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A “right turn yield to U-turn” traffic sign at the Alafaya Trail and Alafaya Woods Boulevard intersection was suggested by the developers of a proposed housing project along Alafaya Trail to satisfy safety concerns the Oviedo City Council had on Monday night.
Developer David Egozi is applying to change the zoning of an eight-acre parcel along Alafaya Trail, across from the Alafaya Woods intersection, to build 196 apartments and 14,500 square feet of commercial space. The land is zoned commercial, so housing cannot currently be built there.
During a discussion about the Council’s concerns, which were expressed first during an Oviedo Local Planning Agency Board (LPA) meeting on March 15 the developer’s team said the intersection is not considered to be dangerous. Citing data from the Florida Department of Transportation, the developer’s traffic consultant, Scott Israelson, said there have been 24 crashes at the intersection in five years.
“At a high-volume, high-speed intersection like this one, one would expect to see 0.5 crashes per million vehicles. This is 0.23 crashes,” he said. “It’s lower than one would expect from a similar intersection.”
According to city documents, developing the land for exclusively commercial use would generate 13,500 daily trips, whereas building it as a mixed-use project with housing would generate 3,100 daily trips.
The project will come before the City Council for a public hearing on April 18.
During the March 15 LPA meeting, board member Steven Rich expressed concern for the impact this project could have on local school capacity.
According to city documents, the high school within this property’s immediate service area has capacity for the student population this housing project could potentially generate, but Evans Elementary and Jackson Heights Middle School do not. Because of this, part of the development’s population would attend these schools and the other part would attend schools nearby.
