CCTV Installation Company in Lake Wales, FL

A controversial proposal for a new toll expressway running through eastern Polk County is meeting with opposition, including a likely resolution from the Lake Wales City Commission. A map showing four potential routes for the proposed limited-access highway was recently released by Florida’s Turnpike, a state agency that is proposing the route.

The proposed road is intended to more-directly link SR 60 and the greater Orlando area, eventually connecting, at least indirectly, with Interstate 4 near Davenport.

A workshop meeting of the city commission held last week provided an opportunity for commissioners to speak on the conceptual plans. City Manager James Slaton invited the commissioners to speak their minds on the roadway. Four of the five voiced concern or outright opposition, with one calling for a completely different option.

Deputy Mayor Robin Gibson led the charge in opposition to the proposed routes, which would impact two major development parcels within the city planned to host thousands of residences. "

“I am in support of Lake Wales Envisioned,” Gibson said, describing the guiding philosophy of that community-developed planning document as “concentrate the existing civilization…and preserve the countryside.” Gibson opposed all four of the proposed routes and instead suggested a “outside the box” solution of building an elevated roadway within the current US 27 corridor.

"Our people came together,,,we have an established policy that we ought to be consistent with, and those routes are not..." Gibson said. We need to take a position, and I don't object to being obnoxious about it."

Gibson’s solution found a voice of support from City Attorney Chuck Galloway, who remarked that the higher cost of construction would be offset in large part by the avoided cost of imminent domain seizure of several square miles of property needed to build the new road in other routes. Turnpikes often take swathes of land 200 or more feet wide, even outside the larger tracts needed for interchanges.

Although Lake Wales was the city most-impacted by all four of the conceptual paths, a public hearing was held in Davenport, leaving most Lake Wales residents in the dark. Commissioner Carol Gillespie suggested that the board consider hosting a public meeting in Lake Wales to allow citizens to voice their opinions on the matter, The commission appears poised to consider a draft resolution in opposition, stating that "each of the project's proposed routes will negatively impact the city and its surrounds." That resolution will be considered at Tuesday's regular meeting of the board.

The maps distributed by the turnpike authorities showed four options, all threading through Lake Wales to connect at a point along US 27 just south of Lowes, likely planned to accommodate a new interchange. The routes all connect to SR 60 on the west side of Lake Wales, two within two miles of the intersection of US 27 and SR 60.

Concerns have been raised by officials of Bok Tower Gardens concerned with the impacts the roadway would likely bring to the viewshed and quiet environment of the hilltop sanctuary. Two of the potential routes skirt the edge of that designated National Historic Landmark.

During discussion the commissioners discussed the possibility of moving the connection farther east, one suggesting “Yeehaw Junction,” where the Florida Turnpike already crosses SR 60.

Environmental interests have voiced serious opposition to a more easterly route, saying that the need for controlled burns on a vast network of conservation lands and state parks would be stymied by conflicts with traffic safety needs. The route would also divide critical habitat, hindering the range of endangered species such as the Florida panther.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, quietude is a state of stillness, calmness, and quiet in a person or place. The word perfectly describes Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. In fact, quietude was Edward Bok’s intent when the Dutch-born American writer designed the now-historic gardens one hundred years ago.

LAKE WALES, Fla. — According to the Oxford Dictionary, quietude is a state of stillness, calmness, and quiet in a person or place.

The word perfectly describes Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales.

In fact, quietude was Edward Bok’s intent when the Dutch-born American writer designed the now-historic gardens one hundred years ago.

Nowadays, the tourist attraction brings in visitors from across the country. The 250-acre property boasts ornate gardens, a gift shop and café, and a 205-foot 60-bell carillon that showers the gardens with ethereal melodies.

In a rapidly developing state where isolation is often hard to find, Bok Tower feels otherworldly.

David Price, who has served as President of Bok Tower Gardens for 37 years, said the landmark is an escape from the stress and tumult of modern life.

“People come here to spend time with a special person. They come here to meditate on something. Just to walk around,” he explained. “And there’s also people who come here who’ve got a hurt, and they’re trying to heal it, and this is a healing place for them.”

Bok Tower Gardens has a growing membership of 10,000 household members. It also attracts plenty of visitors each year from all corners of the state and country.

“When people come up here, it’s really a magical experience for them. People truly are in awe that this is here in Polk County. They can’t quite believe it,” Price said.

Price, however, is worried the Gardens’ magic — and quietude — are under threat.

The Florida Turnpike Enterprise is exploring plans to build an extension of the Polk Parkway from SR-60 near Lake Wales north toward US-17/92 and I-4.

As citrus groves that once covered the eastern edge of Polk County transform into residential developments, infrastructure in the area is failing.

The main north-south thoroughfare, US-27, is often congested. According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), congestion will only get worse as population growth continues.

Price understands why the state is evaluating the area for a new expressway.

However, two of the possible routes (Routes C and D) would bring the expressway within just half a mile of Bok Tower Gardens’ northern property line. The proximity might disrupt the attraction’s views, wildlife corridors, and quietude.

“And sound tends to travel uphill. So if the roadway’s higher than you are and you’re lower, it tends to go over you, but when you’re higher than the roadway, you hear the road noise,” he said.

At a meeting last week, consultants with the project said they are looking for more feedback before completing the study.

Price is encouraging his members, and anyone who cares about Bok Tower, to write to the project team expressing concerns about the routes that would impact the Gardens most.

“We certainly have a national treasure here. We’re a National Historic Landmark. We’ve worked 100 years to preserve it, and we hope it’s here in 100 years for people to enjoy,” he said. “When Edward Bok dedicated the gardens back in 1929, when Calvin Coolidge came here, he said he left it under the care of the American public, and so, it’s up to all of us to protect what we have here.”

Deb Mills is one such visitor willing to speak up on behalf of Bok Tower.

Mills, from Michigan, visited the Gardens for the first time last Thursday and was immediately mesmerized by the Florida landmark’s tranquility and stunning beauty.

“I know traffic’s terrible,” she said as she gazed up at the towering carillon. “I hate traffic — the traffic in Florida. It is awful but find a different route. Don’t come close to this.”

To share your thoughts on the project, click here.

While current owner Stu Sternberg hasn't said he's ready to sell the Tampa Bay Rays, two groups have emerged as potential buyers.

Latest Polk County News from ABC Action News

Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Report a typo

As a teenager, Lake Wales native Tina Peak would sometimes kill an afternoon at Spook Hill, on North Wales Drive south of Highway 17, where she’d watch tourists try to figure out why their vehicles appeared to roll uphill.

“People would get out of their car and put oranges and baseballs on the road to see which way they’d roll,” says Peak, now 59 and director of the Lake Wales Public Library. “I can remember tour buses pulling up. People really wanted to solve the mystery.”

It turned out that there wasn’t anything mysterious going on at all. Vehicles seem to roll uphill at Spook Hill because of an optical illusion created by the slope of the road and clusters of trees that obscure the horizon. Spook Hill is an example of what’s sometimes called a gravity hill or a magnetic hill. There are hundreds around the world, although Florida, a land of few hills, only has one.

At some point in Lake Wales’ history, likely during the 1930s, city leaders apparently decided that an optical illusion wasn’t exciting enough to attract tourists, so they concocted the first of many tales to explain how Spook Hill defies gravity and got its unusual name.

The oldest story involves a Native American leader named Chief Cufcowellax and a gigantic male alligator that terrorized Cufcowellax’s village. To remedy the situation, the chief — a Calusa in some tellings and a Seminole in others — waded into a lake near Spook Hill and fought the gator for “many days.”

Depending on which version you believe, that battle ended in one of two ways. One version has the chief killing the gator and emerging from the water to cheers of gratitude from his people. The other version ends with the chief and gator killing each other as the lake’s water turned red with blood.

To further complicate matters, one version has it that the spirit of Chief Cufcowellax pushes vehicles uphill, while in the other version the alligator’s spirit does the pushing. Neither version elaborates on why either the chief or the alligator would want to push cars — especially since motorists have to pull up to a specific point in the road, marked by a white line, for the “pushing” to happen.

The Cufcowellax-vs.-gator story also doesn’t address how the hill came to be known as Spook Hill.

That’s tackled in a few other stories. In one, early settlers, traveling by horse and carriage, noticed that their horses seemed to labor while trotting down the hill, so they named it Spook Hill. A different version of that story involves mail carriers on horseback.

In yet another explanation, an elderly man was fishing in a nearby lake during the 1930s when he saw his car — described as an “old jalopy” — begin to roll up the hill without the engine running. The man was so startled that he yelled “them’s spooks” and then fainted. After that, locals called it Spook Hill.

Peak also remembers a story involving pirates, but she thinks that story might have been fabricated by the Girl Scouts — she was one — who used to have a cabin near Spook Hill.

“When I tell people I remember a story about a pirate ship on the lake, they look at me like I’m crazy,” she says. “There’s not even a lake there anymore.”

After Wisconsin native Monica Drake Pierce became the director of the Lake Wales Museum & Cultural Center in 2015, she made sure to visit Spook Hill as she acclimated herself to the town.

The illusion didn’t work for her. When she put her car’s transmission in neutral and started drifting, she didn’t feel like the car was rolling uphill.

But Pierce still sees value in Spook Hill — and quirky attractions like it across the country.

“Every town has a local myth,” she says. “It’s really about identity, the fabric of the town. Whether or not the story is real, it’s something a community can share: ‘This is where I’m from. This is our myth.’

Speaking during a workshop last week, Lake Wales City Commissioner Robin Gibson suggested that the city aggressively challenge proposed routes for a new toll road.

Gibson stated that the alignments conflict with Lake Wales’ long-term growth strategy, as outlined in the Lake Wales Envisioned plan.

“I think it's important for us as an entire community to take a position, and I don't object to being obnoxious about it because this is something we want to do for our community, for the benefit of our community,” Gibson said.

It might not have been obnoxious, but the City Commission moved toward voicing concerns about plans for the Central Polk Parkway East during a discussion in Tuesday night’s regular meeting. Commissioners voted 5-0 to delay action on a proposed resolution stating opposition to the project, a statement that would be shared with Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, the agency directing the study of potential routes.

The Turnpike Enterprise held a public meeting last month in Davenport to reveal the four proposed routes for the toll road, which would extend more than 20 miles from State Road 60 to U.S. 17-92 near Davenport. The agency also conducted an online meeting to answer residents’ questions.

The Florida Department of Transportation, which oversees the Turnpike Enterprise, has been considering extensions of the Polk Parkway since soon after it opened in 1998. The agency approved plans in 2012 for an eastern route that took a more westerly path, but construction never proceeded as money was not budgeted for the project.

The Turnpike Enterprise is now constructing the Central Polk Parkway, a 6.5-mile spur running from the State Road 540 exit (Winter Lake Road) southeast to U.S. 17. Plans call for eventually extending that segment from U.S. 17 to State Road 60 near Connersville Road.

The agency has revived the planning for the eastern toll road, launching an alternative corridor evaluation, the first of five phases in designing and building a “limited-access” highway. The highway is needed to relieve congestion on U.S. 27, according to a project summary.

No projected cost has been disclosed. The cost of construction would be covered through tolls collected on existing roads, the Turnpike Enterprise said.

Impact on planned developments

The agency has published images showing the study area, a roughly two-mile-wide swath starting at State Road 60 west of U.S. 27.

All four proposed alignments cross U.S. 27 near the Lowe’s Home Improvement store. From there the A and B alignments veer north before curving east on the north side of Lake Mabel. The C and D alignments both run east, just north of Mountain Lake Estates, and then bend to the north.

The resolution considered Tuesday stated that the proposed alignments “have the potential to significantly impact the City of Lake Wales, including disruption to existing development, encroachment on environmentally sensitive areas, and potential conflicts with the City's long-term development plans as outlined in Lake Wales Envisioned.”

The resolution said that the highway would negatively impact approved developments, including a 558-acre planned mixed use development approved in November — Lake Wales Commons, though it is not named.

It is “the considered opinion of the City Commission that the creation of a new North/South roadway will ultimately result in the urban sprawl that the City has sought to curtail by its development related decisions and in accordance with the tenets set forth in the ‘Lake Wales Envisioned’ planning initiative,” the resolution reads.

Commissioners discussed the road proposal during a work session on Jan. 28. City Manager James Slaton and staff members met with Turnpike Enterprise officials in November and asked them to move the highway as far west as possible, closer to the CSX Intermodal Logistics Center, he said.

Slaton fretted about the potential disruptions to two large developments that have been approved but not yet built. One of those, a project of BTI Partners, proposes to build 2,900 housing units on 1,841 acres west of U.S. 27 near Lake Ashton.

In November, the City Commission voted to annex 558 acres west of U.S. 27 and north of State Road 60 and to modify land-use and zoning designations for the proposed Lake Wales Commons development.

“I think we're all stunned by this,” Lake Wales Mayor Jack Hilligoss said. “Frankly, I don't know that anybody's happy about any of these routes that they've proposed. I guess I would wonder why the Turnpike (Enterprise) wouldn't talk to the governing bodies of a municipality about these things.”

Hilligoss warned that the road posed harm not only to Lake Wales in general but also to the historic Mountain Lake Estates community and Bok Tower Gardens.

Gibson wondered whether the Turnpike Enterprise would consider building an elevated highway on the U.S. 27 corridor. City Attorney Chuck Galloway added that such a route would save the state on having to purchase the land required to build any of the four proposed alignments.

Slaton emphasized that the Turnpike Enterprise’s plans are not “set in stone,” but it is not clear whether the agency would consider any alignments beyond the four already disclosed. The deadline for public comments on the project closed Jan. 27, though a comment form can still be found at the project’s website, https://floridasturnpike.com/turnpike-projects/featured-projects/central-polk-parkway-east.

"We are considering all comments in our evaluation of the Corridor Alternatives," Turnpike Enterprise spokesperson Yasir Mercado said by email. "The alternatives can be modified based on feedback received, and the final corridor can be a combination of the four alternatives."

A spokesperson for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise had not responded by Wednesday to an email sent Monday asking about potential changes to the alignments.

Commissioner Carol Gillespie suggested holding a town hall on the subject.

“But if you're wanting a commission resolution on this, I really think we need to get more than just us five involved,” Gillespie said. “I would want to have the residents who have an interest — and I think a lot of them would — to have a meeting where they become informed as to all of the alternatives that are being considered and give us some ammunition, you know, (to) say, ‘We have met with our citizens, and they don't like this one.’”

Commissioner: Action is premature

Several residents spoke during Tuesday night’s meeting, raising fears that the planned highway would degrade the quality of life in Lake Wales.

Catherine Price said she found it “concerning” that commissioners described the project as a surprise when Hilligoss represents Lake Wales on the Polk Transportation Planning Organization, which has discussed the highway and favors its construction. Price echoed Gillespie’s call for a town hall.

Eric Hinshaw noted that the Florida Department of Transportation approved plans for the parkway extension in 2012 that remained farther west.

“Now, unfortunately, you guys have, as a board, annexed and approved development in what was the 2012 plan for the East Polk Parkway,” Hinshaw said. “And I was just assuming that the developers knew that that's one of the reasons they may have purchased property down there at a pretty good value.”

Dean Nelson said the toll road is badly needed, but he said the route should stay away from Bok Tower Gardens.

During discussion before a vote, Commissioner Keith Thompson warned that it was premature to adopt a resolution.

“I do happen to agree with a lot of the sentiment that I think we might be a little out over our skis right now, in terms of needing to pass this proclamation,” Thompson said.

He suggested that the commission should try to have influence over the process rather than stating outright opposition to the highway.

“We're not the final say on where this road goes as a city commission, unfortunately,” Thompson said. “We don't have jurisdictional authority over that. We want to have a voice at the table. We want to shape the conversation, and so I would love to hear more from the community.”

Hilligoss conceded Thompson’s point.

“I think everybody in Lake Wales is pretty united in that we don't like what we saw, and that's what we said at the work session,” Hilligoss said. “But I would say, with Commissioner Thompson, that line we’re opposed to the implementation of the project, what that says to me is, we don't want it at all. And I think that would be detrimental.”

Gillespie, who joined the commission last year, lamented not learning about the project earlier.

“The only thing I wanted to say is I never heard anything about this meeting in Davenport, and apparently the proposed, new corridors have been actually roundly discussed, and I personally never heard about it,” she said. “I don't imagine that very many of our residents heard about it, either. And so that gets me back to what I've been preaching about is that we need a town hall.”

The commission did not set a date for holding a special meeting to discuss the project.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.