ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County commissioners rejected a proposal in June to widen McCulloch Road near UCF, citing concerns that the project could encourage development east of the county\u2019s protected rural boundary.<\/p>\n
The project would have widened McCulloch Road to four lanes from the entrance of the Bounce House at UCF to Tanner Road. County staff said the plan did not include extending McCulloch Road across the Econlockhatchee River toward Chuluota Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is absolutely not what we’re going to do,\u201d said Brian Sanders, the manager of the Transportation Planning Division of the Orange County Public Works Department, referring to the idea of expanding the road across the river.<\/p>\n
McCulloch Road divides Orange and Seminole counties and serves neighborhoods near UCF, including University Estates. Residents in the area have raised concerns for years about traffic, lighting and safety along the road.<\/p>\n
Jenn Smykay, who lives in University Estates, said she has been waiting for the project since Orange County identified widening McCulloch Road as a long-term solution that would also add streetlights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the dark stretch. There’s one light up here, and then there’s nothing,\u201d Smykay said.<\/p>\n
She said she believed the improvements would help both drivers and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would improve everything. I think it would be good for safety,\u201d Smykay said. \u201cI think it would be good for the wildlife as well because people would see the deer before they hit them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez-Semrad said commissioners heard opposition from residents and environmental groups before rejecting the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had community opposition where people were concerned that roadway improvement and widening would lead to a bridge across the Econ, which would funnel development then into the rural east,\u201d Martinez-Semrad said. \u201cAdditionally, we didn’t have buy-in from our stakeholders in Seminole County, where they were opposing the roadway widening as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez-Semrad also said the road is not currently among the county\u2019s most urgent transportation needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, that road operates in a C capacity,\u201d Martinez-Semrad said. \u201cWe have other roadways across Orange County that are currently failing that could use the resources and revenue to improve them.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 19,000 vehicles used McCulloch Road daily in 2024. Orange County staffers said they expect that number to rise to 25,000 vehicles per day by 2038 if no improvements are made, with the road unable to accommodate the growth and receiving an F level of service.<\/p>\n
Smykay said she understands concerns from residents who want to protect the rural area and does not support extending McCulloch Road over the Econ River. But she said traffic problems are already affecting the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it’s already here,\u201d Smykay said. \u201cThat’s my concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said she is worried about the long-term safety of the road if improvements are delayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can fight it and then what’s going to happen, you know, when somebody is killed along that road because the road has gotten so degraded?\u201d Smykay said. \u201cI don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
By denying approval of the project, Orange County lost the ability to be grandfathered into stormwater regulations. County transportation leaders said any future McCulloch Road project would need to comply with current or future stormwater requirements, which would likely increase costs to satisfy permitting requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County commissioners rejected a proposal in June to widen McCulloch Road near UCF,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,2175,2178,7444,2176,115,139,141,140,278,2180,729,2177,835],"class_list":["post-335401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-traffic-and-transit","tag-app-traffic-inbox","tag-getting-there","tag-jerry-hume","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topic-latest-traffic-transit-news","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}