Below is my public comment to the UCF Board of Trustees regarding traffic in East Orange County. We have a regional problem that needs all parties to help with a solution.
Letter requesting traffic study from Seminole County to MetroPlan.
Letter from MetroPlan agreeing to do traffic study.
Good morning, my name is RJ Mueller and I live at 14366 Stamford Cir just behind UCF on McCulloch Road. The reason I am here is to ask for your help with traffic on the east side of UCF.
I have lived in University Estates since 1993 and have watched UCF grow from 10,000 to 63,000 students. I work at UCF and am heavily involved in my community.
Over the years wonderful things have happened in our community mostly as a result of UCF and its commitment, involvement and cooperative efforts. Some recent examples:
- Street lights will be added to a neighborhood close by to make it safer for the community through cooperation between UCF and Orange County.
- UCF is partnering a pedestrian and safety program on University and Alafaya with Orange County.
- A beautiful retirement facility on Old Lockwood Road was approved through Seminole County.
- Other examples of community involvement are the downtown campus, Northview and the new hotel that will be built on University property.
All this is magnificent but comes with growth. Our challenge in East Orange County is the road system. It has not kept pace and is now a regional problem. Focus and attention has been west of UCF but there has been little focus east as it was deemed rural. It is not rural anymore and people have settled and will continue to build east of UCF. Over 4,000 homes in two developments may be built on Lake Pickett Road.
Here is some information that may interest you.
- Many of the roads east of UCF are failing or are already in failed conditions.
- There are only two east-west roadways in this area, Hwy 50 and McCulloch Road.
- Even when Hwy 50 is expanded to 6 lanes, it will still fail by 2030.
- The one mile stretch of road between Lockwood and N. Tanner on McCulloch has had 105 accidents in a two year period.
- When a new semester starts, traffic backs up down McCulloch and then half way down N. Tanner past the elementary school making it almost impossible for the residents of University Estates to exit onto McCulloch because of the never ending stream of cars. So much so that we had to hire off-duty sheriff deputies for traffic control so our residents could exit.
There is a solution? The solution is connectivity which starts with the one mile stretch of road from the end of Research Parkway going east to N. Tanner. This road is already on the Orange County long range plan and is part of the Richard Crotty Parkway. If this road could be built, it would solve many traffic problem. I have two letters for you to review. One from Seminole County asking MetroPlan to do a traffic study of this area and one from MetroPlan saying they will. We have a regional problem.
I am here to ask for your help, consideration and involvement. Thank you for your time.