Since 2008, according to Osceola County’s Roadway Network Capacity Report, Poinciana has had its main road, Cypress Parkway, at Level of Service grades of 8 Cs, 2 Ds, 4 Fs, 2 ungraded, and the most recent (2024) a B. Doverplum Avenue has been a Level F since 2000. Osceola County has collected millions of dollars in impact fees during those years from all the new housing construction, yet there have been no road improvements in Poinciana.
In April 2017, CFX began conducting a Concept, Feasibility, and Mobility Study on whether its “transportation corridor is viable and fundable in accordance with CFX policies and procedures.” Per CFX’s website, “The objective of this study was to address congestion, plan for population growth and identify options to connect to Interstate 4, State Road 429, or Florida’s Turnpike in Osceola, Orange and Polk Counties.” The Cypress Parkway section “was to be part of a proposed 15-mile-long expressway that would eventually provide a direct route between Interstate 4 and the Turnpike in Osceola County” (per Brian Hutchings, manager of communications for CFX).
In March 2018, the Concept, Feasibility and Mobility Study concluded that it “will be disruptive to the environment, existing agricultural land uses, and the Poinciana community.”
CFX is currently conducting a PD&E Study, and is identifying, evaluating and documenting potential social, natural, physical and cultural impacts, and is developing strategies to minimize and/or mitigate those impacts. CFX will conduct a noise evaluation and will include an Air Quality Technical Memorandum.
What CFX will not tell you: The elevated expressway will still be disruptive to the environment, existing agricultural land uses, and the Poinciana community.
The lanes on Cypress Parkway will shrink to 10-feet, 4-inches wide (standard lane width is 12 feet; widths of school buses, trucks, and ambulances are 8-9 feet.) The recommended speed limit on 10-foot-wide roads is 35 mph or less.
The side streets would only be widened at Cypress Parkway intersections; not along their entire lengths.
CFX did not collect any data to support their Social and Economic Impacts. An Environmental Impact is not included on the project website.
What the number of Poinciana residents expected to actually use the ramps will be.
What the number of cars and trucks expected to stay on the whole 15-mile expressway will be.
What the Level of Service at the Cypress Parkway/ Pleasant Hill Road intersection will be after 2050. Through 2050, IF their projections are accurate and honest, the Level of Service will be a D.
What the impact from the major mixed-use development planned for the area between HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital and Poinciana Parkway (Parcel 23) will have on Cypress Parkway’s traffic since there are no additional plans to add to the one access road to/from Cypress Parkway and the development.
Why there are entrance and exit ramps about one mile from the existing non-toll Solivita Boulevard/Cypress Parkway intersection to Poinciana Parkway.
How much, if any, of the traffic congestion on Pleasant Hill Road, a Level of Service 'D' road currently, will be alleviated if the expressway is built.
Some residents are begrudgingly accepting this monstrosity because they are being told that if they don’t accept this elevated expressway, nothing will ever be done to alleviate the traffic congestion in Poinciana by either the Polk or Osceola County commissioners.
Others believe that with continued resistance and new publicity, we can stop this monstrosity, and that the Polk and Osceola County commissioners will be forced to improve the road conditions here in Poinciana.
What CFX and the commissioners are doing to the Poinciana residents, first, in 2021, and now, in 2025, is exactly what local politicians did to the low income, minority communities in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Carol Kirsch is a resident of Poinciana.
