Residents voice concern ahead of Seminole County road project

Project includes adding sidewalks, bike lanes and roundabouts

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – On Wednesday, Seminole County held a public meeting to show their plans for a road improvement project and to get feedback from residents.

The project includes adding sidewalks, bike lanes, lowering the speed limit and creating several roundabouts.

Wednesday's meeting was the final public planning meeting before the application for the project will be finalized.

Construction on the project could begin in 2024 and it is expected to cost more than $20 million.

Kathleen Feltus said that she's the HOA president of McKinley's Mill, located along SR 434 in Oviedo. Feltus said that in recent years, traffic congestion has made it increasingly difficult to exit the subdivision. 

"My concern is that we find a way to do something about that now, not five or 25 years down the road," said Feltus. "Unfortunately, when I moved here eight years ago, there was no traffic. I could get right out of the neighborhood. In eight years, I now take eight minutes to make a left turn out of McKinley's Mill."

Designers for the project were on hand to answer questions from members of the public. 

Charles Zuber said that he has lived in Oviedo for 30 years near Oviedo High School. Zuber said that drivers in the area have been using residential streets instead of 434 because of heavy traffic.

Zuber told News 6 that he wasn't convinced that the proposed roundabouts will solve the problem.

"They at least understand the stop lights. The roundabouts, if you look around the town, you'll see that a lot of people stumble and stutter through them. They don't know what to do with the roundabouts," said Zuber.

Seminole County said that the design phase could begin in 2020.
 


About the Author:

Troy graduated from California State University Northridge with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication. He has reported on Mexican drug cartel violence on the El Paso/ Juarez border, nuclear testing facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory and severe Winter weather in Michigan.

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