Road Plan Squeezing Homeowners

In what the department called a "relatively rare process," FDOT purchased 22 homes lining the west and east sides of the highway in the past year, and is in negotiations for eight others, officials said. Alex Casals, a right-of-way manager for the DOT, said that in the 15 years he has been with the agency, this is only the second roadway project that required residential homes to be taken. The expansion from Coral Way to Bird Road is not expected to begin until 2011, but the agency needs to have the land in its possession before it can get funding for the project. The department has paid homeowners between $197,000 and $290,000 each for their homes, a total of more than $5 million for the 22 homes. But some real estate brokers said that the ones purchased in the low $200,000s were worth more money.