SR 434 DILEMMA !
commissioners shoot themselves in the foot !
city manager McLemore held the gun !
PFGG
was going to respond to the article in the Sunday, February 6th edition of
the Orlando Sentinel, but the two
(three) emailers below have said it
all. It seems they
have had more experience in navigating the "Tiny Town rat maze" built by your
rather questionable, and unknowledgeable City dais representation of your tax
dollars. The emails are as follows -------
"In Sunday’s (2/6) Sentinel, there appeared an article disclosing the clashing of wills on the part of the Dept. of Transportation and the City of Winter Springs. The dispute centers around SR 434, and the speed limit allowed.
The City officials want to slow down traffic to 35 MPH near the Town Center, but D.O.T. refuses to budge on the present 50 MPH limit, citing that the widening of SR 434 was done to keep traffic moving.
The dictionary defines dogmatic as holding a position in an arrogant manner, without proof. Obstinate is defined as adhering persistently and unreasonably to a course, against argument or persuasion.
Those two words describe your Commission, in regard to their dreams for a downtown flavor of Town Center. Against all reasonable argument, they stubbornly persisted in pursuing this project.
The impossible ingress and egress of this boondoggle belies all reason. Just try to make a right-hand turn, coming from Tuskawilla Road. You are lucky that your car is not rear-ended in the process, since no deceleration lane was provided. One is hard-pressed to find the way around the maze of aisles in this center.
Try to find any sign showing the way out. If you miss the right turn cut-off, you cannot make a right on the red light—something that all intersections have. It makes no sense.
Commissioner Miller’s statement to eliminate any more drive-throughs in order to continue to pursue their dream only magnifies the stubbornness of the Commission. To this observer, it is not worth the hassle to get into the center. Commissioner Miller says they will continue with developing until their dream becomes impossible. We guess he doesn’t know the meaning of that word—they are pretty close to it already."
This email really describes more of the problem !
"First, the commissioners, most especially Gennell, McLeod, and Martinez were told time and again that SR434 was a State highway, and the State was not going to let them mess too much with it in order to support the Town Center. As the State representative said ---- "it was widened in order to give Longwood and the area west of Winter Springs easy access to the Greenway" ----- not to support this crazy building mess the commission has created. The commission knew it going in. Gennell sat on all the County boards where it was discussed. Miller sat there with his elbow stuck in his ear ---- and said nothing.
Now they want to lower the speed limits along the road in order to help this "Tiny Town" joke. They can't even control the speeds as they are now. They get complaint after complaint at the speeds people run up and down SR434. When it was first widened, the police department should have cracked down hard, but it was allowed to get out of control, because McLemore didn't want to have the City get a reputation as a "Speed Trap" his own words. That's exactly what should have happened before it got out of control as it is now.
When it finally got bad enough the Police Chief decided that in order to get things back under control. He needed a traffic unit, complete with motorcycles, and he would be able to get it under control. That has turned into a bigger joke than "Tiny Town". The only time anyone sees the motorcycles is when they are directing traffic in front of Indian Trails Middle School. Then to make it worse, there are 5 motorcycles, and they have two Lieutenants to supervise 3 officers. Maybe, just maybe, if they would put a little time into SR434 and "Wolf Pack" it ---- that should slow things down a little, and better yet, make the city a little money to pay for the "Tiny Town" boon-daggle.
If that ain't bad enough, they are going higher and higher with the buildings in their so-called "Towncenter" complex. They're putting up high rise condos and apartments, and have rezoned most areas to "high density residential". The fire department is going to be looking for a couple of high reach trucks at a couple of million bucks a copy."
(Emailer -- they have to do this to bring in the money needed just to keep the "Tiny Town" merchants in business. I wonder how many were given tax incentives to build in that madhouse "glorified strip mall"? We do, however, know of a Commissioner, while sitting on the dais, worked HIS own development through the zoning, retention pond issue, and height restriction changes, and then sold the development after the fact.)
"Now Moti Khemlani of the THOA is playing games with the schools, trying to keep Tuskawilla kids in Winter Springs High School, when they are, in fact, closer to Oviedo. When they start building high density projects at 434 and Tuskawilla --- those kids will be right in Winter Springs High's backyard, and we will be right back in this school mess again."
(You evidently haven't read our article on the bribe he offered the school board -- Click [ HERE ] )
"All this was caused by this "Tiny Town" debacle. It lands right in the lap of McLemore, and his "lapdog" commission. The commissioners did nothing to help the situation, and anyone with foresight was insulted, and ridiculed by the nitwits on the commission. Well, they got themselves into a mess now, and watch the squirming to try and get out of it."
(You either read the article about the "Lap-dog Commission" on our web site, or in the Orlando Sentinel.)
"It's gonna' be interesting for a while!"
(You're kidding yourself there writer --- as long as they control your tax money --- they'll do what they want! You have a Mayor who touts the project (Click [ HERE ] ) as much as the out-of-control City Manager.)