For nearly five hours earlier this month, county residents told the Osceola County Commission one loud message: You are approving far too much new development without completing, or having the plans for, roads and other infrastructure to handle the influx of new residents that will fill those developments in new homes.
The result? Traffic … and to hear those who spoke at the Oct. 17 County Commission meeting, lots of it, at all times of the day, in all kinds of places.
The Commission meeting, when the board approved a number of preliminary subdivision plans – they begin the process of making sure these developments meet land uses and transportation collaborations — drew concern and opposition from a chambers-full of people who said they are long-time residents of areas with elbow room in their neighborhoods. They say that room is seen, by developers and the county, as space to grow. And, just the recent growth has caused commute times to more than double along roads like Old Canoe Creek, Nolte and Kissimmee Park.
“We’re here because you’re not listening.”
Cliff Clover showed a petition with over 1,300 people signed in just over 48 hours. The Kissimmee Park Road resident said his area “is becoming another Pleasant Hill Road.”
“You’re voting blindly to approve these developments. It won’t stop until we put you on notice,” he said.
Safety, conservation and property values came up as issues caused by the growth — other residents told the Commission that wildlife is showing up in residential areas due to depleting natural habitats.
At the meeting, state transportation officials talked about plans for a new, expanded Florida's Turnpike interchange with the western end of Nolte Road. It would mean getting rid of the ramps to Kissimmee Park Road — it’s too close to Nolte, the transportation officials said — and taking traffic solely accessing the Turnpike off Kissimmee Park Road.
Commissioner Ricky Booth asked County Manager Don Fisher and county staff if construction of any new units be delayed until that interchange is built and Cross Prairie Parkway connects it to the south end of Kindred, to create another thoroughfare from populated areas of the county to roads like the Turnpike, Neptune Road and U.S. Highway 192.
“What we’ve done is approved higher architectural standards, and a transportation collaboration agreement,” said Booth, who voted against a pair of preliminary plans in the Kissimmee Park Road area during the meeting.
“The state wants you to come here and yell at this body … I’m with you, I want to see it slow down," he told the agitated throng at the meeting. "But if you vote this down just because you don’t have enough roads, all (developers) have to do is take you to court and win, and this board will be out millions of dollars, money that we should be spending on transportation.
“If they’re paying their share of the transportation impact fee, there’s nothing we can do, and it’s absolutely wrong.”
The county will be spending billions of dollars, in part thanks to re-working its debt service on Osceola Parkway, to start widening work on Neptune Road, Simpson Road, Boggy Creek Road, Partin Settlement Road and Poinciana Boulevard. Like with any singular road project, “it gets worse before it gets better” once construction starts — but with bulldozers starting to rumble on these between 2023 and 2025, this means concurrent work on big parts of Osceola’s arterial road network.
“It’s a long plan, it’s painful, we’re going to get there, it will just take time,” said Commissioner Cheryl Grieb.
That doesn’t bring relief for those who live at the western end of Kissimmee Park Road, a one-way-in, one-way-out thoroughfare. It’s a sign of a lack of local transportation interconnectivity, said Phillip Lantry of St. Cloud, who sits on that city’s transportation advisory board.
“Even our own emergency services are telling us we’re growing too fast. That should be enough reason to slow down,” he said.
