By Anita Todd
HAINES CITY – Sharon Garrett has an entire room in her home dedicated to preserving the land she has lived on for all of her 73 years. Inside, organized stacks of maps, newspaper clippings, letters, binders, and documents tell the decades-long story of her fight against the road she believes threatens not just her property, but her way of life.
Garrett at the gate of her familys property Behind her the land that was formerly acres and acres of groves
Photo Credit Anita Todd
The story of the land begins in 1947, when her father, Carl Boozer, purchased the first 100 acres with his military pay after serving as a World War II fighter pilot. Over the decades, she and her brother, Stanley, along with two family businesses, added roughly 200 more acres to the farm. Although Boozer has long since passed, his wife, Mary Lee, still maintains the modest home they shared at the entrance to the property.
Garrett said her father would be heartbroken by the relentless construction that has replaced the native Florida landscape he cherished. And he would surely disapprove of the proposed route of the new Central Polk Parkway East—one that cuts directly through the heart of their family homeplace.
The Central Polk Parkway is a high-speed alternative route planned to ease congestion on U.S. 27 through Haines City and Davenport. The Florida Department of Transportation spent the past year studying various routes and has now settled on the one that will change Garrett and her family’s lives forever.
“Part of my parents’ house was built using the yellow pine milled off the land,”
The land originally came with hundreds of pine trees Boozer cleared upon returning from the war, putting many to good use. “Part of my parents’ house was built using the yellow pine milled off the land,” she said.
For generations, the property at the end of Carl Boozer Road was a sea of citrus trees stretching as far as a child’s eyes could see. As a young girl, Garrett spent her days riding her horse through rows of oranges and grapefruit, tending to flowers, and exploring the three creeks that wind across the property.
Over time, freezes and diseases devastated the groves, stripping the land of the sweet scent of blossoms and the steady rhythm of harvests. Ultimately, citrus greening—Huanglongbing (HLB), an incurable bacterial disease spread by the Asian citrus psyllid—forced the family to close their citrus operations for good.
Despite the loss of the groves, the land remains a sanctuary. A small herd of cows still graze peacefully on the acreage cherished by Sharon, her husband David, and her brother. Beside her home sits a beloved orchid business the couple founded so long ago the year has been forgotten. Inside the greenhouses, they grow thousands of exquisite blooms sold at select shows throughout the region.
Garrett in their greenhouse that houses thousands of orchids Photo Credit Anita Todd
The orchid business is the culmination of Garrett’s lifelong love of flowers. Their 6,000-square-foot greenhouse is the final version of many they built and outgrew over the years.
“One of the things I will miss is my beautiful tree. We scooped it up off the creek bank with a frontend loader and planted after the house was built,”
Down the path stands the oak tree Garrett once climbed as a little girl, hoisted up by a grapevine. Nearby is another oak she and her husband planted after they were married.
“One of the things I will miss is my beautiful tree. We scooped it up off the creek bank with the frontend loader and planted after the house was built,” she remembered. “It is a spreading live oak. Over the years resurrection fern and Florida air plants have grown on the limbs. There is a plank propped on a limb for the cats to run up for safety. My horses and pets are buried out here. My dad’s ashes are spread all across our land.”
Garrett first learned about the possibility of a road when she read about a meeting for the then- Heartland Parkway, eventually renamed the now-Central Polk Parkway. It was 2006. Since then, she has made it her mission to learn everything there is to know about the project. She attends nearly every Haines City Commission meeting, many Polk County Commission meetings, some Davenport meetings, and any gathering where the road might even be mentioned.
She has saved everything—every scrap of paper that might relate to the fight. She has met with countless officials and has even requested a face-to-face meeting with Governor Ron DeSantis. So far, she hasn’t been able to get on his calendar.
Garrett looks over the years of information she has collected about the road that could possibly dissect her familys property Photo Credit Anita Todd
She knows the laws, the statutes, the environmental repercussions, the potential cost to wildlife and soil, who supports the project, who opposes it, and every fact in between. She has filed several public records requests and can recite details of the project without looking at a single note.
Yes, it may seem like a lot but, in her words, “It’s my life.”
When she and David married, they moved into a mobile home on the property and David went to work in the family citrus business. They have been married more than 50 years, and he is just as invested in the fight as his wife.
“When we built our house the directions for deliveries was to go to the end of Carl Boozer Road and ask (her parents),” she said. “I’ve lived all my life at the end of the road and my husband most of his life. So, I guess the toll road is the end of the road for us.”
