Pasco County's transportation planning body will present more than 31 new projects aimed at protecting roads from flooding, extreme heat and emergency evacuations at a public meeting Thursday, Aug. 20.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan, branded "The Road to Resiliency," is the county's first such plan. It also includes 11 policy and program recommendations, according to the county government. The MPO will present final recommendations at its regular board meeting from 10 a.m. to noon at the West Pasco Government Center, 1st Floor Boardroom, 8731 Citizens Drive, New Port Richey.

For Wesley Chapel commuters, the stakes are concrete. The MPO's 2025 priority list already flags an unfunded project to build a new southbound collector-distributor roadway on I-75/I-275 from County Line Road to SR-56. A separate multimodal corridor study covers SR-54/56 from the Suncoast Parkway to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, the spine of Wesley Chapel's growth corridor. Florida Highway Patrol has reported standing water at SR-54 and SR-56 in Wesley Chapel, underscoring the corridor's flood vulnerability.

The plan scores areas of the county using a Vulnerability Index that measures exposure to windstorms, storm surge, flooding, extreme heat, sea level rise and sinkholes, according to the MPO's project website. An Asset Criticality Index then evaluates individual road segments by regional importance and hazard exposure. The MPO cited the 2024 hurricane season and recent historically hotter summers as evidence the system needs hardening.

Project manager Angel Avila of consulting firm Volkert, Inc. is leading the plan's development, which began in September 2025. The MPO collected public input through workshops in March 2026 at locations in Odessa and Land O' Lakes, and through an online survey promoted in April.

Recommendations are organized into 5-year, 10-year and 20-year implementation timeframes. The MPO's project website originally listed board adoption for June 2026, but the Aug. 20 presentation suggests the timeline shifted.

The Pasco County government announced the meeting on Aug. 13, calling it a chance for residents to weigh in before recommendations are finalized.

Residents who cannot attend can review plan documents at mypas.co/MPOprojects. The meeting is open to the public.