate the transmission of the Resolution
and the drafted legislation to the Sarasota County Legislative Delegation.” The delegation includes all of the members of the Florida Legislature who represent portions of the county; McFarland is its chair.
Further, the memo noted that staff would coordinate with the Florida Department of Transportation’s Interstate 75/Fruitville Road Interchange project team to install ‘in Memoriam’ signage at the conclusion of construction activities, which is anticipated to occur in 2029.”
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, FDOT has begun work on a diverging diamond interchange for Fruitville Road at I-75.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Roadwatch Report for the period of Nov. 16 through Nov. 22 explains that the diverging diamond initiative includes the widening of about 2 miles of I-75, “from Palmer Boulevard to north of Fruitville Road, to a six-lane highway with three through lanes per direction”; the reconstruction or widening of the I-75 bridges over Fruitville Road, Palmer Boulevard, and the Main A Canal within the Phillippi Creek watershed; the widening of Fruitville Road from Honore Avenue to east of Coburn Road; the installation of 7-foot buffered bike lanes and 6-foot sidewalks on Fruitville Road; and the replacement of traffic signals and lighting on Fruitville Road.
Further, the Nov. 18 staff memo said that the “In Memoriam” signage would be placed “below the existing street signs on the County-owned section of Fruitville Road between Coburn Road and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.”
This is the second memorial highway designation that the County Commission has voted to pursue in the 2026 legislative session, which will begin on Jan. 13. The same day that Mast brought up the proposal to honor Kirk’s legacy, the commissioners voted unanimously to request that the Legislature dedicate the portion of U.S. 41 that runs through Osprey in memory of Dickey Betts, co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band. Betts lived for many years in Osprey prior to his death in April 2024.