Robert Brea, the new business owner of Borinquen, a staple restaurant of Poinciana, remembers how busy this location has been over the last 10 years. This was a key motivator when he and his wife decided to purchase the Hispanic restaurant and pizzeria. Since taking over, Brea has spent thousands of dollars on renovations to create an inviting atmosphere as a sit-down family restaurant for the community.
However, he says his investment is now in jeopardy due to a Central Florida Expressway Authority plan to create a dividing overpass in the middle of Cypress Parkway.
Last week, business owners like Brea met with the Southport Connector Alternative Routes (SCAR), a community group working to find an alternative for the road, to discuss and share their concerns. These concerns include the lack of communication about changes in the community, with the collective consensus being, “This is all that we have.” Brea and other business owners said the business district along Cypress Parkway faces a calamity, with the possibility of as many as 200 jobs held by locals could be eliminated, including in the Bravo Plaza at Old Pleasant Hill Road.
“That’s my only business,” says Ky Vo, the owner of Gladiolis Nail & Spa, who arrived at the plaza post-pandemic. He shared deep concern for the upcoming changes, mentioning that the destruction of the plaza without plans for relocation will devastate his way of life.
“If they demolish (the plaza), I’m doomed,” Vo said.
Of the businesses being affected by the development the raised expressway, what is being called “The Great Wall of Poinciana” by residents who are against it, many are medically related.
Klara Samaniego, the office manager of Davenport & Poinciana Chiropractic and Injury Center, who said she’s worked there for over seven years, says she found out about the road changes from patients.
“We have several patients who are involved and concerned,” she said. “What happens to the other clinics?”
Through its website ( scarofpoinciana. com), SCAR has suggested a plan that avoids Cypress Parkway, and would take the toll road roadway along the East or West bounds of Reedy Creek, to connect Poinciana Parkway to a planned connection from Cypress east to Florida’s Turnpike. But, as presented at a public meeting in July about the project, “Those alternatives would have direct and significant adverse effects on the human and natural environment.”
At that same meeting, CFX officials said the Cypress routing is best because the space is available for right of way in that corridor of 300 feet is better than, for example, along KOA Street, which only has 150 feet and would adversely and directly impact residents along it.
A petition on change.org has collected thousands of residential signatures in an effort to address one of the longest morning commute times in the United States (per financebuzz.com), seeking to explore all available options outside of the concrete barrier.
