ST. CLOUD, Fla. – Osceola County commissioners got a look at the long backups residents in St. Cloud have to deal with every morning on Nolte Road and Old Canoe Creek Road just before the Florida’s Turnpike entrance ramp.
Over 30 residents took the podium on Monday night and said the new zoning changes and developments are causing problems on the road.
[TRENDING: Cooler weather on the way. Here’s how low temps will go | Orlando FreeFall will be torn down. Here’s what we know about the timeline | Become a News 6 Insider]
“We’re not fighting the builder, the builders’ welcome to build, you are welcome, but the roads need to be here before all these houses and imagine that,” resident Nelly Hernandez said.
News 6 spoke to St. Cloud resident Billie Romie on Tuesday.
Romie said she was not at the commission meeting Monday night but explained how bad traffic is near her home in Steven’s Plantation.
She said between new homes and new schools in the area, it’s been tough getting around and said her husband has to get up extra early in the morning to go to work in Orlando to avoid congestion.
“The infrastructure cannot keep up. It’s too soon, too fast and not enough time, not enough space to accommodate everybody,” Romie said.
Items on Monday’s agenda included a widening project for the turnpike in St. Cloud and also adding nearly 900 homes off Mildred Bass Road.
Commissioner Ricky Booth told the crowd the real fight against the growth needs to be in Tallahassee.
“I hate it, I want to do everything I can do to stop it, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you join, I will join with you, let’s take this fight to where we need to take it and that’s Tallahassee,” Booth said.
County leaders said they have nearly two dozen road improvement projects in the works but that could take years to complete.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: