Emotions run high at 5th Street traffic study meeting

The St. Cloud City Council chambers overflowed Monday night with citizens who wanted to give input into the 5th Street traffic study evaluation.

Cameron Crandell, Deputy Public Works Director, noted the City Council asked a couple of years ago to look at the feasibility of changing 5th Street from, “The way it is now to an uninterrupted east-west corridor.”

Osceola Engineering and Traffic Mobility was hired to conduct the study and give recommendations. Crandell stated that they are only looking at the feasibility now, and that the final decision will be made by the City Council at a future meeting.

During the presentation, Chris Godwin with Traffic and Mobility Consultants explained that, while most east-west streets in the city have stop signs, the exceptions are Lakeshore Drive and 10th Street. The purpose of this project was to consider adding another alternative for an east-west road that doesn’t have as many stop signs. The study corridor involves the portion of 5th Street from Brown Chapel Road to Mississippi Avenue, which is about 2.5 miles.

Godwin said that under the existing conditions, travel time along the corridor is about 9.5 minutes. There are two main changes that were being considered, he said: Take intersections that currently use east-west stop control and convert them to north-south stop control, meaning the eastwest movement can now move freely through the intersection without having to stop; or take intersections that currently use allway stop control and convert them to north-south stop control, removing the stop signs on the east-west approaches of those intersections. They determined that the first option would not have a significant impact of the operations of the intersections, while the second option would worsen the operations of the intersections. Removing the stop signs on the 5th Street corridor, he said, would reduce travel time by four minutes.

Godwin addressed some of the potential issues and solutions that could come with the removal of the stop signs, including speeding, pedestrian safety, and dangerous conditions where large slopes exist on Georgia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ohio Avenues. One of the potential solutions for the intersections that have excessive slopes would be neighborhood traffic circles, he said.

Regarding pedestrian safety, he said all-way stop control intersections would be considered for the intersections of 5th Street and Dakota Avenue and 5th Street and Florida Avenue, as they have high amounts of pedestrian traffic. He also said to help with pedestrian safety around the school zone, they would implement flashing school zone signs.

At the conclusion of the presentation, many hands went up to ask questions, but Mohammed Abdallah with Traffic and Mobility Consultants announced that citizens should come up to the consultants to ask questions rather than asking them in an open forum. This was met with angry shouts of “We all want to hear the same answers!” and “You’re just trying to avoid all of us protesting this!” and “This is ridiculous!” Many residents did approach the consultants with their concerns.

Abdullah told residents, “Right now, all they’re doing is asking the question: Can we do it, and if we need to do it, how do we do it? That’s all. They’re not saying they will. And your elected officials, I’m sure, will hear from you.” In response to one resident’s concern, he said that their evaluation would not require them taking right-of- way or private property, but that they are working entirely within the existing property.

St. Cloud Public Works Director Kevin Felblinger said that the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to solicit public comment on the studies. He said that they would be accepting public comment there as well as through email, as each attendee was invited to provide their names and email addresses when they entered the meeting.

“We’re trying to make sure that everybody is heard. We’re trying to make the best decision we can for the community,” he said. “I’ve gotten a few positive comments, but the majority of them are concerned about the corridor, and I understand their concerns.”

THURSDAY UPDATE: The City of St. Cloud, Florida posted this message from City Manager Veronica Miller Wednesday afternoon:

Based on feedback received from the community, I am recommending to City Council that we not move forward with the plan outlined in the recently completed 5th Street Study. We will instead focus on the issues we heard about from the community, with a priority on safety concerns. 
We are moving forward with the study’s recommendation to install lighted school zone signs in the area of Lakeview Elementary School, and will work on addressing other safety concerns expressed by our community, including speed control and maintenance issues. 
Some issues, such as potholes and clogged storm inlets, can be addressed quickly. Others will take more time, but we are committed to working with the community to address them. We conducted the 5th Street Study after a request from Council in 2021 to review stop signs and safety issues, as well as to identify a potential alternative east-west corridor through the city. 
I want to thank all those who attended our workshop on Monday to participate and share your thoughts. I acknowledge that we did not handle the workshop in the best way we could, and my pledge to you is that we will learn from our mistakes and do better in the future. 
I know there was confusion about the process and questions about why City Council members were not in attendance. In the study stage of this type of project, we typically do not have City Council participate until we have collected data and community input and have sufficient information to determine whether the project merits moving forward or is ready to present to them for consideration. Public input is always part of this process. When items do go to City Council, the public is again given the opportunity to provide feedback. In this case, based on study results and community feedback, I do not intend to present the 5th Street Study to City Council for further consideration. I believe our resources are better spent on addressing the safety concerns and other priorities brought by the community. 
As the City continues to grow, we will need to continue looking for ways to manage traffic on City streets, and to work with our partners at the County and State to manage traffic on their roads in our city. For now, our priority for 5th Street and the grid will be safety and maintenance. 
We appreciate the feedback from the community as we continue to work together to make St. Cloud the best City it can be.